Houston, your sports teams have a problem.

First, Houston Texans owner Bob McNair made a huge mistake nearly a month ago. His mistake, which came to light only last week, was referring to NFL players as “inmates,” as in, “we can’t have the inmates running the prison.” McNair realized his mistake and said he was sorry: “I apologize to anyone who was offended.”

Second, Houston Astros slugger Yuli Gurriel made a big mistake. After hitting a homerun against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish, Gurriel sat in his dugout and pulled his eyes into a slant. He then referred to Darvish as “chinito,” Spanish slang for a Chinese boy. While, in Gurriel’s native Cuba, “chinito” is often used to describe all Asians, I’m guessing it wasn’t of supreme importance to him that Darvish is of Japanese and Iranian descent. Thankfully, Gurriel apologized. “I didn’t want to offend anybody,” Gurriel said after the game. “I don’t want to offend him or anybody in Japan… I want to apologize to him.” Phew. Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed, and everyone who did wrong apologized for being offensive and made things right.

My sarcasm might not come across well in written form, so let me be more explicit: THIS IS NOT OKAY. McNair, Gurriel, team personnel and to a large extent, the media, are missing the point. McNair’s and Gurriel’s mistakes were not that they said something that could have offended people. Their mistakes weren’t even mistakes. Their “mistakes” were racist attacks, period. Maybe McNair really meant inmates in a purely metaphorical way. Perhaps Gurriel was simply expressing relief at finally doing well against a Japanese pitcher. (These were the two lovely excuses offered.) Even if we accept these feeble alibis — which, in case you were wondering, I don’t — their actions still reflect their racism. If they made mistakes, the mistakes were that they forgot to cover up. These two men acted wrongly. In apologizing to people they offended, they entirely missed why people are upset. The reason what they did was wrong wasn’t because it could have hurt people’s feelings. What they did was wrong because it was morally reprehensible. Had no one been offended, their actions wouldn’t be any better. By apologizing for offending people, McNair and Gurriel proved to us that they aren’t sorry at all.

To be fair, sports apologies are almost always silly to begin with. A player/coach/executive/owner makes a “mistake,” gets vilified on social media, his public relations guru pushes him (almost always a him; this is America after all) to apologize so that sponsors don’t quit, and we call it a day. Maybe, if the person is especially sorry, they do some work to spread awareness. It’s a tried and true formula that our society has accepted as worthy remorse and penance for the bad deed.

There is a problem here.

This process treats the original act as a mistake, as a moment of thoughtlessness. In reality, the issue is the opposite. The reason why a racist comment or gesture is so harmful is because of the thought behind it. Maybe that thought is implicit, and it only sneaks out because the perpetrator isn’t paying attention. I honestly believe McNair’s comment reflected only an implicit racism. That’s still racist! The Texans players understand. They know that nearly all of the NFL players who take a knee in protest are black. That’s why almost all of them protested this past weekend. I read an article on Sunday asking its readers to try to understand what McNair meant. The article made a strong point that much of the backlash could have come from people quickly reading what McNair said and instantly coming to a conclusion. Yes, we should take our time to understand others. But there’s a flipside too. McNair needs to try to understand what his comment meant for the black people we have oppressed in our country. He needs to come to terms with his own racism. The fact that he thought inmates running the prison was a worthy analogy is plenty bad enough on its own.

Let’s zoom out a little bit. Obviously, this issue isn’t contained to Houston’s sports teams or Houston or even sports. McNair and Gurriel deserve criticism, though they are not alone. Racism is an issue in our country not because it offends people of color but rather because it is unjust. Racism, all by itself, regardless of whom it impacts, is wrong. It’s time for apologies to acknowledge this truth. Our country has experienced protests in the name of race for its entire history. These protests will continue until we own up to the root evil of racism. It’s not enough to free slaves or end Jim Crow laws or commute unfair drug sentences on their own. These measures are a form of apologizing for the ills racism causes, and so they are needed over and over again. What we need instead is to address racism itself. I don’t know how best to do that. But a great place to start could be with some honest, self-aware apologies.

 

Contact Jack Golub at golubj ‘at’ stanford.edu.