I’m troubled by a lot of the responses I’m seeing to the Scalley situation

[CapitalUte]

It not a good look for our majority white fan base to react by telling the African American community and players there is an expiration date to the pain they can feel or a certain number of instances needed to clear some make-believe bar to become problematic. It’s not our place to make those decisions. It’s not Morgan Scalley’s decision either. It’s the African American players and their family’s choice and I hope Morgan has done the work to convince them what his true character is.

Our role in all this is to listen to the African American players and understand the pain their communities have been struggling with for generations. We need to listen to their plea for help and find our role in creating change that helps the next generation be better.  This is not the time for “whataboutism”, oppression Olympics of “well actually white males are discriminated against too” / All Lives Matter, or Antifa conspiracy theories. 

[gUrthBrooks]

Nobody’s telling the African American community to do anything.They can make their own decisions and choices. I’d like to see the context if it was friendly banter or something else. If it was playful lapse of judgement I would think most people can forgive, especially if some playful banter was being thrown at Scalley.

[CapitalUte]

Really? There are a number of post a short scroll down saying people need to get over it because it was 7 years ago or it was just the one time. Seems pretty obvious which “people” they think shouldn’t be offended by it.

For the record, according to Mo Lee and Ryan Lacy he used it with them and they were not happy about. Specifically from 2008 to 2013. Ryan Lacy said he called him out on it as a Senior in front of the team.

[gUrthBrooks]

So they handled it in 2013, but what you are saying is that we are now more woke than back then so we should hold him accountable again? And I’m fine with doing it. I just want to make sure the context is understood before banishment from college football and society occurs.

[CapitalUte]

Pretty sure I just said we should listen to the black players and their families who are affected by this. I never used the words fired, banishment, or made any other suggestions on Morgan’s fate.

If you would like to start listening to the players perhaps take a look at this exchange between Karl Williams and Ryan Lacy on twitter. https://twitter.com/Karl_Da_Truth/status/1269109436674486275

Doesn’t seem like it was really handled back in 2013 and there is still a lot of pain there.

[Hellhound152]

I also read the tweets and Lacey is the only one who directly accuses Scalley.  You seem to be drawing inferences from tweets and presenting your inferences as facts for the record.  When pressed Sean Smith flat out says he “heard things” but was not in the position group which is code for no direct evidence.  Lee in particular (who cites different treatment behind closed doors) offer no specifics when he was pressed.  I want to hear from Rojo, Williams, and Blechen.  They were the leaders of the position group durring the time in question. Williams and Blechen would have been in the meeting Lacey talked about.  

I disagree with use of the word or hate speech of any kind however it will do little good as I am sure I will also be demonized as part of the problem.  You seem set on projecting your view that the people on the people on this board are bigots which is your call.

[CapitalUte]

You’re afraid your going to be demonized? On this board? If the highest vote-getting comment on the night is a response telling people upset by the N-word to “grow the F up” and lamenting how you can’t say anything without offending people. I think you’re safe from the UteHub mob.

My views don’t have to project anything either, the 15 thumbs up to that post do a pretty good job all on their own. I do find it odd that as someone who disagrees with the use of the word your upset with my post asking our fans to just listen to our black athletes. 

[gUrthBrooks]

I think you’re putting way too much weight into the thumbs up / thumbs down. 15 people might have liked that post for something different than the part that you are not liking.

I’m all for listening to the black athletes. Stand up and tell the whole story. Don’t make a half statement on social media and leave everyone in the dark.

[SkinyUte]

It not a good look for our majority white fan base to react by telling the African American community and players there is an expiration date to the pain they can feel or a certain number of instances needed to clear some make-believe bar to become problematic.

Well said.

I really hope that minority recruits aren’t keeping too close an eye on the collective fan response to this. Utah has enough of a stigma as it is, and the whole “what’s the problem, he said it so long ago!” response certainly won’t help.

[WelcomeToSackLakeCity]

I agree, CapitalUte, although several recent posts have concerned me.

After the protests last week, several people liked a comment about it being ridiculous for the protests occurring here because SLC is one of the “whitest” cities in the US. The crowd was actually quite diverse. Even if it was mostly white people protesting, as the commenter states, why can’t they be outraged by the unjust killing of George Floyd? I think the commenter was upset about the rioters on Saturday, but the majority of people were there to peacefully protest and not cause destruction.

The Scalley posts have also been upsetting. I can’t believe that the most upvoted comments about the situation are that everyone is too easily offended these days, or that people should “get the f over it.” These are insensitive to African-Americans who deal with discrimination regularly. Look, Scalley is an excellent coach, and it does seem like he has grown to be a better person since he used the slurs. However, that does not excuse him from what he said, especially when he was a coach at the time. He has acknowledged that he said these hurtful remarks and apologized, but people need to accept the consequences that come from what he stated. It’s ridiculous to think that past derogatory remarks should be wiped clean after a certain amount of time, as the posters here suggest.

I don’t think that most of the folks who post on this board are bigots, as they just don’t always think through their comments before posting. Since I do think that recruits and student-athletes will check the fan boards, people need to be more cognizant about posting their thoughts on current events. While all of us have different opinions on football, basketball, politics, etc., we’re all here for our passion for the Utes, and people need to remember that before posting insensitive remarks.

[CapitalUte]

If a BYU fan really wanted to screw with our recruiting they would just need to screen grab that post and put it on twitter. The minute anyone tries to say you can’t judge a whole fan base on one bad apple point out it was most popular post on a PUBLIC Ute community board. That will do wonders for our image.

 

[SkinyUte]

The amazing thing to me is the number of people who are willing to defend Scslley with “as if you’ve never said anything like this before”.

Look, I’ve said lots of stupid things before, things that I wish I could immediately take back the moment I said them. But the N-word? I can very confidently say that word has never once passed my lips. Not in my personal interactions, not in my professional capacity, not in written communication, not in the heat of competition, not in jest, not with white friends, not with black friends, not with family. It’s simply not even been a consideration because it would be so wildly inappropriate for me to say.

I don’t think that so many of our fans being comfortable leaping to his defense with an admission of, “yeah, using that word has been a thing for me at some point” has been a good look at all.

[Cesar Chavez]

I think it’s BULLS**T suspending Morgan now, why didn’t it happen back then? If we’re going to be honest with ourself,at some point in our lifes we all had at least one racist episode in which we called someone a “racist name” I know back when I was in junior high and highschool I did. Out of anger or just been a smartass, but I didn’t really hate them or felt superior then them.

[WelcomeToSackLakeCity]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but it doesn’t seem like Whitt or the admin knew about Scalley’s comments back then. Otherwise, I think he would have been punished for the statements then. I agree that we all make mistakes, especially as kids. I grew up in a small, conservative, predominantly white town where the kids didn’t understand how hurtful these types of slurs were, and slurs of all types were used in attempts to be funny. Fortunately, people stopped using the slurs once they realized how hurtful they are.

However, a huge difference with Scalley is that he didn’t use these slurs as a poor joke in high school/college: he used them as a member of the U coaching staff. This was after he played as a Ute with people from several different backgrounds, as well as after he recruited and coached student-athletes with various ethnicities. He would have known how inappropriate that word is, and he has even acknowledged this in his apology. People need to stop trying to defend his actions, as all of us would face consequences for using this type of language as adults.