Jason Whitlock is at it again... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=whitlock/040902 By Jason Whitlock Special to Page 2 Okay, we've heard from everybody. It's official now. The hatred of Team USA basketball had absolutely nothing to do with the collective blackness of the 12 players who comprised the team. If you don't believe me, just ask all the sports writers and radio talk-show hosts who went out of their way to point out that race played no part in America rooting against its own team, and that I'm sick with Johnnie Cochran disease. "Hey, one of my favorite athletes is black. I can't be prejudiced. I rooted for the 4x100 relay team." Based on the response to my USA Basketball column last week, the rock I threw -- the one that claimed the over-the-top hatred and criticism of Team USA was partially a product of America's collective bigotry -- bounced off a lot of dogs' butts. There was just too much barking for no one to have been hit. I've never heard so much whining in my life. Sports writers across the country were fighting each other over the opportunity to go on TV or radio for the privilege of calling me an idiot, and to assure the masses that their hatred of Iverson, LeBron, Duncan, Melo and Boozer is appropriate, understandable and non-racist. America simply hates the two-man game preferred by the NBA. America simply hates tatts and cornrows. America simply hates the fact that Iverson doesn't like to practice. America hates an underachiever. The overall blackness of the team was just a mere coincidence, something no one even noticed until my column ran on Page 2. That the teams shellacking Team USA over in Greece looked a lot like good old American white boys was just another coincidence in America's utter joy at Team USA's struggles. The reaction to my column was just as silly and just as unsophisticated and just as bigoted as the criticism of Team USA that inspired me to write it in the first place. We're so defensive in this country, especially when it pertains to racial issues. No one likes to admit his or her bigotry. Look, we're all racist on some level. All of us. Black, white, red, yellow, brown, whatever. We're all racist, including me. Anybody who has ever had the misfortune of being in the same room with me when Tiger Woods is playing golf knows I'm infected with the germ of racism. Why do I root so passionately for Tiger in a sport that I cared nothing about until Tiger arrived on the course in the mid-1990s? Because Tiger looks like a brother. He looks like someone I might bump into at my family reunion, and I enjoy watching him excel in a sport in which Whitlocks aren't supposed to excel. I guess my critics will tell us next that race played no part in Larry Bird's popularity, and the rivalry between Magic and Larry. My critics also all called B.S. on Bird when he said earlier this year that the NBA would be more popular if the league had more white stars. We deal with our racism in three ways: 1.) Some of us revel in it and look for ways to celebrate and exploit it; 2.) Some of us deny its existence; and 3.) Some of us acknowledge it and try to combat it on a daily basis. No. 3 is the proper, healthy, mature approach. Larry Bird isn't a bad person because he'd like to see more people who look like him play in the NBA. (I'd love to see more guys who look like me date supermodels.) What would be bad is if Bird let that desire supercede doing what's best for the Indiana Pacers, the team he runs. Unfortunately, too many of us have been taught to deny our racism -- believing that if we deny it, it will eventually disappear. It won't. People have been seeing colors and making decisions based on what they see since Eve gave Adam an apple. Denial causes all kinds of problems. America went wild beating up an all-black, underachieving basketball team. For about three weeks, you could say almost any mean-spirited thing you wanted to about Iverson and Marbury and Co. They damn near became honorary members of al Qaeda. You heard it. I've received thousands of e-mails from sports fans -- white and black -- who heard exactly what was being said about Team USA. My original column wasn't about one stupid caller to my radio show. It was about the collective tone of the conversation being held about Team USA. The players were called unpatriotic, lazy and stupid. Rather than sincere analysis of why the team was failing, we all settled for what was easy and, as members of the media, what would drive ratings. Team USA became a vehicle for middle America to make a larger point about race. "Team USA" was a code word, no different than when a broadcaster calls a black player "athletic" and a white player "heady." Team USA represented the black hip-hop culture -- a culture, incidentally, that in my opinion deserves criticism for its many negative influences. I'm no fan of Allen Iverson, a wannabe Tupac Shakur, the talented rapper who died prematurely because he refused to let go of his own stupidity. People wrote me long e-mails explaining why they were uncomfortable with Team USA. A lot of what was said made good sense. Hell, I agreed with most of it. My original column acknowledged that. It's just that we went too far with the hatred. The players deserved our support. They were wearing our colors. Given the situation, they were doing the best that they could. Like it or not, we created our selfish, undisciplined style of play. We reward the NBA, no-fundamentals style of play. We celebrate the NBA style of play every winter night on "SportsCenter." Look in the stands and identify who's cheering for (and paying for) Iverson, Marbury, LeBron and Co. It's immoral to hate what you create. And it's hypocritical and dishonest to deny a key element that's driving the hatred.
I'm not a racist, I hate everyone equally. The white man is trying to keep the other races down. The black and hispanic are more prone to crime. The asians and Jews are all cheap racists. All Arabs are crazy fundamentalist islamic extremists. And the American Indians are all just buying there time to get back at everyone.
I was thinking about posting this when I first read it... what a bunch of garbage. So the black people that hated the Team USA were racist huh? Oh, or maybe their thoughts don't count in Mr. Whitlock's opinion, he is an admitted racist afterall!
I read both articles and thought that both were well written, however, a bit over the board. It is true the SOME people went overboard in the "playa-hata" department and most likely many of them were racists. However, I don't think they were majority, I just think they were most vocal. The majority just didn't care about this Team. The majority was indiffrent, not because the Team was all-black, but because it was a bad team.
Sh*t packaged in a gold plated box is still sh*t. I enjoyed this quote from the Fark comments on the story... "I didn't know SUCK was a race."
I don't understand how good guy Tim Duncan fits into the tattoos and cornorws image the Mr. Whitlock feels that America hates. It is also a little weird that he suggest that the NBA arenas are full of the same fans, even though most teams are mostly black, yet feels the same people buying Iverson and James jerseys would for some reason not like them anymore without a few token white teammates around them.
Im glad someone cleared that up for me. Thing is...now that I know Im atleast a little bit racist......does that mean I have to stop cheering for Ming and McGrady? Or am I just racist when it suits small minded sports journo's?
Count me in there. To your question, now: Why? Because they're a bunch of spoiled kids wanting to win just to get [the medal accolade] on their resumés instead of winning it for their country. That's their belief. The only one that truly deserves it is DUNCAN, but he was shut out and that's the strategy that worked best for all teams.
I thought it was interesting to see how the feedback showed him all the holes in the last article that he patched up in this one. Not that hisa argument had holes, but that his writing was less than clear. Like how he mentioned that it wasn't just about one caller but the whole tone of conversation -- a technical failing in his first attempt. Anyway, he's still an idiot. But, it's too easy for him (the accusation, not the stupidity). When you call someone a racist and they get offended, you can just say, "you just don't want to admit it" or "you're in denial" or "thou dost protest too much." What if it were the case that the accusation was simply off-base? How does one protect themselves from false accusations? "That's what you say, but I know what you really think." BS. And, the axiom that everyone is somewhat racist: nice platitude, but also BS. I don't accept it. I'm sure my opinions differ from the mainstream's. It could be that the rest of America is motivated by racism and I'm not. Even so, I don't appreciate the accusation. And, I think that's the real root of the complaint about the race card. People seem to think it's because it's an easy out. I think it's because it is an accusation of immorality on par with dealing heroin or smuggling guns to guerrillas, and it's made with the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence. Given the gravity of the charge, it should not be something that a person throws about lightly, as Whitlock is obviously prone to do.
I'lll say it one more time like I said for the first article. It's one thing to say that saying that people (in a general sense ) take race, or racial stereotypes into account. That that kind of thing happens is undeniable, especially with regard to the NBA (remember, this is hte league that was "saved" in the 80's, due to consensus opinion that prior to that, it was "too black"). To say that people take that into account doesn't mean thatyou are saying they are cross burning white supremacists, though many of you interpreted it that way the first time around.
I say that you can call people racist if their consideration of race overcomes rational thinking. A. If you say "Team USA plays poorly, they deserve to get beat" there's nothing racist about, that's a pretty rational view of the situation. B. If you say "Team USA is full of tugs, I hate this team I want them to lose", I don't see how that can be rational, it sure smells racist to me. I think the author was calling out the B.-variety people. I think, however, that most people (including myself) are of the A. variety, just that the B. people are more vocal. He didn't make this distinction clear and a lot of A. people got offended. That's all... Similarly if you say "Peja Stojakovich is one of the greatest shooters in the league" that can't be racist, that's a rational statement. However if you say "Erick Piatkowski is a tough defender", a purely irrational statement that is based in no reality whatsoever, that is racist...
On Team USA Duncan just may have been the only "spoiled kid" that you speak of. I don't remember hearing stories of Amare, AI, or Marbury growing up doing pool laps in the Virgin Islands. Oh you must mean spoiled by single parent homes, welfare, low income neighborhoods, survival of the fittest n' stuff. I get it. Furthermore it's pretty weak to assume that you know their "beliefs". That they felt no allegiance to America, that they had no spirit of the Olympics in them and only wanted another trophy. You know their beliefs about as well as you know mine or any other random poster on this BBS. Carmelo seems to be the only one whose priorities may have been out of order. BTW he's 19, where were most of our priorities at 19? Girls? Alcohol? Canabis? Grades just good enough to get by? The club? Remember these are the ones that actually accepted the challenge. They should be applauded for that, not rooted against.
Being proud of your race exists everywhere in this world, but the actual HATE of another race exists only in few places, like U.S. Middle East, and other spots around the world. Its too bad. Some people live their whole lives hating another person based on the color of their skin or hair or eyes... i mean i thought people had brains for a reason..
All I know is I cannot stand to accidentally flip channels and get queer as folk. That drives me nuts. Other than that, I'm cool with races and sexuality.
