Yunel Escobar’s homophobic slur
Re Blue Jays suspend Escobar for slur, Sept. 19 While Yunel Escobar’s homophobic eyeblack patches and his explanation afterwards are completely unacceptable, as is the Jays’ response (or lack thereof ), something quite good has come of the whole mess. The responses, not just from the press but also from the public, indicate that there is a growing sensitivity to homophobia in our society. Could it be that the anti-bullying campaign is having some effect?
Calling someone a maricon in Latin America is very much the same as using the term “faggot” in Canadian schoolyards. It has impact and therefore has meaning.
The lesson (hopefully) being learned by school kids is that this kind of talk is unacceptable. While Escobar and the Blue Jays management and players need sensitivity training, perhaps the fact that the issue has been so plainly put before the public by the press will have a positive effect on kids. Stephen L. Bloom, Toronto As is often the case, the coverup is worse than the crime. The impact of Yunel Escobar’s disgraceful public broadcast of a self-evidently homophobic slur has been compounded by him being misleading and untruthful in his explanation of his motives. I have always believed that Torontonians don’t just want winning teams, they want nice winning teams. They want players they can admire. Escobar’s statement, and his attempts to mislead after the fact, prove he is not worthy of a Toronto uniform. Ian Chamandy, Toronto The over-the-top reaction in the Mideast to the anti-Muslim video, and the over-the-top reaction here at home to Escobar’s slur, make me ask: why are we all so thin-skinned? Elaine Maj, Pickering The vilification by Toronto’s politically correct zealots of a young Cuban Blue Jay, who is still learning English, is like attacking an ant with an AK-47. Did it occur to the Star’s mind-reading reporter that Escobar is only recently removed from an antediluvian culture that still drives 1952 Fords and Chryslers? Yunel’s use of the Spanish word for “gay” reminds me of my teenagers in the 1990s labelling anyone and anything that they disliked as “gay.” Was that homophobic? Certainly not back then.
This gaffe, which Escobar called “a word without meaning,” was an anachronistic syntax error by a naive, unworldly young man. It called only for a simple “Don’t do that again” from the Blue Jay suit in the corner office. Warren Adamson, Mississauga It seems to me that many people are missing the point of the comments being made by the Latin community about the meaning of what Yunel Escobar said. When I was growing up these terms that we now consider a homophobic slur had no real connotation toward sexual orientation. They meant that one was a “wuss” or a “girly man” as a later generation Hanz and Franz would say. It seems that this was the time that linguists deemed maricon to be the same as certain English words. Since that time there has been a cultural and linguistic drift. I suspect that the real problem here is that translation is no longer accurate. The nuances are no longer the same. Cal Rowles, Collinwood Interesting that Escobar’s inadvertent slur almost runs him out of town, yet no reaction to the Catholic Church’s core tenant that homosexuality is a mortal sin resulting in condemnation to an after-life in hell. Why have jock commentators not asked for the bishop and his clergy to leave town? G. Chorney, Mississauga Yunel Escobar, who speaks little English, wrote an anti-guy slur in Spanish on eyeblack and went to play at the Blue Jays home ground in a city that speaks more than 200 languages.
For what Escobar did, you may easily lose your job in this city. Just imagine doing that in any work environment.
But the big leagues have their own rationale in dealing with hate-related conducts. In a city where diversity thrives and where one of the largest Pride parades takes place every summer, the Blue Jays franchise will be challenged to prove its commitment to the values of our community.
The slap on the wrist that Escobar got sends the wrong message to many of those who do not appreciate our values and who thrive on ignorance. Let’s not be surprised if similar messages start to float publicly after this incident. Haytham Maki, Toronto