[Makarov]

Originally Posted by Crown Royal

I think you are reading way too much into a quote.

I'm a rap guy, have been since the late 80s. When I started listening to gangsta rap my dad said something that started almost exactly the same as Peters' quote and it wasn't at all racist in nature.

My dad said something like "I'm tired of this n ####. All they say is n this, and n that. I don't want you listening to music that uses that word." At which point he threw my NWA tape out of the window of the car. With the way Peter's apparently tried to mock the lyrics, my gut says it was something along the same lines that intended, but executed it terribly and without tact.

Writing someone off as a racist because of a quote that can be interpreted in multiple ways, is a pretty negligent way to decide someone is a racist.

He said racially intensive things while at work, he should have been terminated for that. This whole thing is a PR nightmare for the Flames and thus he should be fired for that.

But none of this is enough to fairly label him anything.

Here is the allegation from Aliu:

‘Hey Akim, I’m sick of you playing that n----- s---,’ ” Aliu told TSN, with Peters, who was then the Ice Hogs head coach, referring to Aliu’s selection of hip-hop music. “He said ‘I’m sick of hearing this n-----s f------ other n-----s in the ass stuff.’ ... When Peters then called Aliu into his office to talk about it, Aliu said Peters did not apologize. Instead, Peters again expressed his displeasure in Aliu’s choice of music for the dressing room, with Aliu saying Peters said: “You know, I’m just sick of this n----- s---. It’s every day. From now on, we need to play different music.”

So, you're asking me to believe that Bill Peters found the frequent use of the word "N#####" in hip hop music to be offensive (to him as a white person) and inappropriate, that he did not want to hear that word in the dressing room any more, and to communicate these important concerns to the one black person in the dressing room, he needlessly and gratuitously used the word "N#####" directly to the one black person in the dressing room at least three or four times? Sorry, but that explanation does not have the ring of truth (to me).

EDIT: To be clear, I don't think that "Bill Peters hates black people". I do however think that, at the time the statements were made at least, Bill Peters likely had, consciously or unconsciously, some prejudicial attitudes about race (and black people specifically).