Marcellus Wiley’s Response To Jason Whitlock’s Black KKK Piece

Received an email from Marcellus Wiley’s management that contained a response to Whitlock’s superficial, devoid of solutions, pandering once again to the masses, get that money piece. I asked if I could post the reply on TSF and fell asleep before receiving an answer. Marcellus sent me a text this morning stating: “Yes. Please do. Put it everywhere.”

There are folks who admittedly love Jason Whitlock. He does the work for those sick of racism claims by Blacks. “He says what we think but can’t express ourselves because we’ll get called racists,” they conveniently say. Maybe it’s because you are racist. You ever think of that?

Don’t be scared to speak or speak ’cause you’re scared. Offer solutions. Do something besides patting a money grubbing journalist with an agenda on his back.

Blacks are sick of this BS! Jason Whitlock does not speak for US. He speaks for himself. Blacks want solutions. There are all kinds of church services, tributes and megaphone led marches going on in ‘hoods across America that don’t get publicized. We do not want to hear blame hip hop, the ‘hood or nonsensical Michael Vick comparisons when a 24 year old father lay on his death bed and eventually passes. Really Jason, what does your empty rhetoric solve? How do we get pass this? If you or anyone else in the media doesn’t have anything constructive to offer, then shut the hell up until facts are presented. Let the people sort out information. Be responsible in your reporting instead of going after the money. Don’t most of you criticize athletes for the same damn thing? How are we as Americans going to get pass this cancerous and potentially harmful racial dichotomy if all this BS continues? The timing of Whitlock’s piece smacks of opportunistic this should get us some hits boss nonsense and devoid of reverence and sensitivity for Sean Taylor. The man saved his family and should be applauded for providing the ultimate sacrifice–his life. The masses will never be affected by Black tragedy and for whatever reason, this is who Whitlock loves to speak to.

Thanks Marcellus for giving us a professional athlete’s perspective. Marcellus has literally been in the competitive trenches and because of his engaging personality, has encountered a myriad of people throughout his career. If anyone knows the true pulse of what’s happening on and off the field, trust it’s Dat Dude. There is a need for more current and former pro athletes to chime in when the media attacks their collective credibility. We don’t see this type of reaction from those on the playing field because some are concerned how being outspoken might affect their playing status as well as their endorsements. Someone has to step up and face media cynicism and fortunately Marcellus Wiley has offered relevant words when they are truly needed.

Dat Dude’s response:

Sean Taylor WILL Rest in Peace!!!

I thought it was impossible to kill the dead…

The loss of a human being, father, son, boyfriend, teammate, and friend should make any heart-beating homo sapien reflect on their own mortality and thank God for the blessing and gift that accompanies every breath of life. Underlining these humbling moments of reflection on the deceased should be offerings of sympathy, honor, and homage for the victim. All of us must be respectfully cognizant of the family that has to live with an irreplaceable void in their lives and hearts.

Despite an individual’s heights or shortcomings; people traveling down the road of life need to always respect other passengers on the road. Respect should especially be given to those who have crossed their destiny’s finite finish line. To mentally use a highlighter in hindsight to solely show previous indiscretions in search of judicial direction or public understanding during a time of remorse and healing throws a lower blow than Andrew Golota, to say the least.

Unfortunately, this week I have witnessed such heartless acts being woven into the reporting of the Sean Taylor slaying. Before pertinent details and facts began to unfold, some of the most trusted members of the media intellect decided to give a post-game report on one human beings life. To attempt to sum up his life with accolades, achievements, and police reports is as senseless as saying you saw the Super Bowl when truly you only read the newspaper the next day. Jason Whitlock of FoxSports.com lead this charge into an abyss of mystery and speculation, solely supported on rap sheets and insensitive opinions. Opinions that attempted to correlate the KKK with the social ills that are creeping into our professional sports culture. Do you hear of a CEO’s death from lung cancer and immediately tally up the number of cigarettes they inhaled over their shortened life in condemnation, before they are buried? Despite the glaring correlation, the absence of tact in this style of reporting is more striking than the enlightenment and judgment you strive to receive from the reader and/or viewer.

No more negative attention should be mis-appropriately placed on another victim, especially one apart of my professional sports fraternity. I will not partake in it. That will be left up to the reporters who stress fame first and facts second, shock value before sensitivity.

My question is why inject that lack of compassion into this arena, at this time…in the hopes of waking up Black America?

I was described by Whitlock as ‘singing the tune’ when I mentioned on Espn’s First Take and the Mike Tirico radio show that “athletes are targets”. Without knowledge of the facts of Seans’ particular case mounting in support of my argument, I made the statement based on the intelligence of being a 10-year veteran of the NFL. I have not only studied my sport in regards to the X’s & O’s, but more valuably, I lived in it! I didn’t need to interview sources to state the facts of the sports culture and the ills that surround and permeates through it. My only homework needed was recollection.

So it deeply troubles me when speculation motives in sensationalism in regards to the sport and the people that are members of my fraternity. Simply stated, it collides directly with my life and my circle of concern.

Sports were a means to an end for many of the players we currently celebrate nightly on Sportscenter. Being born in Compton and raised in inner-city Los Angeles, I’ve lived a first-hand perspective of the subtractions that gangs, poverty, drugs, and violence has on the human race AND black culture. Oh yeah, back then they called us “Boyz-n-the Hood”.

Sean Taylor is not the first football player that I have played against that has died by the hands of another person. Sadly, I’ve had teammates miss seasons in the past, and not because of injury, but because of their own death. Murdered! I’ve personally had to lay terrified on an open grass field for a half an hour before one of my football games during warm-ups while the spray of bullets came to a halt. How should I rationalize this? A wise-woman once told me, “You can’t make sense out of non-sense.”

So the attempts in correlation of Seans’ past and this incident seemed to me untimely. If you thought you were going to solve his murder by reading off his misdemeanors or felonies over a loudspeaker for the crowd of public court to jeer, we’ve all been proven assumingly wrong. This case has sadly turned out to be an armed-robbery gone tragically wrong. It was committed by four youths, who in a flash turned Sean Taylor from a hard-hitting safety into a homicide victim. And they weren’t the haunting ghosts from his ‘criminal past’ that everyone feared. Instead, these young kids’ mal-intentions placed a bulls-eye on Sean’s success, wealth, assets, and absence from home. Yes, he was a target!

I guess Whitlock is right. Taylor’s death, like his news headline stated, is “a grim reminder for us all”. Yeah, it’s a reminder all right. It reminds me that not only are there villains in this world who unfortunately put their energy into destruction, but there are also still people who are thoughtless enough to destroy the lives of the living and memory of the deceased with an inept justification such as a checkered past, a zip code of residency, or a skin color.

But, since I’ve been avoiding the so-called ‘Black KKK’ for 33 years, and not just reporting on it, please, please keep the reminders to yourself next time! Trust me, I would much rather report and read about the life of the glass that’s half FULL. The Taylor family and I both agree that the EMPTY glass reminders are too painful!

Respectfully,

One of the Boyz-n-the-Hood! (…Now called Soulja Boys)

Rest in Peace Sean….and my prayers go to all you’ve touched in your life,
myself included.

Marcellus Wiley
Columbia University CC’ 97
All-Pro Defensive End 1997-2006
Espn NFL Analyst

Thanks Eddie and Marcellus. Here’s an interview Marcellus did with TSF.

*12/6 An interview with Jason Cole of Yahoo sports will be posted soon further discussing this issue.