Been an interesting couple of weeks, but two things jumped out and caught my attention. At first they might seem kind of unrelated but a closer look reveals two sides of the same coin. And the coin is called racism.

The first incident involved a so-called “shock comic” named Ralphie May. He’s been around for a while and has had a controversial career saying outrageous things about all kinds of folks. But he got in trouble with Indigenous folks when a video of his skit went viral on YouTube and he got caught saying some very nasty and disgusting things about us. He was scheduled to bring his act to Bemidji, Minnesota when the local Indigenous folks got wind of it and told everyone: “Ain’t no way he’s coming here!!”

. . .

The second item to catch my attention was ESPN sport commentator Bomani Jones’s wearing of the Caucasian t-shirt on ESPN’s Mike and Mike show. This time the Twitterverse and other venues erupted with outraged white people. I read several comments and it was clear they totally missed the point of what he was doing. They took it very personally.

In the midst of this insanity, an Indian ally posted, “If you’re offended by Bomani’s t-shirt then you know why Native Americans hate sports mascots.” This flew over the heads of the wingnuts because the tirade continued.

Ironically this shirt has been around for about 10 years. It’s manufactured by a Cleveland based company Shelf Life Clothing. In fact they make a lot of neat t-shirts and seem willing to parody anything.