My thoughts on the Cam Newton controversy. A Black woman named, Gwen, jumped all over Cam and "these priviledged athletes", and it really ticked me off. This was my response. (if anybody is interested):
This hyper sensitivity about all things "women" annoys me. Plus, I have never seen a BLACK female reporter interviewing any of the predominantly Black professional athletes, in the locker rooms or on the sidelines (beyond the highly qualified, Pam Oliver or Lisa Salters), so who's cause am I actually championing?
And as for the "now privileged "athletes, Gwen... do you think they should just be grateful slaves playing for massa and making the owners, the leagues, the vendors, the media, and everyone else trillions of dollars and just keep their nigga mouths shut? Cam Newton in young. Yes. Only 28 years old. And, just like ANY of our sons spontaneously laugh at things they think are funny or ironic, he laughed. So, he should be whipped and put back on the plantation? The girl, herself, has been quietly corrected in the past, apparently for RACIST tweets, but she too is young, so she gets a chance to be quietly corrected and keep growing. But that's the way it's SUPPOSED to be right?.
Cam Newton laughed at IRONY. And yes, it IS ironic for a young, white girl, who has never played professional football, to be asking technical questions of a world class, PROFESSIONAL football player. No less ironic than a bartender getting paid handsomely to interview NASA scientists about their construction of the space shuttle. Yes, they have the right... yes, they can read up on it and maybe ask a competent question... but the premise is inherently ironic and, without a filter, you, the rocket scientist, might spontaneously laugh. Would the laugh be premeditated? Mean-spirited? Worthy of stripping him of his Nobel prize? NO. But, sadly, too many people, including many Black people like you, are willing to revert to the same old, INHERENTLY RACIST fallback that Black athletes, who typically come from impoverished upbringings, should sacrifice their bodies in a relatively short career, and make everybody ELSE.... from their schools, to everybody I mentioned earlier billions and billions of dollars and not even get a slither of the pie for what takes very real skill and ability.
It's called "Supply and Demand". Our CULTURE places a high priority on sports. That's not THE ATHLETE'S fault! If everybody could do what they did, the market would be glutted, and arenas wouldn't be packed with people paying sometimes THOUSANDS of dollars to see them.
But they do.
...so the athletes shouldn't get a part of that?
Would YOU go to work for free? Would YOU laugh at someone, who has never done YOUR job before walking up to you, putting a mic in your face, and asking you questions like they really get what you've trained your whole life for?
How many times has someone been promoted over you who you think doesn't know a fraction of what you do? Would you deserve to be fired for feeling this way? For laughing about it with someone in the breakroom?
Hateful. Angry. Jealous. Small minded people unconsciously trained in the dogma of white supremacy think that Black athletes should be "grateful" for getting proportionately paid to provide a service. Like they should still be minstrels in the old time minstrel shows. .. or gladiators sacrificed to the Lions for the King's amusement.
I don't think they really need little Ole, broke me to stand up for them... but I cannot help but speak out on ANY type of injustice, and this routine villifying of Black athletes in the two leagues dominated by Blacks... the NFL and the NBA, is so clearly unfair. Do hockey players get attacked for their salaries? Do white Baseball players?... Baseball players, traditionally make way more than either of these other two sports. .. the sport is far less physically battering... their careers last longer... and is NOT A sport dominated by African Americans, but I NEVER hear anyone calling THEM "ungrateful", or "privileged", or any other such racist insinuation because somehow they DESERVE the gazillions THEY make. Supply and Demand is fine in THAT sport, but not where Black athletes are concerned. Hyper-vigillance and harsh recriminations are always in order where the mindset is they should be silent, grateful, grinning darkies.
Remember when Don Imus called a group of Black female athletes a bunch of "nappy headed hoes and jiggaboos"? They had THAT mf lie low for a minute then GAVE HIM HIS JOB BACK!... When William Bennet, THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION under George Bush, said that we could reduce the crime rate by sterilizing Black women, THAT mf NOT ONLY kept his job...as the big boss OVER THE LIVES OF OUR CHILDREN, but wasn't even required to apologize. And we won't get into any number of the things that roll off the lips of of other people whose words have actual CONSEQUENCES for ALL our lives... but let a "priviledged" Black athlete do or say anything other than run that ball and tote that barge and lift that hay, and it's how dare these ungrateful darkies.
Question: As a 25 year old white girl (also young), who had also made some regrettable comments (see below), and barely has much LIFE experience, let alone professional accomplishments... what even QUALIFIES her to interview THE ONLY PLAYER IN HISTORY to Win a Heisman Trophy, a National Championship, AND be the #1 NFL Draft pick all within ONE YEAR??? How did THIS little girl get THAT much priviledge?!
Even THAT speaks to the racism in this country. As recently, as the 1950's grown Black men in the south were required to address whites as "Sir" and "Mam" even if they were children! Today, That someone as relatively unaccomplished as this girl, should even get a platform with someone at HIS level, is RACIST. A BLACK woman would have to be a ""Rhodes Scholar"... have been Editor of The Harvard Review... and a completely vetted and approved Twitter feed to even BEGIN to have that kind of access. Who's child is she? What influential person gave HER that priviledge? Hmn?...
Ha! I would have laughed in her face too. #MakeUseOfTheSacrifices
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