An amazingly reckless, offensive piece of "journalism"

Is it acceptable to make derogatory, prejudiced remarks about a group of people based on:

• Their race?
• Their socioeconomic background?
• Where they live?

What if a so-called journalist does all of the above?

In a Phoenix New Times article entitled "Arizona Cardinals Fans, You'd Better Get Ferocious or Steeler Nation Will Eat You Alive," which ran last week, Martin Cizmar says that the "Pittsburgh Steelers are White Trash America's team."

Some more gems from this article:
"It's hard to find a trailer park anywhere in the country that doesn't have a black-and-yellow flag fluttering from the door of a doublewide."

"Pittsburgh's the largest city in the massive poverty-stricken backwoods known as Appalachia, and the Steelers are the only NFL team that plays on Appalachian soil...The heart of the Steelers fan base is in the moonshine-making hills of western Pennsylvania and hollows of West Virginia, and their location colors much about them."

"Thing is, many Steelers fans may be impoverished but they find a way to support their team." [Wow, as far as backhanded compliments go, that might be the most stunningly offensive one I've ever read.]

"...some strings were pulled to have a Terrible Towel waved on the International Space Station (no word on whether the astronaut Steelers fan was part of some experiment to see how hillbillies fare in a zero-gravity environment)."

So let's recap. According to MARTIN CIZMAR, Steelers fans are white trash, impoverished, trailer-park-dwelling hillbillies. He writes that all of these qualities make Steelers fans "the grubbiest, loudest, and nastiest fan base in all of sports."

Fantastic. As someone born and raised in West Virginia, and a resident of Pittsburgh for more than 10 years, how can I even begin to quantify how offensive this is? I think Martin Cizmar's words--the real "trash"--speak for themselves.

The fact that this disgusting article made it past an editor's desk blows my mind.

Stay classy Phoenix.


[Thanks for sharing this, April.]