Hawaii Warriors football coach Greg McMackin — the highest paid state employee, earning $1 million a year (!) — is very sorry for saying, while speaking at a media preview for the Western Athletic Conference, opponents at Notre Dame did “this little faggot dance.” He didn’t mean to be so offensive in front of the news media!
The comments came yesterday, and were quickly followed up with an in-person apology — and a plea with reporters not to relay his statements. Fat chance. The Idaho Statesmen, among others, pounced on him. As they should! Now, the question begs, how far will the reaction go? All the way to forcing him to resign? ‘Cause McMackin is meeting today with Hawaii athletic director Jim Donovan, and we imagine “words” will be exchanged.
MORE:
McMackin used the term “faggot” three times while explaining why Notre Dame was so fired up to play Hawaii in the game, which the Fighting Irish won 49-21.
McMackin responded to the Notre Dame clapping tradition by having his players do the ha’a, an intense Polynesian dance and chant the Warriors do before games.
McMackin said Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis got up at the banquet and told the crowd, “We do something special at Notre Dame.”
“And they get up and they do this little cheer, like this,” McMackin said Thursday, doing a rhythmic clap. “You know, this little faggot dance.”
Once McMackin saw Notre Dame’s team demonstration, he gave his players the signal — the shaka — to do their ha’a.
That’s what inspired Notre Dame, the coach said.
“I screwed up. And I’ll never do this again,” he said of having his players do the dance. “… It was the best (ha’a) I’ve ever seen. I mean, they’re on their chairs, they have beads on, they’re ripping their beads off. I mean, it was a little scary. I think Notre Dame watched that and said, ‘We better have ourselves ready,’ because they really played a good game.”
McMackin made his comments in front of about a dozen reporters, most with voice recorders, and a WAC video camera. He then tried to convince reporters not to write about his comments.
osocubano
It’s definitely a slow news day…
DM73
He should be fired. It’s equivalent to saying the n-word three times. It’s wrong. He is in charge of young adults. But he’ll be given a pass because that is the “expected” attitude of a macho man football coach.
sweetdog
@DM73: Yes, but don’t you think these “macho” men using that term are usually hiding something?
Bill
The only thing this fat fuck is ‘sorry’ for is that he got caught.
If he’d used the word n i g g e r her would have been fired immediately. No question.
Straight people are becoming more and more pathetic on a daily basis.
Mike L.
OMG that stupid student! Prob is that a lot of people are so desensitized with the words gay, and faggot (among others) that they don’t even realize what kind of damage it does to those affected. Yeah, mr student just making fun, BY DENEGRADING GAYS, by suggesting that Gays are weak and girly.
Thakfully it seems as though things may be changing for the better, more people realizing that saying those kinds of words can hit them at their wallets where it hurts them more (mofos!)
Andrew
Besides his comment, there are a few things really telling about that clip: First, he’s the highest paid state employee — paid more than the Univ. president. Second, the student comments that in saying “faggot dance” the coach wasn’t saying anything hurtful toward gays. America is paying a big price, pun intended, for paying more attention to sports than to education. And… I suspect the student actually believes his own comment — that what the coach said is not derogatory or hurtful. I think many people out there are similarly ignorant. (as opposed to the people who know it’s hurtful speech and still use it) In some ways, the former is more insidious.
Qjersey
I’m sorry, there really is no rationale for publicly funded universities being used as training camps for the professional sports leagues. Sports should get ZERO dollars. If you want a sports team at your school, then raise the money yourself to pay for it.
Perry
@Qjersey:
Omg. Thank you.
It’s ridiculous that some high schools can’t afford enough books for everywhere, yet they can make sure their football team has new uniforms and the field is up to code. WTF?
In my mind, academics first, everything else is extra.
DM73
@QJersey and Perry
I agree with you guys definitely on principal that a coach shouldn’t be the highest paid person in the state. Paid higher than the governor of said state. The highest paid state worker in the state of Connecticut is the coach of the UCONN Male Basketball team, Jim Calhoun (also paid higher than the governor of Connecticut).
But the truth is football and in some cases basketball generates a ton of money for the state and the university systems of those states via endorsements, radio, tv and satellite contracts and licenscing. Some college teams generate more revenues than their equivalent pro-teams. They get more money back than they invest plus alumni donations.
That being said, that’s why it’s imperative that this “coach” be fired. Not only does he embarass himself and the university. No other state employee would be able to keep their job.
Alleyne
So who’s gathering contact information for the University president and board of regents and the governor (a Repub so no telling how sympathetic she’ll be) and whoever else this shlub answers to? This should start local. Hawaiian queers and allies, get moving!
Andrew
@Qjersey: QJersey and Perry — I totally agree. Soooooooooo siiiiiiicckkkkk of the football-centric-society we live in.
schlukitz
So nice to see that homophobia is alive and well in our state run and taxpayer funded school system. *sarcasm font on*
Lex
Nice to see the N word dropped all over comments about homophobia. Really keeps us all united.
rudy
@Bill: Please – that is dangerously close to saying “gay is the new black” and forcing SM to appear.
No Homophobama
Could you imagine what would happen to the guy if he said that they did this little “N Word” dance. He would be going down in flames. Oh the double standards.
Bill Perdue
Fire his breeder ass.
Thom
@Bill:
Straight people? Why say stuff like that, I don’t see how that helps at all.
schlukitz
@Lex:
Nice to see the N word dropped all over comments about homophobia.
It was used in Post no. 4 and only as a comparison to might have happened if Hawaii Warriors football coach Greg McMackin had used that expletive instead of the one he did use.
Apparently, you believe that the word faggot is perfectly acceptable and politically correct, however, since you raised no objection to it’s use?
And by the by, it’s a wee bit hypocritical to be able to type the “F” word out with no one raising any objections, but not the “N” word, is it not? It’s nothing more than selective semantics.
Both words are put-downs that are equally debasing and insulting to the group toward which they are directed. Why should it be ok to say or print one out fully, but not the other?
schlukitz
@Thom:
Straight people? Why say stuff like that, I don’t see how that helps at all.
Faggots. Homos. Queers. Perverts. Deviates. Pedophiles. Buggerers. Fudge-packers. Animal-fuckers. Incest practitioners.
Why say stuff like that?
I don’t see how that helps at all either.
alan brickman
Maybe some of his players are gay (closeted)..will this affect their game?..just wondering…
Joanaroo
Unfortunately, Bill, alot of straight people have their heads up their asses and should have their feet in their mouths. The ones that are going around with a bible in one hand and a copy of their own version of Prop H8 in the other make all straights look bad. This coach doesn’t deserve his job or salary. He does need social skill education.
Geoff M
What gets me is the tool who tried to rationalize it….”it doesn’t mean you hate gay people…it was just a diss on the dance”. What if the Coach had used a black slur?
Jordan
Its really funny to me how the student in the video said something along the lines of… ” It’s not necessarily that he was saying ‘ I hate gay people ‘ or this ‘is my view on these people’ it was more like he was just poking fun at the dance.” But, when you really think about what the student said… that means that HE WAS POKING FUN AT GAY PEOPLE. Syaing “…this little faggot dance.” is extremely offensive and hurtful to people. It’s not funny…or at least it shouldnt be funny. Its wrong and ignorant. Could you imagine if he said ” they were doing this little black people dance or ‘n word’ dance? THE NEWS WOULD BE ALL OVER IT! And instead he said ‘this little FAGGOT dance’ and there was hardly any coverage. In fact, I just saw this story or even heard about it tonight and this being my first time on this site. Im not putting down black people IN ANY WAY. In fact, quite the contrary. I think my brother and I say it best when we say that ” gay people seem to be the only people who accept everyone…even the over zealous religious freaks who throw the bible in our faces and shove it down our throats while they rape little boys at the altar, marry 7 wives and have 18 children, judge people when the Lord specifically says not to, and ride their high horses of perfectness while doing who the fuck knows what on their side life. we accept everyone because we, as Gay People, value diversity and differences because we realize how special they are and also we dont belittle anyone because we’ve been belittled our whole lives and wouldnt want that feeling put on anyone.
Im glad I found this site because instead of unearthing “the gay agenda” like every other site on earth does…this site does quite the opposite and unearths the agenda of fear and bigotry.
peace, love and EQUALITY TO ALL!
Aaron
I am 21 year old junior student at the University of Hawaii Manoa.
Despite McMakin’s statement I can say gay hate or “homophobia” is not a huge problem at our school. Well, according to my experience of course.
I live in the UH dorms with my boyfriend and we hold hands everywhere we go. We hold hands when we go to class, we hold hands when we go to lunch, I give him a short kiss before we part and no one seems to care. Once in awhile we do raise a few eye brows and attract occasional stares but no one ever really bothers us or makes fun of us. Even when my boyfriend and I went around campus to collect signatures for the Hawaii House Bill 444 petition to legalize civil unions, everyone we met signed it and most of the people who signed it were heterosexual men who lived in the dorms.
Mcmackin’s statement was very disappointing to hear and was quite embarrassing for our school but his actions don’t represent the social atmosphere on our campus.
petted
@Aaron: Well that’s good to hear.
Fitz
@Aaron: I think that the ownership of this fuck up is all his, not the state’s. You shouldn’t feel dirtied by this old fuck-head.
Fitz
@Geoff M: EXACTLY. “Nigger Dance” would have a lot more press. Both words are used by people to dehumanize another group, and therefor make violence against them seem ok.
hephaestion
That student was dumb as can be. He just doesn’t get it at all. He said the coach was dissing the dance… Well, he was dissing it by equating it with US! H O L Y S H I T straight people are stupid!!!
I got the feeling the coach might be remorseful, but of ALL those people they trotted out to defend the University of Hawaii, did you notice that NOT ONE of them used the word “gay”? They said their university endorses “diversity” and doesn’t support sex discrimination… well so what?! WE want to know if it is safe for a GAY student to attend your school! Those administrators were as clueless at that dumb student.
schlukitz
@Aaron:
How very heart-warming to hear your story. Thank you for sharing it with the rest of us.
Perhaps if more gay couples were more open about displaying their feelings and affection for each other, as straight people are permitted to do, it would become more commonplace, ergo, less shocking and become acceptable to the public at large and then we would not have incidents like the one that occurred in front of the Morman Tabernacle in Salt Lake City recently.
Being afraid of displays of public affection, lest we “offend straight sensibilities” to my way of thinking, is just way of being in the closet. We are not being honest about ourselves and those around us.
May you and your partner have many years of happiness together.
schlukitz
Correction: “…is just another way of being in the closet.”
Chitown Kev
Guys, this shows how much work needs to be done.
It actually took a long time after the civil rights movement for “nigger” to become the “N-word.” The “n-word” could be heard on a regular basis on television in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
It took 2 pretty profound cultural events:
1) The white man in Forsyth County, Georgia that dropped the
n-bomb on the Oprah Winfrey show (it was live then, it was her first season). And Oprah didn’t flinch or even show any anger, I had to give her credit for that.
2) The O.J. Simpson case.
Frankly, the head football coach at the University of Hawaii doesn’t coach a big name enough program for that to happen. Had this been said by a big name coach at, say, a school in the Southeastern Conference (Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Les Miles)…that would be the big name and coverage you are seeking.
I agree, the f-word should replace “faggot” in the language of popular culture. We are not there yet, however, and if the history of the “n-word” is any indication it will take 1 or 2 cultural watershed moments to get there. And this ain’t it.
schlukitz
@Chitown Kev:
A thought:
When the Mormons and the Christians were trotting out their little hate campaign for YesonProp8, Wayne Bessen took them to task in his wonderful full-page ad in the Salt Lake Times, exposing their lies with a picture of Pinochio with a long nose and the slogan “Liar. Liar. Pants on Fire.
With all of the money HRC collects from the gay community, why couldn’t they so something similar in the New York Times, for example, making the comparison of “Faggot” to the “N” word to raise public consciousness?
I am surprised that the “One heart and one mind at a time” folks have not thought of this? This would seem to me to be a way to reach many hearts and minds in one fell-swoop.
Chitown Kev
@schlukitz:
That’s a great idea, actually.
Still, you would need a powerful off-the-cuff cultural moment for the stigma to really take hold. The Isaiah Washington incident is the closest that the community has ever had to anything even remotely resembling that.
Taking football, just for example, you would almost have to hear a “f-rant” on live national TV during halftime of a big game or in a post-game press conference of a big game.
There has been a similar ad campaign to what you are talking about in Italy but having to do with racism and not homophobia.
football
He should be fired. It’s equivalent to saying the n-word three times. It’s wrong. He is in charge of young adults. But he’ll be given a pass because that is the “expected” attitude of a macho man football coach.
TANK
@schlukitz:
Why do you think they haven’t done that? LOL! Because they’d be illegitimately called bigots. THey’re far too terrified of offending anyone to be effective, and they’re primarily an insider lobbying group (…who’ve achieved…what exactly?) who wouldn’t want the association of a few people screaming racism at them to interfere with their political connections…because in politics, rationality is not a thing that matters.
The the impetus behind the hrc is to directly intervene on behalf of lgbt people to politicians, not through grassroots campaigning and appeals to the public. A mission crafted at a time when direct appeals to the public and grassroots campaigns were deemed futile.
youcanthandlethetruth
You homosexuals are so sensitive, maybe it’s your female side coming out.
Why can’t you learn a little tolerance and how to laugh at yourselves occasionally.
Instead of constantly being judgmental and looking for excuses to feel victimised?
Unless of course that what you really enjoy……………….
TANK
@TANK:
I mean you can’t even call out islam for all of the ‘good’ it’s responsible for without a group of cranks calling you a “racist” or “islamophobe”. This species is doomed.
threshold
I don’t want to have a slur police to go after people.
I just want them to grow the hell up.
Bill Perdue
@TANK: No tankie, the species is not doomed. But you racists are. The rest of us will do just fine.
TANK
@Bill Perdue:
Oh, I think it is. I think we’re evolved to self destruct. I think that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction coupled with dogmatism is the death knell. ANd you know, the more I look around, the less I care.
Fitz
Would the grown ups in the room please stop saying “The N word” and “The F word”? The words Nigger and Fagot are revolting, as they should be. We don’t need to water them down so that we are comfortable throwing them around. If you are going to use the idea of the word, use the word. Feel it. Feel how disgusting it is.
chapeau
He knew what he said was offensive – ‘else he wouldn’t have pleaded for the media to withhold his offense.
He got off easy if you ask me. What coach would keep his job if he had used an offensive ethnic slur ? Exactly.
youcanthandlethetruth
@Fitz: How about slurs like “christer” or “breeder” or “homophobe’?
I suppose you think it’s fine to use any of those words?
gslam
@youcanthandlethetruth: “How about slurs like “christer” or “breeder” or “homophobe’?”
LOL! Are you for real?!? Those “slurs,” as you call them, have nowhere NEAR the kind of historical meaning attributed to them. No one in this country is being persecuted or having their rights taken away from them for being “christers,” “breeders” or “homophobes.” You had better move on to your next (lame) argument for your continued bigotry, because this one doesn’t shake out. Trust me, I’ll be ready to shoot down the next one, as well. 😀
schlukitz
@gslam:
I’m with you, GSLAM.
When was the last time someone shot and killed a “christer”, “breeder” or “homophobe” in cold blood immediately after shouting those words at them?
They call us “faggots”, “queers”, “fudge-packers”, “deviates”, “perverts”, “cum-lappers” and every demeaning word in the dictionary with wild abandon, but start crying when someone calls them on what they are being.
But, we have seen this over and over and over. The Church has been the ultimate victim for the past two-thousand years, as it kills, crushes and destroys life all over the planet.
They just don’t like hearing the truth as they spew their lies and treachery.
youcanthandlethetruth
@gslam: Thanks schlukitz and gslam:
The latest two homosexuals to prove my point – that homosexuals demand tolerance from others yet are utterly intolerant themselves!
In the US you aren’t denied rights, in fact you have many special privileges now that you are officially members of a “protected class”.
But your continued lack of respect for people of faith proves you really don’t care about rights or equality or tolerance.
And do you call your own parents “breeders”?
At least breeders produce something positive for the planet. Homosexuals produce nothing except a lot of hot air and whining noises.
schlukitz
@youcanthandlethetruth:
Man, what a boring pismire you are.
You move a few words around here and there, but for the most part, you post the same old tired shit, over and over and over. Hardly worth responding to.
My parents are gone. I’ll thank you to leave them out of the conversation as I do not speak ill of the dead. If you cannot respect that, I might be tempted to say some things about your parents that you might not like.
Breeders produce nothing but over-population, an abundance of kids who are starving, need medical care and homes and over-tax the environment by doing so. Nothing to be proud of. Even rabbits can fuck and produce offspring.
And no awards required for men who can’t keep it in their pants and women who can’t keep their legs closed.
youcanthandlethetruth
@schlukitz: Sounds like you regret the fact that your parents ever brought you into the world??
You are one angry little homosexual!
The point remains – how can you criticse this football coach for making some throwaway comment about homosexuals, when you continue to make offensive comments about Christians, parents and anyone else you feel angry about?
Does your anger mask you from seeing the hypocrisy?
schlukitz
@youcanthandlethetruth:
An asshole is an asshole is an asshole!
And by stopping to argue with an asshole like you, I make myself an even bigger one.
Keep pissing into the wind. I’m done with you!
youcanthandlethetruth
@schlukitz: As you are a homosexual you obviously have a great deal of knowledge about assholes.
In fact you’re prepared to change your entire lifestyle to pursue them.