12/21/24
February 02, 2006
Warriors fire PR manager over "Ghetto Prom" email: Eric Govan meant to send an interesting email to his wife, but accidentally sent it to the Warriors’ entire media distribution list. He was fired shortly after.
Way over the top. He might have been given a pass for sending the funny photos, but with the racist commentary they pretty much have to fire him.
posted by dusted at 12:13 PM on February 02, 2006
Why would you even get this kind of thing sent to your work email address? No kidding. Everyone knows that free web-based mail accounts are for all those lewd, racist, misogynist, and heart-warming email forwards. Or, almost everyone.
posted by rocketman at 12:14 PM on February 02, 2006
Kind of depressing knowing that this is the only way my Warriors can make the headlines....
posted by vbgjr88 at 12:14 PM on February 02, 2006
Those pics are funny no matter what race you are........If people were fired from my job for sending that e-mail, thousands of people would loose their jobs. That e-mail has been going around for years. They are no different than all of the red neck emails that everyone sends!!!!!!!!
posted by Dallas at 12:15 PM on February 02, 2006
I was somewhat comforted to see that bad fashion senses of all races and backgrounds can live in harmony.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 12:18 PM on February 02, 2006
Govan is a fool for sending that forward accidentaly ? maybe it's just the curse of don nelson bittin the warriors organization in the ass again .They need to do an exorcism at the arena in Oakland asap!
posted by trrron at 12:19 PM on February 02, 2006
If people were fired from my job for sending that e-mail, thousands of people would loose (sic) their jobs. You did notice that he sent the email to all the Warrior's media contacts?
posted by dusted at 12:24 PM on February 02, 2006
The commentary was perfect and the truth.
posted by DOGFOODMAN at 12:40 PM on February 02, 2006
The Media list was probably a group in his address book and it was probably one above or below the one he actually wanted in a pull down list. My work email is set up the same way. Which is exactly why I use my Yahoo mail for sending jokes & girly pictures. Of course the Warriors had to fire him for PR reasons.
posted by njsk8r20 at 12:47 PM on February 02, 2006
Would he have been fired if he had sent Redneck prom? NO! So sensitive...
posted by tmart937 at 12:58 PM on February 02, 2006
DOGFOODMAN: The commentary was perfect and the truth. tmart937: Would he have been fired if he had sent Redneck prom? NO! So sensitive... For every funny Andrew Dice Clay routine, there's a couple of neanderthals that take it seriously.
posted by dusted at 01:03 PM on February 02, 2006
and you don't.....dusted
posted by DOGFOODMAN at 01:16 PM on February 02, 2006
Would he have been fired if he had sent Redneck prom? NO! He probably would have if the text was as insulting and derogatory as the one in the "ghettoprom" email. It's probably not the photos that got him in trouble, but the text of the email.
posted by grum@work at 01:32 PM on February 02, 2006
I'm confused about the commentary. Was that Govan's commentary at ByronCrawford.com (linked to by dusted above)? In that case, he actually wrote "jigs in the ghetto"? Anybody who uses that kind of language ever probably should not be working in PR. Or breeding, for that matter, but the Warriors don't have any control over that. Or was that Govan's commentary (and a different set of photos) at House of Debbie.com (linked to by deadspin)? Or Leitch implies in the comments that he used a different link before but changed it to clean it up ... maybe that was Govan's commentary. DOGFOODMAN wrote: "The commentary was perfect and the truth." Well maybe he could Relate to at least one member of the Public.
posted by Amateur at 01:33 PM on February 02, 2006
Isn't this the same guy that made the video of the "not so nice parts of Detroit" and showed it when the Pistons were in town? Maybe I am mixing up idiots.
posted by directpressure at 01:34 PM on February 02, 2006
Ok, I've found our next Southwest Airlines commercial...
posted by chemwizBsquared at 01:34 PM on February 02, 2006
Govan: Oops... Warriors: Step into my office 'cause you're fuckin' fired.
posted by chris2sy at 01:54 PM on February 02, 2006
Amateur, I totally missed the second set of photos and commentary. The one I linked is from 2004, so the second one is probably Govan's. Much less offensive (and much less amusing).
posted by dusted at 02:01 PM on February 02, 2006
I'm not sure any of the commentary is Govan's. I think it's just sort of implied that when send along stuff like this, you approve of the content.
posted by wfrazerjr at 02:13 PM on February 02, 2006
C'mon!Get a grip!Warriors fire this poor sap for that?How about the useless assholes responsible for some of the worst basketball ever played in all of history!!!Dunleavy still starting?signing guard after f@cking guard,and6'7"centers???Shame on you Chris Mullin!No one fired you for being a drunk!Did they?
posted by mdavidsf at 02:28 PM on February 02, 2006
Now wait, is this a joke ot what..? Someone made a reference to redneck jokes,... this is the same thing, and IT IS FUNNY, just like redneck jokes are funny. People, all people, are different, and people have different tendencies from one another. If you get too PC, you get numb. Racism is not ok, but this does not have to be racist... they could have thrown a picture of britney and k-fed up there to make it even funnier. Now... Should this dumbass get fired for making one of the PR mistakes of the millenium? Yes of course he should, when you do some stupid shit like that, you have to pay for it. The whole fucking Media list? start working on your resume buddy, or better yet go back to school, cause you're done in PR.
posted by everett at 03:03 PM on February 02, 2006
just like redneck jokes are funny. Except, of course, to people who they are directed at. Here is a search result of SpoFi where someone has used the word "redneck" in their comments in the past year. Check out how many times people use it as a derogatory statement (usually about NASCAR), and then how many times people object to it being used. Racism is not ok, but this does not have to be racist... they could have thrown a picture of britney and k-fed up there to make it even funnier. But they didn't show a picture of Britney/K-Fed. It was pictures of black high school students and accompanied with inappropriate comments. Not being racist doesn't mean you are "PC". "PC" was originally applied (in a satirical sense) to those that wanted to change "manhole cover" to "personhole cover". It doesn't apply to people who find racist (or sexist) material offensive.
posted by grum@work at 03:48 PM on February 02, 2006
Right on, grum. Reading my own posts makes me realize just how funny I am! The comments were wrong, but those were some fucked up outfits. You know some of the clothes and hair-do's had to cost some bucks. Dude had to be fired. Regardless of what race he offended, you don't send potentially offensive subject matter while your'e at work. Dumb ass.
posted by Desert Dog at 04:07 PM on February 02, 2006
The Warriors had a PR manager?!?!?
posted by irunfromclones at 05:29 PM on February 02, 2006
Those pics are funny no matter what race you are........If people were fired from my job for sending that e-mail, thousands of people would loose their jobs. That e-mail has been going around for years. They are no different than all of the red neck emails that everyone sends!!!!!!!! That is not why he was fired. He was fired because he sent an e-mail filled with way over the top racist commentary to a quite sizeable e-mail list. People do make mistakes, but in this case it is one to big to ignore. Those outfits are hilarious however.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:35 PM on February 02, 2006
Sharonda is looking rather hookerish This implies she seems to be a prostitute. I'm pretty sure both of the kids in this picture are retarded and the pattern on his two weed carriers' This implies all blacks carry weed. Mexican people, like people from most foreign countries, just aren't used to the gulliness of an American diet. That's why their women are blowing up to such epic proportions. This implies Mexicans and all foreigners are obese, and they are beneath averaged sized people. Nice and slutty looking, not unlike the outfit Lil Kim wore This implies this young high school girl sleeps around. Ah, the classic throwback suit and dress. Nothing really says class quite like it. This implies they have no class because they look different. Another white pimp at the hood prom. I don't even want to know whatever it was he had to do to get his gang of black friends to respect him. Whatever it was, I'm sure it was bad This implies all Blacks do is things that are illegal and white people that associate with blacks must commit crimes to be accepted as friends. Finally, this is the most bizarre and, in some ways, the most sad of all of these pictures. Aaliyah showed up to the prom in an outfit specially designed to show off her soon to be born unwanted, illegitimate future convict of a baby. Finally, the most degrading, disrespectful, disgusting comment from the email, implying that all black children are illegitimate, unwanted by their parents and will be nothing more than a criminal. This is one of the most filthy things i have every come across on sportsfilter. And even more unacceptable are the comments stating that these remarks are funny. These are not even subliminal innuendos. They are blatant racially motivated hateful slurs. Its more than offensive. This guy should not have only gotten fired, he should have been forced to read the remarks in front of a group blacks, mexicans, obese people, and homosexuals to see just how funny this shit isn't.
posted by BlogZilla at 05:56 PM on February 02, 2006
BlogZilla: like I said above, it appears Govan sent this, not the linked page from 2004.
posted by dusted at 06:27 PM on February 02, 2006
good to clear that up dusted, but blogzilla's umbrage is still valid considering how many dumb comments were posted in reference to the 1st link before your correction. your mistake may have made your point better than your correction did
posted by ninjavshippo at 06:43 PM on February 02, 2006
Govan needs to get a new scriptwriter, the original was much funnier.
posted by squealy at 07:30 PM on February 02, 2006
Hmm. This article in the Oroville Mercury Register claims that there were 17 photos, and has some direct quotes from the e-mail:
The e-mail was sent at 3:20 p.m. from Govan's Warriors e-mail account. It begins with the line, "Check out the two squad cars and the ambulance in the back ground - there is going to be a PARTY." Other comments included, "is there no dress code for these hoochies??" and "Oh.... My.... hell no!"The description doesn't match either link. If this is the worst that he said then it was not as offensive as the comments highlighted by BlogZilla. However, I read somewhere else that he sent his apology 19 seconds after the original message -- he knew his ass was in the fire.
posted by Amateur at 09:28 PM on February 02, 2006
implying that all black children are illegitimate, unwanted by their parents and will be nothing more than a criminal. No, just that when mom goes to the f-n prom knocked up and by herself, the chances of that drastically increase. There is no excuse for taking an e-mail like this and sending it on to others. If it said "check out some of these outfits!" maybe..."Ghetto Prom" followed by some of those comments, racist, pure and simple. Welcome back RZA/Blogzilla
posted by tselson at 11:02 PM on February 02, 2006
Welcome back RZA/Blogzilla Ha! I was thinking "where have I heard this voice before?"
posted by dusted at 11:52 PM on February 02, 2006
No, just that when mom goes to the f-n prom knocked up and by herself, the chances of that drastically increase. A pregnant black high school student gets a picture taken by herself and you assume she is alone? And because she is alone at the prom it increases the chance that her child will be a criminal? That's ridiculous and offensive. Welcome back RZA/Blogzilla Is this some inside joke or a code? I don't get it.
posted by BlogZilla at 01:03 AM on February 03, 2006
What I'd like to hear/read is commentary on those outfits by the team from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
posted by alumshubby at 05:21 AM on February 03, 2006
No BlogZilla is making an extremely valid point. Those comments were very unacceptable. Plus, if RZA was still here his post would cover half the page and he'd be ranting about racism and his past. Lets just hope Bluekarma (if he is still around) doesn't read this thread.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:51 AM on February 03, 2006
If it was a private email of any kind, and my PR manager sent it out to the entire PR distribution list, I'd fire him, or at least take away his job as the public face of team management. But this one had, at the very least, racist undertones. His job is to make sure the organization never puts a foot wrong with the public. He didn't just do a bad job; he failed completely.
posted by Hugh Janus at 08:44 AM on February 03, 2006
And if you think racist jokes are funny, or somehow valid ("It's funny because it's true?"), you're jumping in the pool for a splash with the Klan and the lynch mob and every hater ever made. Shame on you.
posted by Hugh Janus at 08:47 AM on February 03, 2006
Me personally growing up in LA in south central druing th 80's and early 90's, that was a real shithole "ghetto". I wasn't bothered at all by the pictures but the comments should not have been added. I guess it would've been "better" if there were more stuff in there about hispanics, white people and asians. My experience if you were white you DID have to do some bad stuff to hang out with the raza and the brothas, if not you would just be getting punked. Well anyways i could go on and on like i am sure anyone on here could do, the moral of the story: If you have some things like these on your computer or anywhere don't be a DUMBASS and pass it around, it will eventually get into the hands of people who will get pissed off.
posted by chuy at 08:54 AM on February 03, 2006
Wait a minute - let's not jump straight off the clue train and land in knee-jerk lake here. The email was in poor taste and he was rightly fired for screwing up, but it's okay to laugh at a bit of this. It amazes me how people can be totally outraged at things like this and still manage to watch the news at night and not have their head explode. Teenagers ARE clueless - we can make fun of them. Especially the clothes they wear. Which is what a great deal of these pictures are referring to. Some of the comments go too far - and are not funny, but this is not the work of the Klan - Jeebus, this is like Cindy Sheehan syndrome: Start out saying the President lied; next thing you know you're hugging Chavez in Venezuela and you don't know how the fuck you got there. Let's find that little thing called perspective please. Hey, if all one sees is racism in action, one is dwelling on the colour of skin just as much as the transgressor.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 10:25 AM on February 03, 2006
I thought the email called them "jigs."
posted by Hugh Janus at 10:43 AM on February 03, 2006
Is this some inside joke or a code? I don't get it. No, sorry. Your post reminded me of someone else. My assumption is that she is not married, and yes I am assuming that she went to the prom alone. I may be wrong. When anyone raises a child alone, I don't have to make assumptions that the chances of their child becoming a criminal increase.
posted by tselson at 11:53 AM on February 03, 2006
...but you do.
posted by Hugh Janus at 12:05 PM on February 03, 2006
...but you do. How so? Do you simply choose to disregard statistics? I said "chances." Statistically. Statistics aren't personal, relying on them doesn't equal making an assumption. What am I missing?
posted by tselson at 12:54 PM on February 03, 2006
The email was in poor taste and he was rightly fired for screwing up, but it's okay to laugh at a bit of this. If the email was just the pictures without the commentary, I would have no problem with it.
posted by grum@work at 01:02 PM on February 03, 2006
Something tells me the National Review's statistics might skew the same way as their editiorial politics, tselson. And I'm sure you know what they say about lies, damn lies, and statistics. But to address the issue here, using those statistics to exculpate someone's tarring of a specific person in a run of racist jokes is problematic to say the least. That those chances exist is not in question. That you chose to trot them out to justify a bigoted joke speaks volumes. But then again: "Ghetto Prom" followed by some of those comments, racist, pure and simple. Which is it?
posted by Hugh Janus at 02:16 PM on February 03, 2006
What gets me most about this thing, is that i really suspect most of the people making these grand condemning statements send, forward, and laugh at similar types of emails all the time.
posted by everett at 03:54 PM on February 03, 2006
The email was in poor taste and he was rightly fired for screwing up, but it's okay to laugh at a bit of this. If the email was just the pictures without the commentary, I would have no problem with it. Same here, and I'm guessing that it was the commentary (and the fact it went to a big email list) that he got fired, not for the pictures.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:14 PM on February 03, 2006
What gets me most about this thing, is that i really suspect most of the people making these grand condemning statements send, forward, and laugh at similar types of emails all the time. whatever makes you feel better. at least the warriors have adonal foyle and his quest for campaign finance reform.
posted by ninjavshippo at 05:42 PM on February 03, 2006
tselson, the thing I find most offensive about the one comment is your assumption that this young girl is going to raise her child alone because she is at a prom allegedly by herself. Also forget about the stats and the percentages of a single parent household for a second. The other things mentioned in that comment were "unwanted and illegitimate". That's ridiculous. Now since we can agree that the person who wrote the comments didn't make his statements based on statistics, what do you think he based them on? There are no fools here ( I hope). They were obviously based on the racist stereotype that all black young men are thuggedout criminals. Why attempt to justify these comments? What's next? God forbid she give birth to a Colin Powell or a doctor, lawyer, a Russel Simmons, Michael Jordan etc? Or a soldier that might fight in a war for his country and save the life of a grandchild of yours, or give his own life for his country. There is no justification for the comments at all, and none of them are funny. You are entitled to your own opinion. By the way, there was a young black child that was raised by his mother, she married a man that then assisted her with the raising of her child. The son went on to get a degree, become a police officer, and was selected to 13 consecutive NBA all-star games. He donates a portion of his income to help children and the homeless. He is also a very successful business man. You might know him as Diesel. His name is Shaquille O'Neal. Maybe we should drop him an email and let him know about the statistics regarding young black men that grow up without their father. Better yet, send him the email. He has a sense of humor, lets see if he thinks the comments are funny.
posted by BlogZilla at 08:04 PM on February 03, 2006
sanc-ti-monious
posted by everett at 10:30 PM on February 03, 2006
A-men.
posted by dusted at 10:41 PM on February 03, 2006
Did I once say the comments were funny? Also forget about the stats and the percentages of a single parent household for a second... Done. what do you think he based them on? Simple, racial stereotypes. Sports anyone?
posted by tselson at 10:48 PM on February 03, 2006
Sanctimonious holier-than-thou: making an exaggerated show of holiness or moral superiority. Pointing out why this may be offensive to some makes me sanctimonious? Or providing a case which totally contradicts the stereotype makes me holier-than-thou? Sorry for offering a different view point than the majority here. Did I once say the comments were funny No. You said , No, just that when mom goes to the f-n prom knocked up and by herself, the chances of that drastically increase. This is worse than saying its funny. This is saying that its true. That if a young black girl goes to the prom apparently by herself while pregnant, the chances increase that her unborn child is a, illegitimate, unwanted, future criminal.
posted by BlogZilla at 04:38 AM on February 04, 2006
Blogzilla:, you are siding with, not against the majority.
posted by everett at 07:50 AM on February 04, 2006
Why would you even get this kind of thing sent to your work email address? Anyway, the pictures were funny, but the racist commentary was over-the-top.