ESPN-ing Blackness

By: D.K. Wilson

(This is written in reaction to a general feeling of what I consider to be a “defeatist malaise” among people who would want to see truly diverse voices in mainstream media (MSM)…)

Jemele Hill recently wrote a commentary about the NFL and it’s new emphasis on stopping “gang sign” among its players. Beyond its initial two sentences, the piece wavers between a weak criticism of the NFL’s new focus on the ephemeral and outright pandering to the league itself.

The commentary illustrates the fact that truly diverse voices are missing in the mainstream, especially amongst black writers. Hill made the most telling statement some months back during a “First and 10″ segment on its First Take morning show. She was telling Skip Bayless that at one time she was quite the rabble-rouser with thoughts of revolution. Bayless asked her, “What happened?” To which she replied succinctly, “I grew up.”

There is a rich history of truth to power journalism amongst black men and women in national publications. For these writers, “growing up” meant honing their writing to better express their sadness, anger, and dissatisfaction with American society. Growing up meant better perceiving and identifying expressions of racism in every nook and cranny of U.S. culture.

Today, though, those voices do not exist.

And if white people react poorly to, what amounts to a pro-NFL, pro sports league article like Hill’s (as, from the comments after her piece, they did), it is obvious why “ESPN” and “diversity” are an oxymoron. Any writing approaching a true condemnation of the hiring of “experts” to seek out what might be construed as a gang sign and what is not, and these truly ignorant fools would protest in front of ESPN’s Bristol, CT headquarters.

It is then a sad statement of the times that we applaud “practical progressive” or “centrist-liberal” sports writing that at once demeans the efforts of people who are playing the games and cheats MSM readers out of voices that are representative of those who seek truth.

However, Hill’s commentary pales in comparison to that of Todd Boyd. Now, while Hill’s piece was simply placed among others in her archives, Boyd’s piece is highlighted atop ESPN.com’s Page 2 homepage (the homepage has since changed, but Boyd’s piece was spotlighted for at least 12 hours). The premise of Boyd’s commentary, “A Product of Their Times,” is that the raised fist protests of Tommie Smith and John Carlos would not fit in today’s world:

The political climate of ‘68 was also underscored by the military draft. The randomness of conscription meant that practically any young male stood a chance of being drafted into military service and sent off to fight in Vietnam. Though the draft was limited to males, the chance that your loved one might be called up to fight impacted mothers, wives, daughters and sisters. There’s nothing like the possibility that you or someone you love might be sent off to fight a war of choice on foreign soil to create a culture where people are acutely attuned to even the most subtle political shifts.

College students today aren’t rioting in the streets or getting shot down on college campuses because the times don’t support such activities. Neither 1968 nor 2008 exists in a vacuum. For the same reasons, black athletes aren’t doing black-fisted salutes on the victory platform these days, and even if they were it wouldn’t mean the same thing. Again, it’s important to understand all of this in context.

Imagine if Carlos and Smith had staged their protest today. Their image would be used in commercials for sports apparel companies, late-night talk shows would be clamoring to book their first appearance, book deals and biographical movies would be announced, they would make appearances in the latest hip-hop videos. Their gloves would go on auction on eBay. In these commercialized times that we live in, the actions of Carlos and Smith would be simply another pop culture moment to exploit and a further opportunity to cash in on potentially lucrative notoriety. In the ’60s, politics produced culture, whereas today it is the culture that often precedes the politics.

Wrong, Todd.

While it is true that we do not have a draft, what we do have is much worse. We have economic conditions throughout the country that force young men and women of all colors to give up any dream of educating themselves in a college atmosphere. They are forced to choose between menial labor jobs at low wages, crime, or the military. For many young black and Hispanic people in impoverished urban areas, the military becomes the only option other than prison or death.

There is nothing like choosing between the chance that you might die in Iraq and knowing that you will die in America.

While college students - or their parents - are too busy hustling to augment the debt they are already accruing through student loans or, for those who have money, partying and being good consumers, it is the rest of the black populace that is in peril today.

We are not getting gunned down in front of ivy-walled buildings; we are getting gunned down literally and figuratively by the “authorities.” Every killing of a black man, woman, or child by police that becomes more than a local issue is met with a barrage of pro-police FOX News talk and an avalanche of Fraternal Order of Police representatives demanding interviews to flood the airwaves with “their” side of the story. And nearly all endings are in a courtroom with the authority called the “judge” who far too often “judges” that police should be exonerated of any wrong doing in the killing of someone we have come to find had no business being stopped by the police, let alone gunned down on the street. The black writers and activists who might speak out against any U.S. “institution” are assailed in the press and publicly flogged on television and radio.

Today, Tommie Smith and John Carlos would be vilified in the printed press, on talk radio, and on television for making any statement construed as “revolutionary” during the Olympics today. Any endorsement possibilities they might have had would dry up in a heartbeat, and the latest rap or hip hop video using their image would be shunned by mainstream music outlets like MTV and Clear Channel.

A pop culture moment?

No.

Smith and Carlos would be held up as shadow figures illustrating all that is wrong with black athletes and black people today. As they were in 1968, in 2008 the two track stars would be seen as ungrateful “African-Americans”; ungrateful for the “freedoms” they allegedly possess, ungrateful for the opportunity to do what n****** do best - run fast - provided them by a white U.S. Olympic committee to represent their country.

Boyd’s column does serious harm to those people who understand the true nature of media, commercialism and how they intersect with racism in the 21st century. And don’t think ESPN.com’s editors, especially black managing editor, Rob King, weren’t smiling themselves to sleep after reading such tripe.

Ahhh, yes, times have changed, all right. They have changed to the point where, instead of allowing another black columnist to write a rebuttal to Boyd’s black Rush Limbaugh-ish piece, King will call Boyd so the two can walk hand-in-hand to the bank after letting white sporting America know that what real black people feel is that acts of protest in reaction to the state of racism in America today are frivolous and nothing more than planned money-making ploys by any black athlete who would engage in them.

And these are the type of black people who would have white America believe that if Barack Obama is elected president, it is a sign of that we’ve turned the corner on racism in the U.S.

So while the hubbub over Hill’s piece is what grabs people’s attention, Boyd’s insidious commentary, placed right before our eyes has, until now, escaped our attention.

The best way to commit a crime is to perform it right in the face of its intended victims.

———————–

Just this morning ESPN First Take host Jay Crawford interviewed Carolina Panthers wideout, Steve Smith. Crawford took a right turn in his interview and attempted to bait Smith into making a negative statement about his friend Cincinnati Bengals wideout, Chad Johnson.

Crawford wanted Smith to tell the viewers what he would tell Johnson about becoming a “more mature” person and a better teammate. To which Smith replied:

“I don’t really swing like that.”

Smith was saying, in other words, ‘what the fuck is your problem, cracker. Do you really think I’m stupid enough to fall for your want to pit one black man against another for your ego and your show’s ratings - just so some white - or black - writer can tell Chad that even his closest friends don’t approve of his actions?’

Every day black people are being hounded with the goal of being pounded into silence and into submission. It is 2008 and we need more than ever to hold up our black-gloved fists to white America.

And we need to do it every chance we get.

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D.K. Wilson is a freelance sports writer. He is better known on the internet as "DWil," and writes for Sports On My Mind.

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1 Comment

  1. Amen.

    Comment by Kelley on August 1, 2008

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