Yeah credit for being a good football player. He also needs to be slammed like every other athlete that has abused drugs, had a family full of criminals, refused to mentor a new teammate and has thrown more int’s then anyone else in the history of football. I would say that just about covers it! Then he would be treated like the black athletes in the media!

September 19th, 2007 at 2:00 am
Joshua Holmes #20

“Only those who benefit from a rigged system in their favor actually believe anything in America is a meritocracy.”

That’s what’s up, Kev, damn!

Uh, Kev, Uh, can a brother get a loan?:)

Great interview…

KevDog #21… Amen.

“And the media outlets often make room for those people because they’re saying what they want people who look like us to say. So some people have figured that out. It doesn’t only happen with black journalists. I see female journalists do the same thing.”

Whitlock’s cashing in big time from this mentality.

ED #24
Exactly.

“Every time they see a black face, they believe, “Hey, he probably got hired because they’re black, or whatever. Nobody wants to know or take a look at a person’s body of work.”

What I don’t understand is that successful blacks obviously resent being seen as affirmative action hires – and rightfully so – but don’t speak out against the system that tars them. Affirmative action feeds the idea that blacks can’t compete with whites, and successful blacks spend years fighting that label. Why fuel the fire?”

See this is what I’m talking about. White folks are so inculcated with the notion that their view of the universe is the only one that they come on here and make stupid statemen ts like this.

Dude

A. It has never taken AA for white folks to question us or to feel superior or resentful. AA is simply the latest prop/excuse for white male racial antagonism.

B. Contrary to what you’v e been led to believe, we blacks actually are aware of how white racial nepotism-AA for whites- is the absolute rule of the day and is the single biggest contributor to your economic and political power.

C. As as extremely successful black, I’ll be damned if I’ll speak out against the only tool that actually counters, to a degree, white racism and racial nepotism.

D. You’d undiubtedly be shocked, shocked I say, to discover that for blacks like me, the first thing many think of when we see a white male in a position of power is that he got that position primarily because of white racial nepotism.

E. Only those who benefit from a rigged system in their favor actually believe anything in America is a meritocracy.

F. I don’t give a care in the world whether a people whose conception of justice is pathetic at best wonders how I got to where I am.

What I don’t understand is that successful blacks obviously resent being seen as affirmative action hires – and rightfully so – but don’t speak out against the system that tars them. Affirmative action feeds the idea that blacks can’t compete with whites, and successful blacks spend years fighting that label. Why fuel the fire?

They don’t know their history; they don’t know the struggle, that’s the sad part. When Shaquille O’Neal said to (one of the “NBA’s 50 Greatest Players”) Lenny Wilkins, “Hey Lenny, you really know a lot about basketball. Did you ever play?”

I hope this is a joke. Shaq’s got a wicked sense of humor.

And they never talk about how a white athlete needs to go back in his neighborhood and build a community center, and do this and do that.

I agree with this. But, I don’t see the pressure to give back coming from white journalists. The pressure I see comes from black journalists. A successful black athlete who doesn’t send half his paycheck home gets ripped apart in the black media: he’s “forgotten his roots”. I’ve never heard a white journalist say this about a black athlete (or a white one, for that matter).

“I always turn to the sports section first. The sports section records people’s accomplishments; the front page nothing but man’s failures.”

It seems as though that couldn’t be farther from the truth anymore.
————————————————————————————-
The interesting dynamic that I get from Parker talking about trying to convince other black journalists to get their basbeball HOF card certainly seems to be how black journalist (or really any journalists at all) think of themselves.

I always get the impression that Wilbon prefers to think of himself as a journalist before a black man. Where Parker’s feelings about himself seem to be clearly the opposite.

In modern times, I think that is one of the questions that plague many people of all walks of life. Sometimes to the affect that you wonder if some people even think of themselves as a human before their occupation, or whatever else keeps them motivated.

When I lived in Michigan I really wasn’t a fan of Parker’s Radio show ( More of a Terry Foster Mike Vellinte guy) , but his talent for prose and insightful thought can’t be denied.

I really looking forward to his book after reading this

(Leaves kicking himself for still not reading 40 million dollar slaves by William C)

Terrific read.

Great OJ article today. I thought the current nonsense was approaching absurdity but with the latest twist, kidnapping charges!, it’s blown past absurdity straight into bizzaro world.