Adrien Broner put on a boxing clinic for twelve rounds on NBC over the weekend. His critics have put on a display of political correctness 24/7 on Twitter since his postfight interview.
Utilizing his controversial “can man” persona live on primetime network television, the 30-1 junior welterweight informed after soundly defeating John Molina: “Anybody can get it—Africans, Mexicans.” NBC, forewarned of Broner’s antics, cut him off.
After he beat Carlos Molina last year, Broner unleashed a more vulgar, pay-cable version of the “can man” routine that he performed Saturday night on NBC. “I’ve beaten Africans,” the junior welterweight explained, “and I just beat the f— out of a Mexican.” Vulgar? Sure. Inaccurate? Definitely. He merely outboxed Molina. Racist? No.
The World Boxing Council, whose belt Broner did not hold at the time, suspended the slick boxer in non sequitur fashion. The Mexico City-based ranking body maintained that it “holds human equality as its banner.” Broner, the group insisted, “has offended many persons of the world.” As many people in using the word “Mexican” as corrupt, alphabet-soup boxing organizations have offended in diluting the word “champion”?
On Saturday night, Broner didn’t scream words normally whispered, after coast-is-clear, left-right looks, that mean “blacks” and “Hispanics” to mean people. He used “African” and “Mexican,” two words hitherto understood as denoting groups of people without demeaning them. And as the Can Man proclaims, “Anybody can get it.” The equal-opportunity pugilist won’t discriminate in taking on Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Africans, Antarcticans, Toucans, Mercuricans, Neptunicans, Republicans, Vulcans, Muricans, Tomatocans, etc.
Adrien Broner didn’t insult anyone. His critics insulted everyone’s intelligence.
Culturally conditioned to take offense to any acknowledgment of race or ethnicity no matter how benign, the Twittericans reflexively denounced the boxer’s alleged insensitivity.
Adrien Broner (who spoke to Breitbart Sports in 2014 in the clip above) provides plenty of which to take legitimate offense. He flushes twenty-dollar bills down the toilet. He appears in the obligatory celebrity sex tape (or two). He boasts five kids (at last count) and no wife. He doesn’t, as Sugar Ray Leonard points out, “close the show.”
On the question of the Can Man, Adrien Broner appears more sinned against than sinner.