You know, there’s a lot of talk about declining rates of African-Americans in baseball and basketball. Many of those conversations discuss the inherent racism that is still deeply ingrained in our country. This is not one of those conversations.
I was pretty shocked to see Jason Whitlock’s article today on Fox Sports, in which he says that teams like the Patriots and Colts have the fewest African-American players on their roster and it is not a coincidence.
African-American football players caught up in the rebellion and buffoonery of hip hop culture have given NFL owners and coaches a justifiable reason to whiten their rosters. That will be the legacy left by Chad, Larry and Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and all the other football bojanglers.
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Hip hop is the dominant culture for black youth. In general, music, especially hip hop music, is rebellious for no good reason other than to make money. Rappers and rockers are not trying to fix problems. They create problems for attention.That philosophy, attitude and behavior go against everything football coaches stand for. They’re in a constant battle to squash rebellion, dissent and second opinions from their players.
You know why Muhammad Ali is/was an icon? Because he rebelled against something meaningful and because he excelled in an individual sport. His rebellion didn’t interfere with winning. Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, etc. rebelled with dignity and purpose.
What we’re witnessing today are purposeless, selfish acts of buffoonery. Sensible people have grown tired of it. Football people are recognizing it doesn’t contribute to a winning environment.
Huh, so being selfish, clowing around constantly, and attacking your team and coach in the media isn’t conducive to winning? You get that Kobe?
Overall, I guess I was just shocked that when given the ability to write about the Colts and Pats having the lowest counts of Afro-American players that Whitlock didn’t do the cheap and easy thing and play the race card; he actually, for once in the media, presented the logical fact that yes, your actions do have consequences. Unfortunately for many aspiring football players at all levels, the actions of players like Larry Johnson and T.O. could propagate such a negative stereotype about Afro-American football players in America that in ten to twenty years the stereotype they created will serve to bring racism fully back into football in a big way.
So it’s a bit early for the Klan to retire T.O.’s 81 jersey because of the irreparable damage he is doing to the image of the black athlete, especially because if more writers like Whitlock can get people to realize that T.O., Michael Vick, Chad Johnson, etc. are the exceptions to the rule and not representative of the whole, we can make this trend as short lived as Ron Artest’s rap career. So just like we don’t hold the actions of Ryan Leaf against Peyton Manning and Tom Brady - and let’s face it, Babe Ruth was no saint but we still love him - we need to remember not to lump all black athletes in the categories with the Artests, Owenses, and Johnsons. Because in the end if the Colts and Pats are truly “whiting” their team because they are buying into this stereotype than it’s a lot more than cameras on the sidelines that’s going to have to be explained.
- NFL truth: Hip-hop culture hurting NFL (Fox Sports)
4 responses so far ↓
1 dpc1994 // Oct 19, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Ummm, Whitlock DID play the race card. He just didn’t play it in the direction that most would assume a black sportswriter would. If Whitlock wants to earn petty points with a certain readership, I won’t stop him.
But I have been paying attention to his early career when he pissed off Mike Lupica on ESPN’S “The Sports Reporters” by refusing to blame Barry Bonds for the steroid era.
I was paying attention when he dissed Notre Dame for firing Ty Willingham to sign Charlie Weis.
I was also paying attention when he bashed American sports fans that rooted against Team USA basketball while rooting for the US Ryder Cup golf team.
At some point, Whitlock found that it was easier to gain readership by being the black sportswriter that inevitably and predictably sided against black coaches, players and political figures in an effort to gain a mainstream audience. It was transparent.
Since Whitlock isn’t running for any office, the people that consider him some sort of even-keeled beacon of right-minded thinking on racial issues have had the wool pulled over their eyes. None of the people that jock him these days have bothered to look at any of his early writings. If they did, they wouldn’t necessarily be so quick to jump on his nuts and ride like Zorro.
This latest bit of pablum that he’s fed the mainstream fails to recognize that “hip-hop culture” lives on all over the world. If you’ve ever been to Japan, you’d know that those kids consume, emulate and relate to hip-hop culture. They wear the Sean John, they pop the collars. Suburban America has consumed hip-hop and pissed their parents off for over two decades all over this country.
Read Whitlock at your own risk. His rantings are just as toxic as the Nas and Mos Def he doesn’t want youth to listen to. And, by the way, I’d never jock someone that preaches respect for women (in hip-hop lyrics and videos) while he files the column from his laptop sitting in a strip joint with a Henny and coke at the ready.
Read his old columns. He practically worships his lifestyle of Playboy parties at the Super Bowl and kicking it with bimbos at Maxim parties.
What a phony.
2 eric // Oct 20, 2007 at 9:42 am
Thanks for the info… it’s really the first thing of Whitlock’s I’ve read.
As for the race card, it’s probably a difference of opinion; I typically reserve that phrase for when skin color is the only reason given.
Anyway, I just thought the article was interesting as I’ve never thought about something like that.
Argue against his body of work all you wan’t, no one can argue against “What we’re witnessing today are purposeless, selfish acts of buffoonery.” That’s really my only point that I like from it; that it’s one thing to rebel when you have a good cause but too many players are rebelling for rebellion’s sake and its getting old.
3 Squash » Blog Archives » Cyrus Poncha's squash blog // Oct 24, 2007 at 10:01 am
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4 Signal to Noise // Oct 26, 2007 at 1:06 am
Nuts to Whitlock. It’s amazing how he lumps in athletes who’ve not committed any wrong (show me T.O., Chad, or Larry’s rap sheets) with Pacman Jones. He’s everything dpc said he was, and much worse.
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