But IS the context different? Do we know Cooper's mindset or his intention? I'm not so sure.
Frankly, I find the entire notion that someone should have their entire career ruined because they opened their mouth and something stupid once to be completely absurd. We have become the United States of the Offended and we're worse off for it. And you're right about the black rappers. As extreme and hurtful as a word may be, you cannot take a word and say this is off-limits in society to the point that even newscasters refer to it as "the N-word" and then have every hit hip-hop song full of its usage, regardless of the context.
Supposedly Cooper was going off on a black security guard, so it sounds like there was some intent there. But even if there wasn't, intent doesn't really matter when a white person says that word. Like it or not, there is 400 years of hate-filled context there that is missing when black guys use it on each other. That still doesn't excuse their perpetuation of the term all across pop culture, or when black guys use it in the locker room right in front of their white teammates. Right or wrong, if someone hears it enough, eventually they're going to feel comfortable using it themselves.
And while I agree with the
notion that someone shouldn't have their career ruined by something like this, the
reality is that Cooper is employed by an organization that is 75% black, and it is very unlikely that he can ever be fully accepted in any locker room again. If he were a hockey player or a NASCAR driver, he could probably just sit out a short suspension and move on with his career. But not as a football player.
Steven A Smith actually had a very good take on this today (shocker, I know).
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=9528310