This is too much:
Op-Ed: The Truth
by Desi Cortez
As a sports fan, I'd like a little enlightenment from the sports columnist/talk-radio host fraternity. I'm a little mystified, somewhat distressed by your whole sector of journalism and broadcasting which refuses to tell it like it really is.
How can such highly educated, enlightened students of America's pastimes, day-end and day-out, minimize, if not dismiss the obvious racism which fuels issues from Barry Bonds tying and soon eclipsing the Bambino's sacred record, to the significant role race plays in the NFL's owners recent halting of "all the shuck'in and jiv'in the colored boys put on down there in the end-zone"....
Why can't sports analyst discuss the prominent role of racism within the sports this nation loves? We all hear the suburban sigh of relief - Europe is producing white basketball players who can compete with the likes of Allen Iverson, now white guys can come back to the NBA - to root for the all- white teams....
Why are Michael Vick and Don McNabb so debated? Why was Texas QB Vince Young's low IQ, and high athletic ability all the talk in sportsbars and barbershops across the country? Why is the NBA ignored and ridiculed by NHL loving white guys?
Why has this nation yet to honestly discuss how a chunk of America turned it's back on the Men's Olympic Basketball Team? Unquestionably a treasonous Benedict Arnold like act on the behalf of this nations rank and file Rednecks, But one the sportsworld refuses to examine.
Am I to naively believe, after 45 years as a Black man, that somehow the so-called unexplainable low number of Black head coaches in both the NFL and the NCAA Division I and II football are exactly that - unexplainable?
Please, it is common knowledge why Black head coaches are found so few and far-between - it stems from - owners, corporate sponsorship, alumni and the vastly vanilla fan base simply being uncomfortable with a Black man in the crows nest. The American aristocrats, who govern over the sport of football, are simply not at ease with handing the helm over to a Black man. It is no more complicated than Blacks are strategically excluded from decision making positions.
Black folks are deemed just not bright enough, we lack intelligence, discipline, diplomacy, top-tier social knowledge and graces. As a people, we just don't have enough business acumen to steer the ship.... We can just make it go really fast.
For so-very long this country has operated on the belief Black people, and most other people of color, were lacking those vital characteristics. Thus explaining our absence from the ranks of leaders or heroes. We are currently demonstrating these were lies and falsehoods told by little men....
But these pointed angles are marginalization , only mentioned in passing by Euro-American columnist and host. Paid thin lip-service to. Just enough to say you did, but, you really didn't. The never-ending quest for any Great White Hope is so-very obvious, yet, in a Gumby like fashion, spinelessly denied.
Barry Bonds is receiving hate-mail akin to what Hammer'in Hank Aaron received when he crushed the Bambino's record, over a quarter-century ago. And they tell me, times have changed. I guess so, Fans aren't throwing black cats on the field...yet.
The treatment Bonds is afforded, is sadly a dramatic illustration - mainstream America (white folk), to a significant extent - remains cold, indifferent and downright hostile towards Black folks, especially towards arrogant, *******y, and opinionated ebony gladiators, who may have smeared Superman Cream on his Black behind.
What is Barry actually symbolic of? The defiant, uncontrollable Mandingo gladiator. This unsettles and makes uncomfortable - everyday white folks, be they journalist or fans. Bonds is not a sympathetic player, because he does not know his place...
Jack Johnson set the tone, Paul Robeson - the athlete, was of this mold, of not knowing his assigned place. Jim Brown was, and remains - uncontrollable. As is Boston Celtic great Bill Russell and former Hoya basketball Coach John Thompson labeled too uppity. Tommy Smith and John Carlos at the 68 Olympics embodied the defiance. Roberto Clemente and Ali proudly enshrined it.
White America, as history bares out, prefers it's Negroes more humble and docile. Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, and OJ - in his day, were considered the standard, idea Black athlete. The late boxer Floyd Patterson was another, and George Foreman. Today we have either buffoons and gang-sta clowns like Allen Iverson and Ron Artest or conforming non-controversial Black athletes like Jordan or Tiger. Here are two who would never take a stand or make a statement, which might irritate or exasperate the mainstream American establishment, thus threatening the thickness of their bank accounts. And none could hold Arthur Ashe's jock...
Black American culture comes in many flavors and expressions - many of which intimidate, and sometimes agitate white people. The confidence, coolness and showmanship a great many Black athletes bring to their sport, runs counter to the "ah golly, gee, shucks" Joe Dimaggio /Payton Manning demeanor preferred by Euro-American popular culture.
My personal belief; this social quagmire has a lot more to to do with sex, sex and sex. The Golden Boy getting the golden-haired pom-pom girl is now today a bronze boy, and that's the fear White men have held for 400 plus years...
An example; The NFL's Chad Johnson's sideline proposal last year to the beautiful blushing bengal cheerleader that is employed by the sports media recently in "visual bites" to illustrate "out of control behavior" .
Or, recall Terrell Owens with the Desperate Wives blond beauty. No question, this type of interaction ignites the ire of Archie Bunkers in suburban sportsbars all across America. Those visuals represent the cornerstones of this nations internal conflict - Black men winning the hand of white women - but white guys don't want to discuss to what lengths they went to in order to maintain their false domination of sports.
What was OJ really guilty of? Well, 25 years earlier, the lynch-mobs or police might have hung him - for just taking a gander at any Nordic princess.... Please don't try to tell me what is at the bottom of Black and white male relations, we all know.
Stop me when I'm lying...
Why was American society so manipulated and orchestrated? To perhaps preserve and protect White guys manhood, social status and clout?
White America, yes, including sports journalist, will never tell it the way it really is; White athletes were given records, stats and accolades - they didn't earn. Instead, they artificially dominated sports by strategically excluded their primary competitor - Blacks. I can make the argument, all day, till the Saints win the Super Bowl - Johnny U, Ty Cobb, Slangin' Sammy Baugh and the Galloping Ghost may not have even made the starting lineup if men like Woody Strode, Cool Papa Bell, and Josh Gibson were allowed to play.....
And speaking of cheerleaders; Black cats in Barbershops all across America are wondering when will Sports Illustrated do an in-depth story into why there are so few Black cheerleaders in the NFL? Once more, I'm ask to believe it is unexplainable as to why the most athletically gifted, graceful, rhythmic and shapely creatures on the planet - just aren't as gifted as Barbie from Boston or Rebecca from Kansas.
I know, that's not a story to the 54 year old white- guy fan base with disposable dead presidents, so it is not a story ....
Why can't the keepers of the games we play, peel back the layers, and reveal the sports world is but another arena of competition which reflects so many of America's very noted social ills, biases and woes....?
[url]http://blacksportsnetwork.com/articles/features/Opinion_0521 06.asp[/url]
Op-Ed: The Truth
by Desi Cortez
As a sports fan, I'd like a little enlightenment from the sports columnist/talk-radio host fraternity. I'm a little mystified, somewhat distressed by your whole sector of journalism and broadcasting which refuses to tell it like it really is.
How can such highly educated, enlightened students of America's pastimes, day-end and day-out, minimize, if not dismiss the obvious racism which fuels issues from Barry Bonds tying and soon eclipsing the Bambino's sacred record, to the significant role race plays in the NFL's owners recent halting of "all the shuck'in and jiv'in the colored boys put on down there in the end-zone"....
Why can't sports analyst discuss the prominent role of racism within the sports this nation loves? We all hear the suburban sigh of relief - Europe is producing white basketball players who can compete with the likes of Allen Iverson, now white guys can come back to the NBA - to root for the all- white teams....
Why are Michael Vick and Don McNabb so debated? Why was Texas QB Vince Young's low IQ, and high athletic ability all the talk in sportsbars and barbershops across the country? Why is the NBA ignored and ridiculed by NHL loving white guys?
Why has this nation yet to honestly discuss how a chunk of America turned it's back on the Men's Olympic Basketball Team? Unquestionably a treasonous Benedict Arnold like act on the behalf of this nations rank and file Rednecks, But one the sportsworld refuses to examine.
Am I to naively believe, after 45 years as a Black man, that somehow the so-called unexplainable low number of Black head coaches in both the NFL and the NCAA Division I and II football are exactly that - unexplainable?
Please, it is common knowledge why Black head coaches are found so few and far-between - it stems from - owners, corporate sponsorship, alumni and the vastly vanilla fan base simply being uncomfortable with a Black man in the crows nest. The American aristocrats, who govern over the sport of football, are simply not at ease with handing the helm over to a Black man. It is no more complicated than Blacks are strategically excluded from decision making positions.
Black folks are deemed just not bright enough, we lack intelligence, discipline, diplomacy, top-tier social knowledge and graces. As a people, we just don't have enough business acumen to steer the ship.... We can just make it go really fast.
For so-very long this country has operated on the belief Black people, and most other people of color, were lacking those vital characteristics. Thus explaining our absence from the ranks of leaders or heroes. We are currently demonstrating these were lies and falsehoods told by little men....
But these pointed angles are marginalization , only mentioned in passing by Euro-American columnist and host. Paid thin lip-service to. Just enough to say you did, but, you really didn't. The never-ending quest for any Great White Hope is so-very obvious, yet, in a Gumby like fashion, spinelessly denied.
Barry Bonds is receiving hate-mail akin to what Hammer'in Hank Aaron received when he crushed the Bambino's record, over a quarter-century ago. And they tell me, times have changed. I guess so, Fans aren't throwing black cats on the field...yet.
The treatment Bonds is afforded, is sadly a dramatic illustration - mainstream America (white folk), to a significant extent - remains cold, indifferent and downright hostile towards Black folks, especially towards arrogant, *******y, and opinionated ebony gladiators, who may have smeared Superman Cream on his Black behind.
What is Barry actually symbolic of? The defiant, uncontrollable Mandingo gladiator. This unsettles and makes uncomfortable - everyday white folks, be they journalist or fans. Bonds is not a sympathetic player, because he does not know his place...
Jack Johnson set the tone, Paul Robeson - the athlete, was of this mold, of not knowing his assigned place. Jim Brown was, and remains - uncontrollable. As is Boston Celtic great Bill Russell and former Hoya basketball Coach John Thompson labeled too uppity. Tommy Smith and John Carlos at the 68 Olympics embodied the defiance. Roberto Clemente and Ali proudly enshrined it.
White America, as history bares out, prefers it's Negroes more humble and docile. Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, and OJ - in his day, were considered the standard, idea Black athlete. The late boxer Floyd Patterson was another, and George Foreman. Today we have either buffoons and gang-sta clowns like Allen Iverson and Ron Artest or conforming non-controversial Black athletes like Jordan or Tiger. Here are two who would never take a stand or make a statement, which might irritate or exasperate the mainstream American establishment, thus threatening the thickness of their bank accounts. And none could hold Arthur Ashe's jock...
Black American culture comes in many flavors and expressions - many of which intimidate, and sometimes agitate white people. The confidence, coolness and showmanship a great many Black athletes bring to their sport, runs counter to the "ah golly, gee, shucks" Joe Dimaggio /Payton Manning demeanor preferred by Euro-American popular culture.
My personal belief; this social quagmire has a lot more to to do with sex, sex and sex. The Golden Boy getting the golden-haired pom-pom girl is now today a bronze boy, and that's the fear White men have held for 400 plus years...
An example; The NFL's Chad Johnson's sideline proposal last year to the beautiful blushing bengal cheerleader that is employed by the sports media recently in "visual bites" to illustrate "out of control behavior" .
Or, recall Terrell Owens with the Desperate Wives blond beauty. No question, this type of interaction ignites the ire of Archie Bunkers in suburban sportsbars all across America. Those visuals represent the cornerstones of this nations internal conflict - Black men winning the hand of white women - but white guys don't want to discuss to what lengths they went to in order to maintain their false domination of sports.
What was OJ really guilty of? Well, 25 years earlier, the lynch-mobs or police might have hung him - for just taking a gander at any Nordic princess.... Please don't try to tell me what is at the bottom of Black and white male relations, we all know.
Stop me when I'm lying...
Why was American society so manipulated and orchestrated? To perhaps preserve and protect White guys manhood, social status and clout?
White America, yes, including sports journalist, will never tell it the way it really is; White athletes were given records, stats and accolades - they didn't earn. Instead, they artificially dominated sports by strategically excluded their primary competitor - Blacks. I can make the argument, all day, till the Saints win the Super Bowl - Johnny U, Ty Cobb, Slangin' Sammy Baugh and the Galloping Ghost may not have even made the starting lineup if men like Woody Strode, Cool Papa Bell, and Josh Gibson were allowed to play.....
And speaking of cheerleaders; Black cats in Barbershops all across America are wondering when will Sports Illustrated do an in-depth story into why there are so few Black cheerleaders in the NFL? Once more, I'm ask to believe it is unexplainable as to why the most athletically gifted, graceful, rhythmic and shapely creatures on the planet - just aren't as gifted as Barbie from Boston or Rebecca from Kansas.
I know, that's not a story to the 54 year old white- guy fan base with disposable dead presidents, so it is not a story ....
Why can't the keepers of the games we play, peel back the layers, and reveal the sports world is but another arena of competition which reflects so many of America's very noted social ills, biases and woes....?
[url]http://blacksportsnetwork.com/articles/features/Opinion_0521 06.asp[/url]