Essay 635

Rocking the boat with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Minnesota Vikings players Fred Smoot and Bryant McKinnie pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges from the infamous boat party last October (see Essay 476). Smoot allegedly used sex toys on women, while McKinnie performed oral sex on another partygoer. “Hopefully next year’s party will be at the children’s hospital,” said a prosecutor on the case. Hide the children.

• A federal appeals court decided former Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson was not fired for being Black with attitude. Richardson charged the school terminated him after comments made during a 2002 press conference. Richardson had said, “See, my great-great-grandfather came over on the ship, I didn’t. And I don’t think you understand what I’m saying. My great-great-grandfather came over on the ship. Not Nolan Richardson. … I did not come over on that ship, so I expect to be treated a little bit different. Because I know for a fact that I do not play on the same level as the other coaches around this school play on. I know that. You know it. And people of my color know that. And that angers me.” Richardson was fired four days after making the statements. However, school officials insist they decided to ship out Richardson prior to his speech. Interestingly, the school chancellor’s last name is White.