West Virginia governor runs afoul of the race mongering language police

For me, the word “thug” brings to mind Richard Widmark in “Kiss of Death” and Jack Lambert in “The Killers” — both of them extremely white. However, African-American race mongers have decided that “thug” is a modern-day racial epithet.

This isn’t what one would call self-flattery, but I guess it’s good for the grievance business.

The latest such grievance is with West Virginia’s governor, Jim Justice. He coaches girls’ basketball on the side.

A game against his team’s main rival had to be suspended when players from that opponent waded into the stands to confront fans of the team Justice coaches. The opponent’s assistant coach, who is black, was later cited by the police for obstructing an officer.

Justice’s team was ahead when the game was suspended.

After the game, Justice told a local newspaper:

. . .honest to God’s truth is the same thing happened over at [the opposing school] two different times. . .They’re a bunch of thugs. The whole team left the bench. The coach is in a fight. They walked off the court. They called the game.

The game was over when they walked off the floor — it’s as simple as that. They don’t know how to behave and at the end of the day, you got what you got.

For these comments, Justice stands accused of racism. For example, a local attorney declared “thugs” a “modern-day term for the n-word, at least around here.”

The attorney added that the team whose players and coaches Justice called thugs “is coached by two black men, and the majority of the girls on the team are black women.” Okay, but arguably they behaved like thugs. Why does the attorney assume that race, not behavior, was the basis for Justice using the “t” word?

Because that’s how the racial grievance game is played these days.

Justice has responded by saying he’s sorry if he’s done anything offensive. However, he isn’t backing down. He insists that he did nothing wrong:

My definition of a thug is clear — it means violence, bullying, and disorderly conduct. And we, as West Virginians, should have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior. Anyone that would accuse me of making a racial slur is totally absurd.

True. But modern racial politics has become a theater of the absurd.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses