"Grey's Anatomy" Star In Counselling After Gay Slur
Shay
Isaiah Washington has started counselling after a furor erupted over a gay slur that he directed against fellow cast member T.R. Knight on the hit television hospital drama back in October, and later repeated at last week's Golden Globe Awards when asked about it. Mr. Washington, who earlier this week met gay and lesbian groups in Los Angeles, said in a statement he had begun counselling "as a necessary step toward understanding why I did what I did and making sure it never happens again". "I appreciate the fact that I have been given this opportunity and I remain committed to transforming my negative actions into positive results, personally and professionally," the actor added.
Shonda Rhimes, the black creator and executive producer of "Grey's Anatomy", said that ABC and show producers had been working to address what she called Mr. Washington's "behavioral issues": "I speak for all the executive producers here at Grey's Anatomy when I say that Isaiah Washington's use of such a disturbing word was a shocking and dismaying event that insulted not only gays and lesbians everywhere but anyone who has ever struggled for respect in a world that is not always accepting of difference. We've been working within the Grey's family as well as with ABC and Touchstone to address the issue in a way that underscores the gravity of the situation while giving us all a foundation for healing. We applaud and encourage Isaiah's realization that he needs help and his subsequent choice to seek immediate treatment for his behavioral issues."
Ripclawe, a black conservative Republican blogger, sarcastically calls it Mr. Washington's re-education process: "I am all for the public humilation for bone headed moves done by Washington twice using the term faggot, but this has turned into a farce sending him in for 'psychological assessment'....Shonda Rhimes sold him down the river big time."
My response: Am I missing something here? Is there more to Mr. Washington's past, and this story? In rehab for what? Just exercise better control over what you say, fool. And why ain't white lesbian Rosie O'Donnell - who works for the same employer (ABC and Disney, its parent company) - in "rehab" after those recent racist comments that she said on air? Has she met with Asian groups? Yeah, right....
As for Ms. O'Donnell, I'm blissfully unaware of whatever story she may be involved in. I don't know how I avoided it, but I must've done something right!
Fast forward to the Golden Globes, where the press, who apparently can't leave well enough alone, asked the cast how they were coping from, I guess, being so devastated and shocked that someone used a slur. THEN Isaiah's home raising went down the crapper from the prodigious amounts of alcohol ingested at that event (which is well-documented) and he used the word again.
Set up much? It's just like Marge Schott. Everyone and their mom knew she was an unrepentant racist. Why keep asking her about black people? Why put her rants down on paper? Why stoke the fire?
I think Isaiah Washington needs his job a little more than that, so his true response, which I suspect is identical to Rosey's, is being supressed for the sake of his career and his paycheck.
He came out of the closet a decade later my mother tells me.
Life sure has a sense of humor sometimes - unlike the PC crowd.
BTW he didn't need sensitivity training: he needed his ass whooped. Unfortunately, at the age of 12 I wasn't capable of doing that, though I tried...
For the record, the most egregious charge made against her was that she called Eric Davis and Dave Parker "million-dollar niggers." The sources I've seen contradict each other; some say she acknowleged that specific remark, while others indicate she denied that, but admitted to occasional generic use of the word in private. In either case, she she claimed she used the term jokingly, certainly a poor defense about an act in poor taste.
Lest we get too wrought up about Schott's casual use of the term in private, recall that the now-classic 1954 war movie The Dam Busters included a dog owned by Wing Commander Guy Gibson. The dog's name was Nigger in the UK version, which was dubbed into Tigger for the US market; certainly a refelction of the period.
Marge was more insensitve than actively racist, a reflection of midwestern German-American background, and the era in which she was born (1928). After the national press began castigating her with slurs of their own (such as racist and Nazi) many Cincinnati african-americans wrote to the local papers about having met Ms. Schott, and spoke of her kindness to them in person. We locals were quite aware of her warts, with a running commentary about the "good Marge" and the "bad Marge" in effect during her time in the public eye.
Marge Schott was demonstrably an unsung feminist heroine. She was the first female owner of a car dealership in a major market, and had to fight GM to retain her husband's business when he died of a heart attack in 1968. She was also the first woman to buy, and run, a major league baseball team. True, some others have inherited ownership, but they allowed men to run things. In fact she lead the way for women who aspired to CEO or ownership positions long before anyone ever heard of "super grandmother" Nancy Pelosi.
The main reasons feminists never acknowleged her was that she wasn't politically correct, was from (God forbid!) Cincinnati, wasn't young, and wasn't pretty.
Double your standard... double your fun...
Whoop him good and proper, and that should be then end of it.
I'm still pissed at turn-of-the-century Irish and Polish jokes. Anybody want to pick a fight?
Come on, he just learned the other guy had higher victim-status than he did, so he did the only thing he could do to increase his victim-status and lessen the severity of his social crime.
Congratulations, Shay! You're moving up in the world.
The victim identity group you are most associated with, as foist upon us by the cultural elite, is no longer the group most deserving of the elite’s “protection”.
So Rosie can now speak as she pleases, but Isaiah can not.
In other words, “faggot” is the new “nigger”.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.