Without sounding too much like a gossip columnist, I must ask if the actions taken by ABC towards Grey Anatomy’s character Dr. Preston Burke, played by Isaiah Washington, is really all that necessary. If you are unaware of the situation, during a heated discussion with T.R. Knight, a homosexual actor who also stars on G.A., Washington used the word “faggot” in reference to Knight. As a result, ABC is now requiring that Washington “enter a program to examine why he would use such hateful words.” In other words, the network, under the pressures of many gay rights groups, is trying to save face and uphold their reputation.
What strikes me is that the consequences are as severe as they are. Having said that, let me say that I do not condone that sort of rhetoric nor do I dismiss Washington’s remarks as being completely overblown. I do, however, think it’s unnecessary for a person to be required to enter a treatment facility for uttering a word or making such a hateful reference towards someone.
Around the fifth grade of high school I was a chubby boy. I’m not sure if that had to do with the fact that I was largely inactive or because I was eating too much as a form of self comfort following my parent’s divorce. Nevertheless, I was fat. I was a likeable kid who had a quite a few friends so you’d think I would have had nothing to worry about; however, it was all too untrue. At that age, every physical shortcoming made me that much more of a target. All it took was an argument, or for someone to get mad or jealous of me, and I would be subjected to being called a fat ass or told that I had big ears. It was the human nature in the other kids to pick out my flaws, to uncover my weaknesses, to attempt to use those avenues of insecurities to strike the core of my being. And a lot of the times it worked.
I grew older and started playing junior high football. I lost weight and grew into my ears a little bit, but just as I started to think that my insecurities of my elementary years were covered up, new weaknesses started to surface. In the midst of anger, people would scour the surface to find those things, to exploit them, in attempts to break me down, to get to me, as they tried to once again feel in control, superior to me and the situation. Attribute it to their lack of self esteem, their other insecurities, or their lack of coping skills but the same was all true, people are human beings. Name calling is what we tend to do.
People are being criticized every day. That guy is a douchebag because he wears his shirts two sizes two small in an attempt to get girls to notice the muscles that have made him a slave to the gym. That girl is fat and ugly and only wears revealing clothing because her personality is not appealing enough for anyone to become engaged with. Is that really what’s going on? Who are we to know? What we do know is that in a world described by some scientists as “the survival of the fittest” people are always looking for advantages over others and the situations in their lives. If you get the people around you to believe that the girl in the corner is rude, stand-offish, and believes that she’s better than anyone else then you take away the allure of revealing her true self and the reasons behind her insecurities. As a result, you’ve created this desirable state for you and isolated that other person as someone that nobody should invest any interest in. Tally another point for self-esteem.
Why does that matter? Because in a world of reality, things are said that aren’t always meant. And in a life where it’s absolutely impossible to place judgment on someone’s heart and soul, it’s foolish to say that one sentence defines who you are, and the extensiveness of your beliefs.
Arguments happen all of the time. Incidents and situations commonly arise in workplaces that cross the lines of social acceptance. However, in Hollywood, it’s like living the world through a magnifying glass, a magnifying glass that is conformed by special interests and political correctness. Am I saying that Washington was right in what he said? Absolutely not. What I’m saying is that it’s petty and foolish for a married man and father of three to be require to enter a treatment facility for a one time verbal misnomer, particularly when there has been no documented evidence that this man (African American mind you) is either homophobic or suffers from any degree of anger management deficiencies. Otherwise, I think each individual person would have had to have spent some amount of time in a counseling facility, trying to figure out “why” they suffer from this thing called “human nature”.
p.s. I’m not even necessarily overly fond of Washington’s character in Grey’s Anatomy so I am in no way personally involved in defending him. It’s the concept.
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