Whether he actually did mean it as an experiment or not only he actually knows, but it did yield at least one interesting observation--we love to hate.
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| @SBNationGIF/Twitter |
Boycotting sportscenter til this michael sam nasty ass shit is off .... My brothers are 7 and 11 and saw that!!! #SICKENING
— marshall henderson (@NativeFlash22) May 12, 2014
Im sorry, but I DO NOT AGREE WHATSOEVER that should be shown to where innocent eyes can see!!!
— marshall henderson (@NativeFlash22) May 12, 2014
After receiving a good amount of hate-tweets he sent this one out:
POINT #3: Who is the worse person, me for what I said or any of the HUNDREDS who just cursed me?? LOL uh oh... #ThisIsFun
— marshall henderson (@NativeFlash22) May 12, 2014
Eventually he shared his true purpose with the world--it was all a social experiment for a friend of his that is gay and working on a graduate degree in psychology. He asked Marshall to say them as part of a study.
As far as what I said, Totally was 100% for the project ... as far as my ACTUAL views - its irrelevant because its gonna happen regardless!
— marshall henderson (@NativeFlash22) May 12, 2014
Sorry for messing with everyone like that!!! Everyone really helped my boy AND FOR THAT WE ARE EXTREMELY APPRECIATIVE!!!
— marshall henderson (@NativeFlash22) May 12, 2014
The general perception of course is that he is lying ands just trying to back pedal after receiving so much back-lash. These folks must not know who Marshall Henderson is. During his tenure at Ole Miss he thrived off of controversy. Without being able to read his mind and knowing for certain it is probably safe to say he had fun with it.
So why would he back off of one now?
Not everyone disagreed with him, and some athletes tweeted similar but softer responses to the same thing. Heck, it cost Miami safety Don Jones some money and all he said was 'horrible' and 'OMG.'
What is interesting though is the number of people that disagreed with him and took the opportunity to lash out instead. Several choice comments can be found in the comment section of Bleacher Reports post, but what is even more telling are the responses journalist from Yahoo! Sports and CBS Sports made:
Marshall Henderson playing more defense now than he ever has in a basketball uniform.
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) May 12, 2014
Nobody will care who Marshall Henderson kisses on NBA draft day. He won't get picked.
— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) May 12, 2014
As professionals that work for respected news outlets should they be lashing out and attacking someone? They can disagree with what Henderson said all they want, but there comments had nothing to do with his tweets.
These guys were just being catty and vindictive.
One guy from the Clarion-Ledger went as far as to try and disprove Henderson's claim about it being for a school project:
Important to note about Marshall Henderson's excuse: finals were last week.
— Hugh Kellenberger (@HKellenbergerCL) May 12, 2014
I didn't see anything that said it was for finals in Henderson's timeline, but even if it was graduate work does not always fall under the same guidelines. It is not unusual for a final project to be extended past the official end of the semester.
So what we have here is a person that expressed a view and has summarily been attacked, ridiculed, and vilified for doing so. His view is not unusual or uncommon, but since people disagree with it they have made several attacks against him--not his comments, but him.
We take hate (real or not), and respond to it with even more.
Yes, his comments have been attacked as well and it is the right of those people to do just that, but when we try to influence someone by attacking the person and not the words we cross the line. We start to veer dangerously close to mob rule instead of one that involves rules, structure, and respecting rights.
Especially the rights of those we disagree with.
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