When You Watched TV; July 4, 2020 in Salt Lake City

When you watched TV over the July 4 holiday weekend in Salt Lake City, you didn't see this news on TV because Utah State University, a public school owned and operated by the state, opted to withhold certain information that a white football player at their school reportedly used language with a black player in a Snapchat that some might consider offensive and racist. 

On a weekend when inroads appeared to be made, Morgan Scalley was reinstated as Utah Utes assistant coach, but lost his head coach in waiting title and $500,000 of his salary because of racist remarks he had made to several players in 2014. Scalley was visibly remorseful for his actions, but the actions by a Utah State football player--for which that player wasn't remorseful at all--needed be not only examined but explained. 

When you watched TV, you probably wanted to know the name of the player so that you could do some research for yourself and learn more about who he was and what he had done, and why he felt he should say what he said. Instead, the football program at Utah State kept the discipline in-house over the weekend and the information private, suspending the player indefinitely--similar to the same tack the Utah football program took with Coach Scalley. 

“This will not be tolerated and we have suspended the player immediately,” according to a joint statement released Sunday by Utah State athletic director John Hartwell and head coach Gary Andersen, “and pending investigation will take immediate action.” That people wanted answers from the Utah State football player wasn't anything new, yet the fact that the person's identify wasn't revealed over the holiday weekend provided some clues on how serious the offense was. 

When you watched TV on Monday night, it was revealed that the Utah State football player who participated in the racist language was Ty Shaw, a 6-foot-4-inch, 300-pound offensive lneman out of Herriman High School here in Utah. He has been playing with the Aggies since 2016, and played in nine games last season. 

As you can see from the 247 Sports article which contains the entire exchange that originated on Snapchat, Shaw started the conversation by wishing all of his friends a Happy 4th of July. However, it quickly devolved into a debate with Dylan Bennet, a former Snow College player and ex-teammate at Herriman High. In sum, Bennet--who is biracial--argued that Shaw's greeting didn't hold water because the Declaration of Independence only liberated white people. To which Shaw replied: “Y’all have months dedicated to ur oppressed asses and still so greedy to have more purely cause history didn’t treat your ancestors right. Y’all think ur above everyone else now but acting like you don’t have s---. Crazy how y’all people think.”

When you watched TV this past weekend, you saw many instances of people working on bettering their lives and the lives of others in the name of social justice. Donovan Mitchell was the first local professional player on this weekend to lend his support to a problem he's witnessed personally as a black athlete in Utah. “There’s a certain stigma — there’s no secret about that in Utah — and obviously the comments didn’t help,” said Mitchell of the now-infamous Juneteenth and BLM posts a few Jazz fans made. “But us as athletes want it to be known that we won’t stand for any of the racism and whatever else comes with that.” 

In response to another fan who refused to follow the Utah Jazz so long as they supported the BLM movement, Rudy Gobert--who as a Covid-19 survivor has stayed mostly silent during Covid-19 and the George Floyd unrest--said thusly on Twitter: "If you don’t think that Black Lives Matter then maybe you shouldn’t watch us in the first place..." And in their continued support of BLM, the NWSL Challenge Cup tournament continued down in Ty Shaw's hometown of Herriman at the Zions Bank Stadium, as the stars and stripes flew and the players kneeled pre-game during the playing of the National Anthem. 

When you watched TV on your phones as it recorded the fireworks festivities amid clouds of celebratory smoke that perhaps clouded the judgments of a few in the Salt Lake Valley, you also saw many others rising well above the gray, working as a team in their efforts to address and combat systemic racism and social injustice. Scalley is a good person, added one former black Utah football player on a KSL Crimson Corner football podcast, but he just needs to listen to and learn more from black people in general before drawing his own conclusions. 

Ty Shaw is still young and far from racist, argued family members, because he has a great relationship with a black relative. "He gets good grades, does community service, loves his family (of all colors) and loves his country," tweeted Wayne Bateman, a cousin of Shaw's. Just as Scalley has said he's learned from his mistake, perhaps some education is needed for Shaw, added Bennet, who reportedly bragged to friends about getting Shaw suspended by supplying the information to Utah State officials. "...And do your own research my own WHITE dad said the same s*** among other white people who are actually educated," Bennet told Shaw on Snapchat. "IDK why its so hard for you to do the same."