Warriors fire PR manager for racial insensitivity

[brinkeguthrie]

Warriors fire PR manager for racial insensitivity

/ Associated Press

Posted: 6 minutes ago

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - The public relations manager for the Golden State Warriors was fired Wednesday for inadvertently sending out a racially insensitive e-mail titled "Ghetto Prom" to the team's entire media distribution list.

Eric Govan, the No. 3 person on the Warriors' media relations staff, sent the e-mail featuring 17 photos, many depicting scantily clad black people in formal attire and commentary on the outfits. The e-mail went to dozens of newspaper reporters, columnists and sports editors, as well as television and radio stations.

"It came to my attention moments ago that one of our employees had inadvertently sent out an e-mail that was in extreme poor taste and completely unprofessional," team president Robert Rowell said in a statement. "I can assure you that the contents of this e-mail - or any unsaid presumptions - do not represent the values and beliefs of the Golden State Warriors organization. The employee responsible for sending this e-mail has been dealt with in an appropriate manner."

Warriors spokesman Raymond Ridder confirmed that Govan is no longer employed by the club.

A call to Govan was not immediately returned Wednesday evening, though he quickly sent out a follow-up apology e-mail.

"You just received a previous forwarded e-mail titled 'Ghetto Prom' that was sent accidentally," Govan wrote. "I assure you that this is totally out of character for myself and want to apologize to anyone who might be offended. My sincere apologies. This won't happen again and shouldn't have happened this time."

Well, he's right about that last part.

[NJTank]

This is a friggin joke I work in an office of mostly black women and they have sent an email like this around all over the place to each other and laughed about it. There has even been ghetto wedding and ghetto birthday and several others.