Stefon Diggs, Jeremy Lin: Is This Another “Teaching Moment” for Our Nation?

“To err is human, to forgive is divine.”

Ohio State fans maybe breathing a sigh of relief.  After enduring tattoo-gate, the Buckeye faithful do not want to go through another fiasco with an athlete.  I recently wrote about one-time target Davonte Neal and how it appears OSU may have dodged a bullet; did the same thing happen with Stefon Diggs? A recent controversy between Diggs and Lin may shed light.

Jeremy Lin may not be able to penetrate the Miami Heat defense but he has penetrated deep into society.  Recently, top Maryland football recruit and one-time Ohio State target Stefon Diggs tweeted:

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"Everybody need to get off Jeremy Lin egg roll and dumplings he's good though."

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Diggs realized his mistake after angry people berated him on Twitter leading him to vehemently apologize. But the pressure and negativity was so great, Diggs deleted his Twitter account after using it extensively during his recruitment. 

This did not stop the media barrage towards the young 18-year-old man. Cameron Smith of Yahoo Sports wrote:

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“"Jeremy Lin egg roll and dumplings"? Really Stefon? That's arguably an even more offensive version of the offensive genitalia joke first used by Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock.

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Though I do not disagree with chastising anything that is racist, my concern is whether or not we as a society have gone overboard.  The question I ask is an old one: “Are we too quick to judge and too slow to forgive?”  Lin is the target of critical remarks, many of which are directed at his Asian heritage.

Just recently, ESPN’s Anthony Federico was fired and anchor Max Bretos was suspended for 30 days for the famous “chink in the armor” comment. 

Was Lin angry?  His response should serve as a model.

Irving Dejohn and Helen Kennedy of the New York Daily News write:

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“A gracious Lin, . . . gave Federico and Bretos the benefit of the doubt.

"They've apologized, and so from my end, I don't care anymore," Lin said. "You have to learn to forgive."

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Lin exuded forgiveness, a response that has been atypical. 

I do believe some form of reprimand was appropriate but I question whether firing Federico was overkill.  Was Federico apologetic? Dejohn and Kennedy write:

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The ESPN editor fired Sunday for using "chink in the armor" in a headline about Knicks phenom Jeremy Lin said the racial slur never crossed his mind - and he was devastated  . . .  "I'm so sorry that I offended people. I'm so sorry if I offended Jeremy. . . .

He said he has used the phrase "at least 100 times" in headlines over the years and thought nothing of it when he slapped it on the Lin story.

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A 30-day suspension like ESPN anchor Max Bretos received may have been more equitable.

Our President may have modeled a more rational way to handle these situations. In 2009, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct while trying to enter his home. 

President Obama criticized the police action but later retracted his comments and declared the event a “teachable moment.”  This lead to the famous White House “Beer Summit,” which was a meeting between Sgt. Crowley, Professor Gates, Joe Biden and President Obama to move towards a peaceful reconciliation between the two parties. Has another “teachable moment” arisen in our country? 

Philip Yancey, in his book What’s So Amazing About Grace (pp.117-118) writes a compelling story of how one man’s act of forgiveness helped curb the violence between the Catholic and Protestants of Northern Ireland and Great Britain.  Yancey writes:

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In 1987 an IRA bomb went off in a small town west of Belfast, amid a group of Protestants who had gathered to honor the war dead on Veteran’s Day. Eleven people died . . . What made this act of terrorism stand out was the response of one of the wounded, Gordon Wilson.

The bomb buried Wilson and his twenty-year-old daughter under five feet of concrete and brick. “Daddy, I love you very much,” were the last words Marie spoke . . . Speaking from his hospital bed, Wilson said, “ I have lost my daughter, but I bear no grudge. Bitter talk is not going to bring Marie Wilson back to life. I shall pray, tonight and every night, that God will forgive them.”

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Wilson went on to be a catalyst for peace and upon his death in 1995, was honored by Northern Ireland and all of Great Britain for his work.  This would not have happened had he not practiced forgiveness.

One may ask: “Sports is not comparable to politics; what is true for the President, Catholics and Protestants does not apply to athletics.” But what we have seen in history is that overreaction and revenge leads to more trouble while forgiveness leads to peace.

This crosses all disciplines, including sports. We are all human and make mistakes; rather than giving in to the emotional inclination of retaliation, we can choose to be like Gordon Wilson and our President. 

These “teachable moments” can lead us to a better place.