It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same. Just hours after Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight Nate Diaz sent an anti-gay tweet the UFC quickly announced it would suspend the athlete from the mixed martial arts promotion for having violated its code of conduct.
Diaz sent a pair of tweets Thursday in which he expressed sympathy for Pat Healy, who lost $130,000 in bonus money after testing positive for marijuana, and attacked Bryan Caraway, the fighter who scooped up $65,000 of the money.
“I feel bad for Pat Healy that they took a innocent mans money and I think the guy who took the money is the biggest fag in the world,” Diaz wrote.
UFC swiftly condemned the message, suspended him and released a statement that read:
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“We are very disappointed by Nate Diaz’s comments, which are in no way reflective of our organization. Nate is currently suspended pending internal investigation and we will provide further comment once the matter has been decided.”
Diaz’s manager Mike Kogan complained about his client’s suspension to website MMAJunkie:
“Guess what? The word f—-t, at least in Northern California, and where Nate is from, means bitch. It means you’re a little punk. It has nothing to do with homosexuals at all. So when Nate made the comment that he made, he didn’t make it in reference to homosexuals or calling Caraway a homosexual. He just said it was a bitch move. I’m sure some people got offended, and hopefully this article will explain what his intent was. But how people view it is how people view it. I can’t control that. His intent was not to make a derogatory term toward homosexuals. He used the word to refer to a punk or a bitch.”
Kenneth
No matter what he things the word “fag” means, it is hate speech with fundamentally anti-gay implications and is unacceptable in any context these days. Of course it was implied that he was referring to another straight guy, but his manager’s argument that the word is acceptable because it, in this case, merely refers to someone being a “bitch” or less than a man, is bunk, and we go right back to one of numerous reasons why the word is offensive in the first place.
truthteller
Wait, just wait, I need to wrap my head around the Manager’s comments. So, fag has nothing to do with gay dudes, but rather is about a guy that is less than a man, which most people who use the word fag mean when speaking about gay guys. And punk, which many in the black community use when not using the word fag to describe gay guys, does not mean anything about gays either. And finally, what the fighter meant by fag was bitch, which is ok because that is not about gay men, rather a derogative term for women.
Straights using the word fag is just like whites using the “N” word. I wonder how many times this Latino fighter has been called pejoratives.
Shofixti
Big whoop, I say let him go.
The only fundamentals of language/linguistics is that language evolves and words are arbitrary signs. Fag can mean 100 different things and no one can prove that it must mean one thing instead of another. A fag is also a word for a cigarette, does that mean smokers should be all offended by this tweet?
Taken offence at someone else’s speech is a bourgeois indulgence that shouldn’t be entertained.
Jonny
@truthteller: Yes fag is a hurtful and derogatory term; however, there are gradations and straights using the word fag is not “just like whites using the “N” word” which is exemplified by the fact that you are willing to type out “fag” and not “the ‘N’ word.”
Kenneth
@Shofixti: “Fag” and “faggot” in this situation haven’t evolved into something that isn’t pejorative, and it’s clear he’s not talking about cigarettes.
Dakotahgeo
Naty Nate Diaz needs to learn a little geography! Little ‘ol California is just a small, small part of the big, big USA, and an even bigger world. In another pro-gay country, he would have his heart handed to him on a paper plate, tough guy or not. Dock him a season’s pay and see if he can’t learn some manners while facing the real world! Geeezzz, your Momma must be sooo proud of you, Nate!
Shofixti
@Kenneth: Okay, so Diaz called Caraway a bad word…. how does that affect anyone else? How does that result in any measurable destruction that warrants a suspension (unless UFC have a specific code of conduct that he is contractually obligated to follow)?
Have you seen the South Park episode called “the F word” where fag becomes a derogatory word for a different group of people? Fag is a broken word, seeping, gushing its contents – it is unstable and unfixed.
What is the nature of offence? What form does it take in this example? How do we know real offence from fake offence? (To me all those questions are useless because the power-capital-value relationships of words, meanings and feelings are always in flux and any particular feeling of offence is not actually proof of any real social category, such as harm.)
Free speech for all.
Ridpathos
“B*tch” isn’t okay either, it’s sexist. “Punk”? That might fly.
dugout
@shofixti “Have you seen the South Park episode called “the F word” where fag becomes a derogatory word for a different group of people? Fag is a broken word, seeping, gushing its contents – it is unstable and unfixed.
So that’s a good description of Diaz and his manager in this case, broken, seeping, burst open with the futile attempt to win admiration for being hetero. Why doesn’t he describe why the guy is a “fag” to the fight game instead of making heteros look so stupid for his sake? I mean don’t heteros in the UFC do much more than just talk shit? Of course they do, if they’re fags, apparently.
FREEEEEEDUMMMBBB!
*sheesh*
bledoutcolor
That should have said NOT in a bigoted way. I apologize. Im using a tablet. Enough said I would think. Please excuse any other typos as well.
LaTeesha
I live in Northern CA. It doesn’t mean bitch. His manager is a lying asshole. And, even if it did, it’s not acceptable to call someone a bitch. Throw both of these losers back to the gutter from which they crawled.
Dionte
Lol @ Mike Kogan, he should be a lawyer, for criminalize.
DarSco
In “da Hood” (which can housing projects and/or trailer parks) fag can mean punk. The problem is most people who live in these places treat them like little villages they BARELY ever leave. In NYC which is a very diverse city there are people who only leave wen they have to so that messed up language becomes the norm. It’s very messed up too, guys like this fighter need to be told there is a BIG world outside of ya hood.
Sad but true.
BEFORE any1 starts on me I grew up n the hood & escaped. I DO NOT support,endorse, or think it’s ok to use that language.
enfilmigult
“The word f—-t, at least in Northern California, and where Nate is from, means bitch. It means you’re a little punk. It has nothing to do with homosexuals at all.”
What a fucking moron. Does he seriously not know what “bitch” and “punk” mean? Ask someone in prison, genius.
evdanker
Regardless of the interpretation of the word, Diaz is still a dickhead.
oilburner
Bull sh*t I live in northern California & the word fag is still considered hate speech & is still used to make fun of homosexuals or atleast here in northern California
Caleb in SC
@LaTeesha: Yes, Ma’am!!!