In response to the profane, racist rant of one of its players – even though he is black.

A Jacksonville, Fla., television station has obtained documents detailing Jaguars cornerback Brian WilliamsÂ’ racist rant to police the night he was arrested in September 2006 on suspicion of DUI, News 4 Jax reported.

The police officer involved wrote in a report that Williams called him "Honky mother (expletive)," and said, "I (expletive) your momma ... I (expletive) your wife twice." Williams allegedly went on to say he would do something to the officerÂ’s daughter, News 4 Jax reported.

Williams apologized for his actions after the initial arrest, but recently withdrew the guilty plea he submitted after the 2006 incident.

That withdrawal allowed the arresting officerÂ’s notes to be made public. The officer said at the time of the arrest he did not know Williams had recently signed a multimillion dollar deal with the Jaguars, News 4 Jax reported.

Now I have to ask this question – had this racist rant come from a white player towards a black cop, would it have been swept under the rug like this? Wouldn’t we have quickly seen leaked police reports on the arrest, complete with the slurs and profanity, as well as any video of the incident?

Could we be looking at one more double standard here on race relations that we need to dialogue about?

This goes along pretty well with one of the points from John HawkinsÂ’ superb column today on race and racism.

Blacks are, on average, more racist than whites: As we've seen in the Democratic primary this year, black Americans are much more likely to vote for a person based on his skin color than white Americans. Also, most black Americans tend to think it's ok to belong to race-based organizations like the NAACP, while white Americans hold race-based groups like the KKK in disdain. Moreover, percentage wise, there are pretty clearly a lot more black Americans who dislike white Americans based on their skin color than vice-versa. Maybe that's understandable given the shameful treatment black Americans once had to endure in this country, but it's still the truth -- and don't even get me started on black Americans actually defending criminal scum like O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson, and the L.A. rioters because they're black.

Now in defense of the NAACP, its Jacksonville chapter president did condemn Williams’ language as divisive and harmful. But I can’t help but wonder whether a similarly despicable rant from a white player would have produced the same measured response – or a nuclear meltdown with demands for sensitivity training for the entire NFL and race-based kickbacks to black organizations and minority contractors with the appropriate political patrons.

In the end, though, I hope that the best punishment in this case comes from those of us who are NFL ticket holders. We need to make life very uncomfortable for this racist scumbag – with boos, jeers, and general expressions of contempt. He’ll get that from me when the Jags play here in Houston this fall.

Posted by: Greg at 10:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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