Frank Beckmann, Det News article, uh-oh [LOCKED]
It has taken a few days, but a piece that UM football p-b-p radio announcer Frank Beckmann wrote regarding fried chicken and the Woods-Garcia flap is starting to get a lot of negative attention for Frank.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130524/OPINION01/305240023/1268/OP…
To the politically correct, the mention of fried chicken is an immediate endorsement of slavery rather than a testament to the innovative determination of the American slave population to improve its own physical wellbeing by creating a readily available dish which improved their diet.
Making fried chicken and popularizing it could thus be viewed as an accomplishment that should serve as a testament to the determination of a group of people who found an inventive way to subsist while enduring unimaginable and deplorable living conditions.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130524/OPINION01/305240023#ixzz2UcLfUjwE
mods, feel free to delete if this should not have been posted.
Mod edit: This seems a little like the Brandon for Senate stuff where it's related enough to get posted, but not worth sorting out politics from not-politics in the comments, aside from the fact that it will all inevitably become politics at some point. JGB.
I feel it should be posted, at least the info and not so much the comments. It will be hard to see him keeping his job after this though.
It got past his editors, I doubt he'll lose his job or anything. I agree though, stupid thing to say and he would absolutely be better off keeping this sort of thing to himself.
The fact that it got past his editors means nothing. Its a stupid comment on his part that didn't need to be said at all, and as a spokesperson for the University, he'll be lucky to have a job after this.
Often the smartest thing you can say is nothing. Beckmann should've headed that advice.
I'm not saying anything about the content whatsoever. My question, is why in the HELL would Beckman touch this topic with a 10 foot pole one way or the other. This is a poison topic and only bad things can happen.
Why are people so fast to fire other people. Geez, not everyone that makes a mistake deserves to lose their jobs.
Not everyone who makes a mistake deserves to lose their job. But making a stupid racist remark is usually grounds for a dismissal. 2 Regents are already on record saying they want him out. Only a matter of time.
Because they're lazy and firing people is easy. It changes absolutely nothing of course but it makes you LOOK like you're doing something which is all that matters.
Which two regents? What record? Where's the source?
I'm legitimately asking if there's on the record statements as this is the first I've heard of this whole thing.
Sources telling me that the U of M Board of Regents are having a conference call today re: Frank Beckmann's insane "fried chicken" column
According to sources, two regents want Beckmann ousted as U of M play-by-play man immediately following "Fried Chicken-Gate."
Doesn't really look like he's a guy who's "in the know" as much as someone grinding a political ax.
Go follow the guy for a day. He has an axe to grind with anyone and everyone. Most of the time its complete nonsense, but then there are times where he tries to ask questions that the media won't force coaches to answer.
Definite bit of "I'm smarter than you" in his posts as well.
I can see Beckmann's point on this. Garcia's quip was more tasteless and poorly thought out than HE DID NOT JUST SAY THAT.
If that were Beckmann's only point, I'd agree. The problem is, he goes way beyond that.
You can see Beckmann's point of equating Germans and Rouladen with American Blacks and fried chicken? Are you kidding me?!
I agree with like the first part of Beckmann's commentary on how Garcia's comment isn't really that big of a deal.
The rest of his article is worthy to light on fire.
I don't get it. Why is this a big deal?
Because it's an old, white guy trivializing the harm that racial stereotypes inflict upon the ethnic group in question. He didn't really say anything really controversial in the piece, but he just comes off as ignorant when when tries to compare the negative connotation of fried chicken and African Americans to some German ethnic dish that carries no stereotype whatsoever.
Bottom line, it's really not his place to say what African Americans should or should not be offended by since he is not a part of that particular ethnic group. Why he felt it was necessary to step on this third rail, I'll never understand. Nothing good will come of it.
I don't think he comprehended the malicious intent of Sergio's comments. He doesn't need to be fired for that.
That's not my or your decision to make, but unfortunately for Frank, the University has been pretty sensitive to negative press recently.
Beckmann "comprehended" Garcia's attaching a fried chicken comment to a black guy and what the meaning might be?
Then he's just an oblivious buffoon.
I mean, it takes a special kind of idiot to completely and totally either be ignorant of, or completely dismiss, the context of racial history and racist remarks.
A more extreme example would be like a guy walking into a Jewish deli in a full S.S. Officer's uniform and being flabbergasted when others took offense, stating, "I'm not trying to make any sort of political or racist statement. I just really like World War II memorabilia and I just happened to put this Nazi uniform on, and I just happened to wander into this Jewish deli. There is nothing wrong about that. In fact, I think it's you people with you political correctness that are the problem. If anything I'm promoting racial harmony, by proving that a Nazi can walk into a Jewish establishment without trying to murder everyone. I''ll have a reuben please, and go light on the Russian dressing. I never really cared for them much."
He may very well be oblivious. He missed the mark in this piece. It was a poor attempt to dismiss the political correctness in our society. Unfortunately, it leaves the door open for people who don't agree with his political views to possible attack him and to try and turn this article into something that it's not.
Another disappointing (though, in context, less important) part of Frank's behavior is his apparent eagerness to mouth off on one of the USA's nine hundred or so issues that instantly get classified Blue/Red. As Frank has declared himself a Red State guy, he feels obligated to defend all positions classified as Red.
I could pretty much guarantee that (for example) he likes Sean Hannity (the TV character, that is) and dislikes Rachel Maddow (again, the TV character) reflexively. Simple-minded ... not because of opinions either holds, but because of stubborn consistency (where consistency, when you consider how issues get sorted into Red/Blue piles, makes no sense).
that they should not be offended. Just as being part of a group that is offended doesn't mean you are automatically right to be so. Claiming offense is not a gold pass (or shouldn't be) to credibility.
I liked Beckmann a lot more when I was 12 years old and knew nothing about him.
Beckmann was saying that Garcia was actually complementing Woods with the crack about fried chicken? I have no idea what is in Garcia's heart, or Beckmann's for that matter. I do suspect that Garcia started flapping his gums trying to say something funny and he said something stupid. I very strongly suspect that Beckmann was being a too-cute-by-half contrarian, and he said something both stupid and irrelevant...and no one was looking for his commentary. He was voluntarily stupid. Frank doesn't do a horrible job on the M games, but we deserve better.
Is it so hard to just write about sports?
I don't read newspapers, let alone op-ed pieces. Not sure why Beckmann has this gig. Was he a writer originally? I don't care what he has to say about anything other than what happens during a Michigan football game.
I'll be surprised if this post goes through and the thread isn't already deleted.
Wonkette and Richard Deitsch of SI both had the name of Michigan football associated with this column today. It's ugly but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be here. Not until Beckmann is out of the family, anyway.
What's a Wonkette, some type of miniature Willy Wonka candy bar?
The fact that you're making political statements judging said statements just proves that it doesn't belong here. You couldn't control yourself, why would you expect anyone else to?
He's U of M's play-by-play guy. How does this NOT belong here?
But the merits of the politics of his statements. Which have no business here.
By saying sports and politics don't mix, aren't you kind of endorsing the removal of Beckmann? The MGoBoard didn't choose the concoction here, Frank did. It's reasonable to have a discussion about whether the university should be OK with it.
Would you be alright with Bill Maher as Michigan's new play by play guy? Probably not.
That the board's "no politics" policy, to prevent poltiical backbiting like in this thread, has anything to do with the University having a no politics policy, when most of the people they employee in public positions are making one kind of political stand or another.
And are you in fact Jeff Moss...? Because he said almost the same thing.
If you're a conservative Michigan Fan (i.e a Walmart) would ya be happy if Janeane Garofalo was the Wolverines PBP announcer. Or Bill Maher?
No I'm not. But the point is a valid one.
Or some professor, do I get bent out of shape over it and call for their removal? Nope. Just like I don't care when Beckmann does his thing. Ideas can't hurt me.
So if the mods want to start allowing politics, let it become a free for all. But I'm just curious how selectively enforced the rules are. Because I'd hate to say Section 1 has a point.
Are people really comfortable with this man being an employee of the university?
Hope this thread stays up. Beckmann is a Michigan football figure. Unless he writes these columns under an anynonymous pen name, his words are relevant.
Apparently, the regents are having a conference call about this today and two of them already want him out. So yeah, its news. And potentially bigger news shortly.
I may be mistaken, but I don't think Frank Beckmann is an employee of the University. I think that he is a contractor with IMG sports, which in turn has a contract with the University, and while I am confident that there may be an approval clause with the University, there must be some "cause" element in it.
Frank Beckmann does not just do sports. He has a mid-morning show on WJR and he is a well-known commentator on all manner of local and national affairs. He is a conservative, hosting a program on an AM station that is a Clear Channel Rush Limbaugh affiliate station. Frank Beckmann's political views are no secret.
The subject of this column (please, fellas; it is a "column," not an "article") was political correctness. I think Beckmann made his point. I wouldn't have done it; but Frank did. He wrote nothing -- nothing -- that was racist or intolerable. Lest there be any doubt about it, Beckmann called Sergio Garcia's original offending comment a "gaffe." Beckmann was right about that. What he went on to discuss was the non-stop reaction to that gaffe.
Now as to the Regents wanting to discharge Frank Beckmann...
The Regents of the University of Michigan are a powerfully political -- even shamelessly political -- bunch. The majority are Democrats, who don't like much of anything about Frank Beckmann or WJR's current daytime programming.
Let's remember who we're talking about, with the Regents. They are the same group (now including son of Sam, Mark Bernstein) that on a pure party-line vote decided to recognize the GA unionization effort, and then to give them a quick contract to beat the Right to Work law's effective date. The former act was taken with little notice and with every effort to keep it under the radar of local press, and after President Mary Sue Coleman advised firmly that such an act was against her wishes and advice, and against the wishes and advice of most of the University's Deans and Provosts. But you know, when you need that union support at election time...
I'm going to go out on an incredibly wide limb and say that if U of M Athletics were to decide to buy out the contract with IMG sports to get Beckman off the air, that wouldn't be a big problem for them.
But apart from the contractual obligations, are you suggesting that "firing" Beckmann would be a popular thing?
Can anybody explain in detail what Beckmann's precise offense was/is?
I think that the mere existence of this controversy proves the point of Beckmann's op-ed. That rampant, overbearing political correctness now precludes even an honest discussion of differences. Nothing less than full-throated ethnic "sensitivity" is allowable in the public marketplace of ideas.
And yes, Beckmann's mistake was that he didn't have faculty tenure at the University of Michigan before writing his column. Which would have given license to say almost anything.
Before anybody starts in on me as a racist, I'll say: Sergio Garcia is no hero of mine. He is petulant. He is unadmirable. And what he said, made me cringe. I wouldn't have defended it. And I wouldn't have written the Beckmann column. Of all the things to defend against our rampant-pc media environment, Garcia's stupid and insulting comment was the last one to try to defend. I'm sorry that Frank chose to do so.
Black people get the fried chicken stereotype. Hell black comedians make jokes about it. It's part of the whole soul food genre that black people are proud about and enjoy sharing with anybody, regardless of race.
But you need to understand that there is a difference between people across ethnicities joking with each other and a person using a stereotype to put someone else down. That's what Sergio did and that's what people of any race do to others when they're being mean-spirited.
I don't think Beckmann should lose his job over an awful attempt at trying to honor black American history, but he should stick sports and whatever he talks about on WJR.
Yeah. There is a major difference between pointing out certain foods that are either a part of, or prevalently eaten amongst a certain ethnic group, and using said dish as the punch line of an insult against a member of said group.
I'm not interested on commenting on what Beckmann said on MgoBlog. Simply pointing out that if the Board of Regents wants him gone, there are a number of avenues to make that happen.
On both sides of the aisle. I'm not even mad at Section 1. There are many doing it on both sides. This is just what happens when these things appear. Which is why they shouldn't.
The regents are in and of themselves "politics."