For those of you who fervently believe the Riley Cooper incident is being overblown, and everyone simply needs to move on, I have some bad news.
It's not going away anytime soon.
Cooper, through his ugly use of the N-word in a nasty confrontation with a security guard that was captured on videotape, made sure of that.
The reverberations continued yesterday. Some teammates are now saying they remain troubled by what he said. Coach Chip Kelly admits it could be a distraction. The team said they have reached out to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and that Cooper will undergo sensitivity training.
You can read the update here, as well as columnist Jack McCaffery's feelings on the team giving Cooper a second chance here.
The hope by all is that this now becomes something of a "teachable moment."
They're going to need a bigger classroom.
If there is one thing that the Cooper story struck home to me, it is just how wide the gulf remains when it comes to race.
It is hard for me to fathom hearing one person after another try to downplay what Cooper did and said, the anger and passion that filled his actions.
They are quick to trot out the excuse that black people call themselves the N-word all the time, and that no one makes such a fuss when a white person is referred to as a cracker or white trash.
Of course not.
It's not the same. It just isn't. There is history involved here, people.
It is the one word that you simply can't use. I don't care what color you are. The sooner we learn that, the sooner we'll come to closing that gulf.
Here is our editorial position on the Cooper saga.
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