Cale Gundy is the latest example of white America’s obsession with the N-word

For Eve, it was the forbidden fruit. For Cale Gundy, it was the N-word. Entitlement is the downfall of people who aren’t satisfied with having everything.

Unsurprisingly, Mike Gundy’s brother — Cale — likes to say the N-word out loud in front of people. And since the longtime Oklahoma football assistant chose to say the word, Sooner head coach Brent Venables chose to accept his resignation earlier this week.

“Coach Gundy resigned from the program because he knows what he did was wrong,” Venables said on Monday. “He chose to read aloud to his players, not once but multiple times, a racially charged word that is objectionable to everyone, and does not reflect the attitude and values of our university or our football program. This is not acceptable. Period. Coach Gundy did the right thing in resigning. He knows our goals for excellence and that coaches have special responsibilities to set an example.”

News flash: Whenever you see the term “racially charged” it’s a white person’s way of saying one of their kind said the N-word. The term “racially charged” isn’t even a part of the Black vernacular. But, we always know who said what when we see it.

The possibly additional comedy of this fiasco is that, according to Twitter, the iPad that Gundy was reading off of that included the N-word allegedly belonged to Drake Stoops — the son of former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. The Stoops are white.

But, do you want to know what isn’t funny?

The fact that in 2022 so many white people are still fixated on saying the one-word society has told them they can’t say — especially in sports — despite the severe career, and physical ramifications it could lead to.

In 2020, we learned that back in 2017, Clemson assistant coach Danny Pearlman used “the N-word during practice with no repercussion,” as a former player claimed that head coach Dabo Swinney also said the N-word before. This is the part where I remind you that Venables was on that Clemson staff when all of this occurred before he took over at Oklahoma.

2020 was also the year that Wisconsin Basketball strength and conditioning coach Erik Helland lost his job after he used the N-word when retelling a story about his time in the NBA. Weeks later, Kobe King — one of the team’s best players and one of the few Black members — transferred.

But beyond the obsession for wanting to say the word, there’s also a section of white America that wants to “police” Black people from saying it, as Chicago White Sox infielder Tim Anderson found out in 2019 when he called a white player a “ weak ass fucking nigga” and was suspended for a game, all because white people wanted to punish a Black person for calling one of them what they used to — and still do — call us, but “technically” can’t anymore.

This is what happens when some white people refuse to comprehend that a six-letter word — sometimes five-letter — becomes a racial slur when they say it can’t be uttered in public. That’s why I’ve come up with a solution for the Cale Gundy’s of the word. How about this; trade all of your white privilege for the sole Black privilege of getting to say the N-word in public.

Deal or no deal?

I bet you already know the answer to that one.