Not sure how to consider this BBC article

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#1

This tidbit showed on the BBC website, an announcer at a HS girls basketball game spouting off about some players’ kneeling. The article alleges that the announcer used a racist slur and profanity to decry the kneeling players, which were caught on live stream. The announcer blamed his outburst on blood sugar spikes from his Type 1 diabetes.

The episode and attitude are objectionable enough, but to blame it on spiking sugar? It feels like there’s enough misinformation out there and this only adds to it. I know one can become combative if their sugar is low – but when spiking??

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#2

I was sad and angry when I saw this today. The guy blamed his racism on his high glucose levels. I read the comments and people were furious with him. No one believed that his diabetes was the cause of his racism. A few people with diabetes explained that high glucose levels don’t cause people to act like idiots.

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#3

Although some T1s experience strange behavior when they are low, I’ve never heard of anyone getting weird when high, let alone spouting unintended slurs. For myself, extreme lows, besides making me a bit confused, and maybe leading me to talk rapidly, it has never led to me blurt anything. My guess is that he was reaching for something to defend himself with, but I am simply a sample of one. It would be great if the rest of the community could chime in.

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#4

Doing or saying something stupid that you regret later has happened to all of us (a la eat the refrigerator, anger when we accidentally drop something due to confusion) to one degree or another when hypoglycemia strikes, but from blood sugar spike, I don’t buy it for a moment. But what do I know as after 31+ years of living with this crud and seeing so many variants, still learning something new from time to time but I just can’t stretch my imagination to accept this as more than a mere cowardly excuse that tarnishes the credibility of diabetics worldwide. Very Sad indeed!!! :sob: :sob:

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#5

He was totally off base. No excuse. But I have felt impatient and “mad at the world” when I am fighting an unpredicted BG spike. There’s no spike that would cause me to lose my mind like this guy did, though.

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#6

I would respect the announcer much more if he had just admitted his racism instead of laying blame somewhere else.

I don’t believe in the cancel culture that exist today. one slip of the tongue and a career can be canceled it is a shame it has come to this. We are all, all people of all races, racist to some degree, if you deny it you are lying to yourself. It is human nature to treat those that appear different differently.

The closest anyone can come to being non-racist is to admit that you are and take positive steps to deny your racism. I have practiced this for years but I am always one step away from a moment when the conditioning of my past might come through.

If this were to happen the honorable thing for me to do would be to apologize for my momentary lack of control over my inner racist. The worst thing I could do would be to make up a silly excuse.

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#7

I attribute his statement to something I have never experienced, as a LADA. I get stupid when my bg gets below 50 and say some weird things, but the only issue I had when my bg was at 475 and my A1C was 14.7 was dry eyes. But I do not know how high his blood sugar was as he was speaking. On the other hand he blamed something else rather than taking responsibility for his actions. It just makes me sad.

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#8

I am amazed at how many people just keeping lying instead of coming clean, saying they are sorry and won’t do it again.
I remember the steroid, growth hormone nightmare that was baseball. So many never came cleaned but I was thrilled when Andy Pettitte came clean, he apologized and he is not talked about in the negative any longer vs all the other players that still have that cloud hanging over them.
All this guy needed to do was to say he was wrong, he was sorry and would work at making it better. But no, it’s not his fault, it’s his diabetes?! Really?! In my 50+ years I have never had brain issues with highs just lows. Highs just make me feel like crap.
I am very tired of diabetes being thrown under the bus once again.

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#9

Appreciate the Community’s contributions here.

It’s only too bad stupidity and ignorance aren’t painful.

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#10

I don’t excuse his behavior. I think sugar swings generally exaggerate who we already are.

I do have some mood shifts from high sugar. Just today I had my site fail. I was high for several hours getting as high as 350.

I think I was also moving into DKA. I felt awful, my skin hurts I get headaches and somewhat confused.

Luckily I was able to take lots of insulin to bring myself back down. It always takes a lot of insulin in these cases.

So I can believe he was possibly in an altered state. Or that the story was reported incorrectly.

Still he said racist things because he probably thinks that way in private. His sugars just moved the veil away to show us who he is.

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#11

I think he probably just didn’t know his voice was being recorded/broadcasted at the time. I’m assuming he was exchanging snarky “elite white boy’s club” remarks with someone else in the box, something probably done many times before, and got caught doing it.

I’m with the JDRF in their recent tweet: “There are a lot of symptoms of high blood sugar, racism is not one of them.”

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#12

:+1:

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#13

Removing the veil over a long-standing problem is a good analogy. There has been a lot of that lately.

Yes, I’ve had some foul moods when blood sugar spikes (maybe for the 2nd or 3rd time that day) & does not seem to respond to insulin. Never dreamed about taking it out on someone else, let alone on a completely unrelated topic.

#14

Twinkie Defense, and it somewhat worked as the murderer got off with 5 years for involuntary manslaughter even though they knew he preplanned it. People will believe him, it just depends how many and who.

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#15

Okay, so we all now have an excuse for any of the objectionable things we do. "Oh wow! I must have been spiking, ( :crazy_face:but please don’t ask to see my cgm screen.)

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#16

I couldn’t have said it more concisely myself. I’ve had all kinds of issues with both highs and lows, but the notion that a blood sugar swing can suddenly cause a racist streak to develop where there was none before is just asinine. It just pulled back the curtain and showed us the man behind. Better to own it and apologize, as others have said.