Thursday, October 27, 2005
The Conditional Apology
Have you noticed them? They usually begin, "If I have offended someone ..."Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry was understandably upset about losing 48-10 to TCU last weekend. He said the opposing school "had a lot more Afro-American players than we did and they ran a lot faster than we did."
A predictable furor erupted. DeBerry said yesterday, "I realize the things I said might have been hurtful to many people and I want everyone to understand that I never intended to offend anyone."
Check this link for a summary.
Why is it so hard to just say, "I realize the things I said were hurtful to many people," and go from there? It's almost as though the apology is put into a sort of relativistic space capsule, and the person hedges by convincing themselves, "I wouldn't have been offended, and the universe is me, so I'm just saying this bit to save my butt." I look upon it as a finger-crossing behind one's back thing. Childish, but predictable.
DeBerry might've insulted a lot of people other than pc blacks, by the way. What if TCU's Gary Patterson is just a better coach than DeBerry? What if Patterson's a better recruiter of players and assistants? What if the Air Force Academy is more focused on recruiting good officer candidates than good football players?
Why can't an apology be unconditional?
