Context of Gronkowski-asian fan video makes it look even more blown out of proportion
Rob Gronkowski found himself in some hot water, albeit very shallow, for some comments that he made in a video released by TMZ about a dancing asian fan. Gronk said "they told me he could only cook fried rice" and then also made a reference to the character from the Hangover.
Of course, this bit of joking threw the internet into a light frenzy. This, of course, despite the much more egregrious acts of crime or racism being committed by others in the NFL (Richie Incognito calling a teammate the n word, for instance). This bit of stereotyping upset many people though, who just rushed to the conclusion that the Patriots tight end was some sort of racist.
Not the case. As it always does, some more context to the story paints a different picture than the conclusions that were so readily jumped to earlier this week.
Gronk said he spoke to Asian man in TMZ video, called him Joe, said he's a good friend. Said Joe took no offense to the comments.
— Doug Kyed (@DougKyedNESN) November 15, 2013
Context of the Gronkowski "fried rice" comment: Gronk told Joe prior to TMZ video that he wanted him to jump onto the dance floor...
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) November 15, 2013
...Joe told Gronk something to the effect of, "I can't dance, but I can cook fried rice." So Gronk essentially repeated that over the mic.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) November 15, 2013
More than anyone else, Gronk should be aware of the controversy he can create for the most minor things. For his part, he publicly apologized for the video.
However, given some more context, it doesn't really look like he did anything terribly wrong.
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