Dana White’s Sexist Tirade: A “Teachable Moment”

After an 8-second warm-up, the video takes off:

“Loretta, you fucking moron”.

Here are some lines from the next three minutes:

• “just to show you how fucking dumb you are”
• “you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about”
• “shut the fuck up”
• “everything that comes out of your mouth is fucking stupid”
• “Hey Loretta… you fucking moron”  (again)
• “you fucking dumb bitch”
• “Fuck you Loretta Hunt” (while raising middle finger for the camera)

Wow.

The tirade by UFC’s  Dana White aimed at female journalist Loretta Hunt included no less than 34 F-bombs (more than one per 6 seconds), not including a separate “F-bomb” that doubles up as a homosexual slur. To be clear:

White is not some  MMA fighter, he is the UFC league’s president.

This tirade was not inadvertently “caught on tape”, but was deliberately taped by White himself .

It wasn’t some piece of home video, it was originally presented on UFC’s website.

“Dumb bitch” wasn’t merely some isolated sexist “slur”, but the culmination of sexist abuse.

Taken all together, it was verbally abusive virtuoso performance. He made sure to specifically state her name repeatedly. He said “dumb”, “stupid”, and “moron” repeatedly. It was personal, demoralizing, and sexist. White didn’t want Hunt to know that he disagreed with her, he wanted her to”submit” and ”tap out”.

I have no interest in finding out the merits or non-merits of Hunt’s original article. White’s words have reduced that discussion to meaninglessness. Even entertaining it amounts to asking a physically-assaulted woman: “Well, what did you say to make him do that”.

It seems that Loretta Hunt’s major crime was this — being a female journalist.

Even if we omitted the “dumb bitch” money line, how often have we ever heard such an abusive tirade of this sort directed at a male journalist? …Besides Bobby Knight…

Have we ever?

Forget players and coaches: What if David Stern, Bud Selig, or Roger Goodell said these words?

Before moving on to larger questions, lets get the specifics out of the way: Dana White’s words are simply inexcusable, and he should step down from his position. Or maybe, he should just keep his position to accurately reflect his league and “sport” for exactly what it is. …Moving on to the big picture. Dana White’s tirade needs to serve as a background for various “teachable moments” in sports, sexism, and society. But first…

A Word about Race, Gender, and “Teachable Moments”:

Fueled by a certain celebrity couple and domestic violence, there has been a lot of media talk the last couple of months about “teachable moments”. And while I wholeheartedly agree in theory, there has been very little actual education being dispensed. Specifically, isn’t it long past time we stopped putting a black face on every social ill? When the media consciously does this, it is not teaching a god damn thing. D-Wil recently wrote about ESPN’s Outside the Lines doing a show on “out-of-wedlock births” and how all three off the main profiled individuals are African-American. Why did the producer select Dwight Howard over Tom Brady or Matt Leinart? What exactly are they trying to teach? And to whom?

If I turn on CNN’s Larry King Live with its latest panel fueled by pictures of Rihanna, well fine.  But why are Robin Givens and Denise Brown being interviewed? Why are Mike Tyson and OJ Simpson the only other known men exposed by the panel? And why did you select sports stories from 15 years ago? Here, let me help you producers out with an updated guest list from THIS decade. Just a few months ago, two-time Padre All-Star Brian Giles had a domestic violence lawsuit filed against him and there is actual videotape of an incident. How about some updates on Phillies pitcher Brett Myers?  Two years ago wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his wife and child. How about some of his extended family on the show ? A perfect guest would be Debra Marshall the formerly abused ex-wife of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. She can tell you just how rampant domestic violence is. Throw in Dana White’s verbal abuse, and you have an all-white multi-part OTL or CNN series…

See, when you profile three black men on the same exact show the ONLY lesson that is being taught is that women should be afraid of black men — no matter how scary (Tyson), friendly (OJ), or innocent (Chris Brown) they seem to be! ESPN and CNN do not have the same audience demographic as BET. Their combined examples are NOT “teachable moments” — just straight media racism. Let’s call it what it is.  

The majority of out-of-wedlock births in America are to white children. The majority of domestic violence victims in America are white women.  As a white author your shows do not teach me anything that I could relate to with my own eyes growing up. Your coverage is letting white America down in what could be a wonderful opportunity to improve ourselves and our communities. No — citing sub-racial-group percentages has absolutely  no direct relevance to the vast majority of your viewers. Alcoholism is rampant in Native-American communities, but the mainstream media rarely talks about that? Why. Because the media doesn’t give a crap. So please stop disingenously feigning concern for the health of minority communities, and start giving your majority white audience some REAL “teachable moments”.

Dana White’s diatribe, and all of its subtext is a great place to start. Here are

Some discussion starter points:

 #1 - Sexism and Sports: How much of White’s abusive tirade indicative of the extreme sexism and violence that is the UFC/MMA specifically, and sports in general? Or homophobia? Will mainstream sports journalists step up and fight sexism in sports beyond the White story?

#2:  Sexism and Sports Journalism: It is no secret to any female reporter that the field of sports journalism is rampant with sexism from athletes, management, and fellow journalists. What will be done to change these working conditions? Is there a connection between sexism within sports journalism, and the accomplishments of female athletes getting routinely ignored?

#3: Sexism and Domestic Violence: To be clear, no one is accusing White of physical assault, but can we agree that White’s words are a classic tell tale diatribe of domestic verbal abuse. (And often a precursor to physical abuse.) If we are REALLY serious about sexism or domestic violence  should we use this as an opportunity to address all forms of abuse?

 Now let the learning begin.