As if controversy over the N-word were not enough to get the blood of many Americans boiling, now there's an uproar over the O-word.
And what on earth is the O-word?
"Owner."
Apparently the term is too offensive for some in the National Basketball Association, and now there are reports that numerous teams in the NBA have had high-level discussions about moving away from the word "owner."
TMZ Sports says two teams have already implemented that policy.
"We're told the conversations essentially center around the idea that the term, owner -- in a league where the majority of the players are black -- feels racially insensitive," TMZ reported.
The move away from the "Big O" comes on the heels of comments by Draymond Green, a player for the Golden State Warriors, who appeared on LeBron James' show, "The Shop," late last year and argued against teams uttering the word.
"You shouldn't say owner," Green said. "When you think of a basketball team, nobody thinks of the f***in' Golden State Warriors and think of that damn bridge. They think of the players that make that team ... you don't even know what the f*** [the bridge] is called."
Green actually voiced similar thoughts in 2017, when he told reporters: "Very rarely do we take the time to rethink something and say, 'Maybe that's not the way.'"
"Just because someone was taught that 100 years ago doesn't make that the right thing today. And so, when you look at the word 'owner,' it really dates back to slavery. The word 'owner,' 'master' -- it dates back to slavery. ... We just took the words and we continued to put it to use."
Also appearing on "The Shop" was media star Jon Stewart, who voiced his thoughts on the matter: "When your product is purely the labor of people then owner sounds like something that is of a feudal nature."
TMZ received a statement from the NBA, which said, "We refer to the owners of our teams as Governors; each team is represented on our Board of Governors."
On Tuesday, radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh reacted to the move away from "owner," stating, "The insanity continues to pile up. The unbelievable, disbelievable continues to pile up."
He continued:
Most of the players in the NBA (most, not all) are African-American, and they are making multiple millions of dollars a year..And yet they apparently are feeling oppressed and nervous when the people that own the teams for which they play, the people that pay them, when they are called “owners” it conjures up all of the fearful memories of the days of slavery that all of these players have escaped from. Except, wait! Not one of them have ever been slaves. But I guess this is the latest attempt by the left to enforce the notion that America still is a slave state, that nothing has really changed about America. That America is, thus, unjust, illegitimate, and unqualified as a worldwide superpower.
The concept of American greatness and exceptionalism? No! We can’t have that, because we’re in the process of tearing down the United States, and we’re gonna rebuild it into some great socialist utopia which will have none of these evils that we were founded with. ...
I mean, once the original sin of slavery is there, you can fix it; you can eliminate it. You can do that. (impression) “But you cannot eliminate it, because it was always there and it’s always going to identify who this country is because that’s who we were. And so we’ve got to tear down the concepts of the principles of the American founding.” Every time I get into this, I have some people -- not everybody but I have a lot of people -- say, “Wow. You know, you’re really going over the edge on this.”
I say, “No, I’m not. Don’t blame me for telling you the truth just because you don’t know what it is, just because you don’t have the slightest idea.” I don’t mean you in the audience. I’m talking about people I’m talking to. “Just because you haven’t taken the time to educate yourself about who we are really dealing with and what they are and what they mean politically, don’t tell me I’m going overboard.”
One of Limbaugh's caller's, Mary from Portland, Oregon, suggested a new word be coined to describe the animus.
"The fact of the matter is, the players are employees," Mary explained. "So there's no oppression there, and it’s part of a bigger problem that apparently the left has. They're looking for oppression everywhere and they just can’t find. It's just like [former "Empire" star] Jussie Smollett [who fell from grace by allegedly lying about a racial attack]. You know, he wanted to be oppressed. But gee whiz, there was nothing there, so he had to make it up. And it's just showing up more and more everywhere, and I think it's time someone gave it a name. It’s 'oppressturbation,' the act of simulating oppression when you can't get the real thing."
Limbaugh, looking to understand what she meant, probed: "So you’re taking a syllable from the word 'masturbate,' and you’re putting it in this word? Is that what you're doing? Oppressturbation?"
"Right," she responded, "because it’s something that the left and these grievance hucksters want. But there’s none of it around, so they have to simulate it themselves."
"I know we’re talking about the dream. You know, livin’ the dream," Limbaugh continued.
"But you’re exactly right. They have to make it up. There isn’t any slavery. They have to make it up. Then they have to try to convince people that there is slavery. There isn’t any racial oppression to speak anymore, so they have to make it up, and the same thing with women and all that. Which, by the way, ties in with the fact that they cannot innovate, and they cannot accept an improved America. They cannot accept a reformed America. They’re just loony, folks. They’re literally mentally not all there. The fact that we treat them, analyze them rationally is one of our first mistakes."
(See video of Draymond Green's comments. WARNING: Contains some obscenities:)
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