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Don Cherry’s Bigoted Rant Was Racist Depending On The Color Or The Thickness Of Your Skin

Nov 10, 2019
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If you missed Don Cherry encourage people to buy poppies during Coach’s Corner in the first period of the Leafs shootout loss last night, here you go.


I’ve had 10 hours to marinate on Don’s unfortunate rant. I’ve also spent the first 20 minutes of my morning spilling coffee on my foot, thumbing through tweets from mentally superior, virtue-signalling fuckwads to get some perspective.
Full Disclosure: I’m white. I’m a honkey of the honkiest proportions with 40 plus white male life experience and perspective so I IMMEDIATELY lose the right to tell anyone of color this ISN’T racist. I’m also an Immigrant to this country who doesn’t always wear a poppy this time of year (lazy/forgetful yet well-intentioned).

Both my Grandparents fought in WW2 for England. My Mom still has Shrapnel from The Blitz she found in her back yard of my Grandparent’ home in London, England. While the color of my skin doesn’t make Don’s statements racist to me.  It’s just a shitty generalization with zero upsides during a national hockey broadcast.  My Grandparents, Great Uncles, and Aunts all sacrificed what every Canadian sacrificed so Don could have that platform to come off glib, lazy and apparently ‘Unfit’.  I have thick skin, though, so I’m good


My Grandfather’s name was Bill Malindine. His Brother’s name was Edward. Both were embedded with the British Army taking turns fighting and documenting the war through a lens.
Edward was first into Hitlers Bunker, while he and my grandfather are responsible for some of the world’s most iconic photos from the second world war.

 

My Great Grandfather fed ground to air gunners ammo, shooting down German planes, killing Geman pilots who ejected safely. It was a real family effort with cricket bats and rocks.

Where Don’s rant becomes racist is in the personal interpretation of his comments.

Let me do the mental math for you:

If you’re a white immigrant, meh. If you are an immigrant of color, It’s racist and a shitty way to be stereotyped during a hockey game. It’s especially shitty if you are an immigrant of color whose family fought for the same freedoms Don is using to shit all over you and your family.  Therefore it’s racist.

(And btw, you can show your support for the sacrifices Canadians and Allies made with a heartfelt social media post or a Poppy avatar.  I prefer that to a real poppy and that has nothing to do with me being an immigrant.  Plus, I keep losing them and stabbing myself.)

I can almost guarantee Don’s latest misstep might be his last. You can call him what you need to and use him to virtue signal showing all your virtual friends in the process how fucking ‘with it’ you are OR you might have been genuinely hurt by Cherry’s comments and that’s allowed too.

Just stop telling me and everyone else what it is we have to take from Coach’s Corner and how to frame it according to your social media account.  That just makes you look an uneducated, small-minded pussy who hides in online masses looking for a place to happen.  I personally don’t find it racist but depending on the color and thickness of your skin, it was.


Don saying all immigrants don’t appreciate poppies is a stupid big brush to paint with, but so is trying to convince me I have to be racially offended by it. I’m not but it doesn’t mean you can’t be.
I’m a privileged white male who hasn’t experienced racism, therefore, telling you Cherry’s statements are NOT racist is irresponsible.
Oh, and let’s have a moment of silence for Ron McLean here too.


Racist by association. That’s a good one. Now sitting in stunned silence trying to do your job is racist. Coward cheap-seat tweets rule.

You, fucken people, are crazy. Keep it up.  Especially if you’re the same losers who voted for Prime Minister Blackface.

Dean Blundell

Dean Blundell is a Canadian radio personality. Best known as a longtime morning host on CFNY-FM (The Edge) in Toronto, Ontario. In 2015 he was named the new morning host on sports radio station CJCL (Sportsnet 590 The Fan). Dean started his career in radio in 2001 and for nearly 20 years been entertaining the radio audience. Dean’s newest venture is the launch of his site and podcast which is gaining tremendous momentum across North America.

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