Cappie Pondexter recently tweeted that the devastation in Japan might be God's wrath for the way they treat their citizens (?) since they did bomb Pearl Harbor and you "can't expect anything less."
Then later after initially defending herself from negative comments, Pondexter apologized for offending anyone.
Props to Cappie for the apology, but I really hope she takes a moment to fully understand just how racist and offensive the original comments were.
What she believes about God's will is her personal business. How she interprets and communicates God's actions into her own beliefs about an entire group of innocent people is an entirely different story. People have used their own interpretation of God's will to justify countless acts of violence throughout history -- it's not an excuse.
Frankly, she's lucky she and the WNBA are not more popular.
If a better known public figure had said something like this, they would be the lead news story and certainly would pay a well-deserved price for their statements. People in public jobs have been fired for less and athletes have lost sponsorship dollars. Pondexter will likely fly under the radar and avoid paying a price for her words.
One thing Cappie said that was spot on, was her plea to not let her actions tarnish the rest of WNBA:
"If you've lost respect for me that's totally fine but please don't let me or my words lose the respect of u the WNBA and what it stands for."
The irony here, of course, is that she's asking that an entire group of innocent people not be held responsible for the beliefs of one of their members.
That's exactly the kind of generalization she made by suggesting the people of Japan deserved their recent devastation. That's exactly the kind of generalization used justify segregation, unequal treatment of women, and much worse.