>> Detroit Tigers announcer, Jack Morris, received a lot of backlash
over a poor attempt at a joke. Now this was during a game earlier this week while
calling the team's game against the Los Angeles angels on Tuesday. The Tigers
play by play announcer asked Morris, how would he handle Ohtani, who is a dangerous power hitter?
Right, now Ohtani happens to be Asian and that's when things got a little, with Morris's answer.
So Morris decided to, well actually we have a video. So let's take a look at what he said
specifically and why it led to so much backlash. >> Now what do you do with Shohei Ohtani?
>> You barely better careful.
>> You walk in. >>
So he tried to imitate
the Asian accent or an Asian accent. Obviously, that is not okay. And that did lead to a lot
of backlash. First Cenk, before I get to the consequences for it. I wanna hear what you think.
>> Yeah, so there's an interesting cultural clash. And I don't mean between
white folks and Asians, I mean, between younger and older folks in America.
>> Totally. >> And so
it's not a blanket statement. There's wonderful progressives who totally, totally get it who are
older, right? And there's totally knucklehead young white right wingers who are nuts, okay?
But in general, if you grew up on TV and you grew up in the old days, it's a little bit different
culture than if you grew up online and with younger generations that are very progressive,
right? And so people like Jack Morris might not have gotten the memo that you're not
supposed to do Asian accents, by the way that memo went out a long time ago, right?
That's not a recent development. And I'll tell you, my experience with the different accents,
etc, but do people do accents? Yes, comedians do accents and, I think that's totally fine.
But they're different varying rules, and a lot of folks haven't caught up. Now you
could say I don't care, he should have caught up.
And he's a racist that I hate him. And is he a racist? I have no idea, right? But
should he have done that? No, he obviously should not have done that. So that's clear.
But what should be the consequence? In fact, we're gonna ask you about that in a minute, right?
But, look, I'll see the nuance on the accents in a second, but yes.
>> So the consequences he has been suspended indefinitely.
And he has also apologized publicly. So I'm going to read you the apology from Jack Morris. He says,
quote, it's been brought to my attention and I sincerely apologize if I offended anybody.
Especially anybody in the Asian community for what I said about
pitching and being careful to Jose, Shohei or Shohei Ohtani. I did not
intend for any offensive thing and I apologize if I did. I certainly respect
and have the utmost respect for this guy and I don't blame a pitcher for walking him.
So look, I don't think that his poor attempt at a joke is a clear indication that he's a bad
person or that he's racist or hateful toward Asian people. I think he genuinely thought,
he was trying to be cute or funny, and it was not funny. And that led to backlash.
With that said, I feel like indefinite suspension. It could go both ways. It could be that they're
suspending him until people stop talking about it, and then they can bring him back on. Or
maybe they're planning on firing him permanently. And I don't think that he deserves to be fired.
I just don't. I think that he made a big mistake.
He has apologized for it. And it's a teachable moment for him. And losing his job over it,
I think goes a little too far. >> So I'm gonna juxtapose them to
another announcer that also just got caught live on a live mic.
It's Reds broadcaster Tom Breneman, and he used a homophobic slur.
The Reds were playing the Royals there in Kansas City. So this comment makes
no sense in a thousand ways on top of being offensive. So the he said one of the F capitals
of the world- >> Jesus.
>> Okay, now F being the homophobic slur word, okay? And so when I look at that,
that seems intentional. So even if he doesn't realize he's on air, he's using that word in a
hateful way. And that is super clear, there is no nuance, there's no other way to interpret that.
There's that cultural divide has been breached. Everybody knows you're not supposed to say that.
And it's terrible. The reason why you're not supposed to say that it's not because
it's a magic word. It's because you're being super hateful to other people and it's really
indecent, right? So now, in Jack Morris's case, the reason it's more nuanced is because, well,
like I told you some people do accents, some people don't do accents.
And some accents are acceptable, some accents are not acceptable. Now you say, wait a minute,
no accent is acceptable. No, that's not true. I do my dad's accent. I say, we have to go right away,
right? And if you say no, no, it's racist against yourself to do your dad's accent.
I don't care what you think. I don't agree. And I'm never going to listen to you.
>> You do the Southern accent. >> I do the Southern accent,
right? And by the way, I used to do the Indian accent. Now I don't do it anymore,
but that's a super interesting question.
I grew up with tonnes of different friends including lots of Indian friends and lots of Asian
friends. Asia friends where from China, Korea, Vietnam, etc, right? Now what's interesting is,
and this back in the 1980s and 1990s, and at that time, all of us that Indian accents, and my Indian
friends said Indian accents of their parents all the time, but no one did an Asian accent.
The Asian kids never did it their parents in an Asian accent. We never said an Asian accent.
Because an Asian accent for whatever reason, felt racist. And I've talked about this on the
show for 20 years now. It was something about an Asian accent, and I think it is
it's because historically in America, there has been terrible racism against the Asians.
And in fact, Chinese were the only people ever banned from America. And people would do that
accent in a really hateful, mocking way. There was not as much of a history of that against
Indian American, South Asian Americans, right? Now maybe there's some growing
hatred, etc. And that sense, so that's why it's an issue that I can see an older guy like Jack Morris
hasn't caught up on, right?
So if I was his employer, I would really look for intent here.
>> Yeah- >> Right,
is he hateful towards that group? Did he mean it? Or did he screw up and not realize, we don't do?
My God, I'm mortified. I'm so, so sorry. And if he means it, no, then don't fire the guy.
It's a mistake, and we can move on. >> I think, look, I think people
do make mistakes. And sometimes when you're speaking spontaneously,
you say things that you don't realize as you're saying it could be offensive
to other people. And again, it depends on the extent of the statement, right?
In this case, it was like a second he did the accent, but unless there's other indications
that he has ill intent, right? I feel like someone who's racist has other slip ups, there are other
strikes on that person's record. And so again, I'm not saying, let him go, this is no big deal.
I understand the people who are upset with it. But I also think we need to kind of start
pushing toward being kinder to people and more understanding, and engaging with one another in
a way that is a teachable moment rather than you're a bad person, you're banned forever.
You should be fired or your entire livelihood should be sacrificed as a result of this.
I think that's wrong too. So we wanna ask you guys what you think, you might disagree with me
completely, and that's totally fine. The poll is over at TYT.COM/POLLS and the question is
should Jack Morris be fired for imitating in quotation marks Asian accent, yes or no?
>> And a lot of times you guys don't agree with us. So that's really interesting and I'm curious
what you guys think, TYT.COM/POLLS and you get to see all of our polls. I like how Ana
said, it would be a strike on his record. I guess if he had three strikes, he would be out.
So, but one more thing, the right way to handle it is exactly what Ana said. I just go one step
further, and say, hey sit Jack Morris and Ohtani down in an interview and have them
go back and forth and talk about it. >> That'd be super interesting.
>> Wouldn't that be amazing? >> That would be amazing.
>> Okay, and then a lot of people could learn from
that. I think that's a much better way to go in this case than firing him.