Oklahoma is once again in the news for all the wrong racist reasons.
On Friday morning at 9:03am, Norman High School basketball coach Frankie Parks shared a video clip of a high school sports announcer caught on a hot mic calling the Norman High School women's basketball team "F*ckin N*****s" for having the audacity to take a knee during the National Anthem, and in the process, remind us why they take a knee during the National Anthem.
Here's the original tweet:
Like most videos of racists from Oklahoma caught on tape using the N-word, the video spread quickly across the social media sphere. People were rightfully shocked, rightfully outraged, and rightfully wanted to know who the fucking racist idiot was on tape showing his inner and outer racism.
As a result, the Oklahoma media machine went into overdrive looking for that score. Only a few hours later, The Oklahoman's Cam Jourdan shared the first big scoop of his journalistic career:
Once Cameron shared his scoop that was verified by his "multiple sources," everyone in the local media – myself included – went on a scavenger hunt to find out what we could about this mysterious Scott Sapulpa. The only problem? The guy saying the racist stuff in the video wasn't Scott Sapulpa.
Apparently, Scott Sapulpa was one of the broadcasters for the game, but he wasn't the guy who dropped the wild N-bomb reference. That honor belonged to his boss – a racist diabetic named Matt Rowan. Either way, Scott still lost his job for not immediately condemning the racist language that, I would assume, took him off-guard.
In the spur of the moment, when a dude's on a live broadcast and just heard his boss drop an N-bomb, I can see how he may have frozen up like Garth in Wayne's World and pretended that he didn't notice anything. For a lot of white men, even the ones who think they're not racists, that's an easier and more natural instinct than doing the right thing and calling out racism when you see or hear it. But that deservedly doesn't fly anymore. If you see or hear someone using the N-word, call them out for it.
As I mentioned, eventually the media would get around to identifying Matt Rowan as the racist dick. As the owner of the company broadcasting the game, he was able to throw the gumshoes off the trail by initially denying he was the person who said it.
Eventually, Matt would come clean and admit it was him who showcased his traditional American values racism. He would then proceed to write one of the dumbest, most imbecilic apologies that a man has ever written.
First of all, I like how he clarifies that he made the comments while believing that the microphone was off, like that makes it okay or something.
"Oh, so you didn't know you were being recorded when you called a bunch of high school girls dirty you-know-whats? My bad. Sorry for overreacting!"
Second, he really went with the diabetes excuse? That's a first. Then again, I guess it would explain why my grandmother would always go on long anti-semantic rants about Jewish bankers before she'd take her morning insulin.
The diabetes comment gave the sad story a weird punchline, helped make it go even more viral, and even made Wilford Brimley a trending topic on Twitter:
Naturally, every Oklahoma politician of note came out of the woodwork to condemn and chastise the remarks, this even includes the ones who openly pander and court the type of voters who likely cheered when they heard what Matt Rowan had to say:
At least Kevin Stitt did give credit to the happy ending in this story – The Norman Tigers would persevere through the racism sent their way and take home the State Championship.
Anyway, I guess this concludes the latest edition of Racism in Oklahoma Once Again Hits The National Stage. It seems like we have a story like this about once every quarter or so, so it will be interesting to see where, how and why the next one lands, and what medical condition the racist uses as the excuse.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We'll keep you advised.
