Gilbert Arenas, a former NBA point guard and three-time All-Star with the Washington Wizards, described the LGBT community as the "most unfair group walking the planet right now" in a recent interview.
Arenas sat down with Vlad TV for a wide-ranging interview published Monday and talked about weaponizing words, cancel culture and racism. When the former NBA star started to dive into how people have to watch what they say around certain people, he opened up about a problem he sees with the LGBT community.
"I think it’s the most unfair group walking the planet right now. They have a playbook that only they’re playing by. No one else gets to see this playbook, but we’re being judged by everything that’s in this playbook," Arenas said. "But we don’t know it. So, there’s no open dialogue about what is appropriate and what’s not. We only find out after we f--- up. That’s unfair. That’s f---ing unfair. You can’t do that. How do I know something’s wrong until you give it to me?"
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Arenas was asked to give an example.
"Just words, phrases. Like he, she, it, they. … How do we know? You’re making it up as we go," he explained. "There’s not like there’s this f---ing dictionary of updates, and we can sit there, click it and say, ‘All right I can’t say … they took this out. They added this in.’ We’re just learning, right? That’s really unfair that you can cancel somebody on a playbook that only you have."
He then spoke about a hypothetical argument with a person from the LGBT community.
"Like having an argument with someone from the LGB … f---ing suicide. Here’s why – they have the whole dictionary to use against you. They can say whatever the f--- they want. They can, technically, make a straight man gay by saying, ‘You look like a gay guy, you look like this,’ and call you all kind of gay words which is technically offensive, right? To a straight man. As soon as I say something back that’s gay, I’m f---ing canceled. How does that f---ing work?
"Even us talking about it makes us feel uncomfortable because we know there’s gonna f---ing be backlash, but it’s true. You can use whatever vocabulary against me. I get to go back, now it becomes, you get to use, ‘LGB, can’t do that.’"
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Arenas then compared himself to a basketball referee when he saw a straight person and a person from the LGBT community arguing with one another. He said if it is not equal, "then f--- off trying to convince me."
"If I see a gay dude, straight man arguing … all right, let’s go, go at it," he said while he mimicked giving both imaginary people technical fouls. "… I’m not just gonna let you one side and then you get to call him … Like, I see it so much. And I sit there and say, this is f---ing … LGB, you can’t control your f---ing group now. He just called me all kind of f-words and I’m gay and I need to suck this and I need to suck that. If I say that back, I’m done.
"Even though, it seems more real going the other way, right? He tells me to suck his b---s and d---. Whoa, hold on bro. If I say the same thing, I’m pretty sure he likes it so I don’t know how that’s offensive but you see how the s--- can go sideways. I just don’t like situations like that. Like, I’m in the middle and I’m sitting here like … you guys are not playing fair."
The interviewer said he talked to a fellow employee who happens to be gay and told a story of the employee calling a situation gay when he meant stupid or dumb. The interviewer said he would never say that to his fellow colleague.
"When we’re it, we’re allowed to use those words. I’m Black, I can say the N-word. I just don’t like when we can use it, right? … We can weaponize it to you but you can’t push it back. … I just don’t like those type of fights.
"I just believe when you open up the door of something you have to be able to play fair. You can’t play knowing you have an ace in the hole."
Arenas played 11 seasons in the NBA. He averaged 20.7 points, 5.3 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game. He was a three-time All-NBA First-Team selection. In retirement, he hosts a podcast called "Gil’s Arena."
