The Mis-Education of the Black Athlete
Filed under: Blog Entries, Entertainment & Sports, Life, Society & Culture
by Darrell Holmes
The black athlete has held an unenviable place in Sports Americana. He is both respected and feared. Respected for his prowess and showmanship, no one can turn the conventional into the spectacular like him. Feared because his physical stature is only surpassed by the wily passion for competition housed in his eyes. It’s not co-incidence that sports that advertise the Black athlete are also the most profitable. And while America’s love affair with it’s “trophy buck” remains intact, there is no hesitation about periodically reminding him of his place in society.
The recent situations with Adam Jones, Mike Vick, Odell Thurman, etc. are very much of their own doing. Some of them haven’t been formally convicted of any crime, BUT ain’t nobody stupid. A lotta times where there’s smoke there’s fiyah, and these brothers haven’t done the best job of showing they’re candidates for Man o’ the Year.
CONVERSELY, anyone else think it’s ironic that every major villain in sports right now is Black? If it wasn’t for a corrupt, White NBA ref trapped in a gambling scandal, sports radio shows would still be denigrating NBA players for on-court violence, hip hop culture, and all things Ron Artest. Barry Bonds has had every shred of his life nitpicked apart as the media vultures devour his corpse. Michael Vick and Pacman Jones have both shown the ability to be amazingly stupid on their own accord. Still, the witch hunt for Black male pariahs to poster all over your local evening news is hitting an all new high. It almost reminds me of how they used to show the most crazed “colored” folk during on-site interviews when tragic events would happen. Only now the ante is upped because they bringing the po-po’s AND the feds with.
All colors of races have individuals who are frankly just bad people. A few years back NFL tight end Mark Chmura was caught giving an inappropriate post-prom party for his children’s babysitter. Bill Romanowski is a former NFL’er notorious for antics that would be considered assault off the field ranging from spitting in opponents faces to grinding parts of their bodies with his cleats. Hey, isn’t that the same thing Marcus Vick got chastised for a couple years back? Shawn Kemp is a horrible baby-making machine while Tom Brady spreads his All-American gene all over any model or actress willing to hear his Super Bowl stories. Barry Bonds is a liar that “cheats the game”, but THOUSANDS of MLB players knowingly and willingly took uppers for years with the near endorsement of the owners. Hell, Jason Giambi admitted to using steroids but he was given what amounts to one month of probation in the court of public opinion and has had no major threats of federal prosecution or audits from the IRS.
NOTICE: If you’re young, Black, and gifted know this. My parents always told me that as a person of color you’re going to have to do a little better than your melanin-deficient counterparts. That means that you might have to tell your weed-smoking, dog-fighting cousin he can’t live in your house in Atlanta because he always in trouble and he gone mess everythang up for you, your $130 million contract, and Black folks all over the country.
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