ESPN-ing Blackness
July 22, 2008
(This is written in reaction to a general feeling of what I consider to be a “defeatist malaise” among people who would want to see truly diverse voices in mainstream media (MSM)…)
Jemele Hill recently wrote a commentary about the NFL and it’s new emphasis on stopping “gang sign” among its players. Beyond its initial two sentences, the piece wavers between a weak criticism of the NFL’s new focus on the ephemeral and outright pandering to the league itself.
The commentary illustrates the fact that truly diverse voices are missing in the mainstream, especially amongst black writers. Hill made the most telling statement some months back during a “First and 10″ segment on its First Take morning show. She was telling Skip Bayless that at one time she was quite the rabble-rouser with thoughts of revolution. Bayless asked her, “What happened?” To which she replied succinctly, “I grew up.”
There is a rich history of truth to power journalism amongst black men and women in national publications. For these writers, “growing up” meant honing their writing to better express their sadnss, anger, and dissatisfaction with American society. Growing up meant better perceiving and identifying expressions of racism in every nook and cranny of U.S. culture.
Today, though, those voices do not exist.
And if white people react poorly to, what amounts to a pro-NFL, pro sports league article like Hill’s (as, from the comments after her piece, they did), it is obvious why “ESPN” and “diversity” is an oxymoron. Any writing approaching a true condemnation of the hiring of “experts” to suss out what might be construed as a gang sign and what is not and these truly ignorant fools would protest in front of ESPN’s Bristol, Connecticut headquarters.
It is then a sad statement of the times that we applaud “practical progressive” or “centrist-liberal” sports writing that at once demeans the efforts of people who playing the games and cheats MSM readers out of voices that are representative of those who seek truth.
However, Hill’s commentary pales in comparison to that of Todd Boyd. Now, while Hill’s piece was simply placed among others in her archives, Boyd’s piece is highlighted atop ESPN.com’s Page 2 homepage (the homepage has since changed, but Boyd’s piece was spotlighted for at least 12 hours). The premise of Boyd’s commentary, “A Product of Their Times,” is that the raised fist protests of Tommie Smith and John Carlos would not fit in today’s world:
The political climate of ‘68 was also underscored by the military draft. The randomness of conscription meant that practically any young male stood a chance of being drafted into military service and sent off to fight in Vietnam. Though the draft was limited to males, the chance that your loved one might be called up to fight impacted mothers, wives, daughters and sisters. There’s nothing like the possibility that you or someone you love might be sent off to fight a war of choice on foreign soil to create a culture where people are acutely attuned to even the most subtle political shifts.
College students today aren’t rioting in the streets or getting shot down on college campuses because the times don’t support such activities. Neither 1968 nor 2008 exists in a vacuum. For the same reasons, black athletes aren’t doing black-fisted salutes on the victory platform these days, and even if they were it wouldn’t mean the same thing. Again, it’s important to understand all of this in context.
Imagine if Carlos and Smith had staged their protest today. Their image would be used in commercials for sports apparel companies, late-night talk shows would be clamoring to book their first appearance, book deals and biographical movies would be announced, they would make appearances in the latest hip-hop videos. Their gloves would go on auction on eBay. In these commercialized times that we live in, the actions of Carlos and Smith would be simply another pop culture moment to exploit and a further opportunity to cash in on potentially lucrative notoriety. In the ’60s, politics produced culture, whereas today it is the culture that often precedes the politics.
Wrong, Todd.
While it is true that we do not have a draft, what we do have is much worse. We have economic conditions throughout the country that force young men and women of all colors to give up any dream of educating themselves in a college atmosphere. They are forced to choose between menial labor jobs at low wages, crime, or the military. For many young black and Hispanic people in impoverished urban areas, the military becomes the only option to prison or death.
There is nothing like choosing between the chance that you might die in Iraq and the knowing that you will die in America.
While college students - or their parents - are too busy hustling to augment the debt they are already accruing through student loans or, for those who have money, partying and being good consumers, it is the rest of the black populace that is in peril today.
We are not getting gunned down in front of ivy-walled buildings; we are getting gunned down literally and figuratively by the “authorities.” Every killing of a black man, woman, or child by police that becomes more than a local issue is met with a barrage of pro-police FOX News talk and an avalanche of Fraternal Order of Police representatives demanding interviews to flood the airwaves with “their” side of the story. And nearly all endings are in a courtroom with the authority called the “judge” who far too often “judges” that police should be exonerated of any wrong doing in the killing of someone we have come to find had no business being stopped by the police, let alone gunned down on the street. The black writers and activists who might speak out against any U.S. “institution” are assailed in the press and publicly flogged on television and radio.
Today, Tommie Smith and John Carlos would be vilified in the printed press, on talk radio, and on television for making any statement construed as “revolutionary” during the Olympics today. Any endorsement possibilities they might have had would dry up in a heartbeat, and the latest rap or hip hop video using their image would be shunned by mainstream music outlets like MTV and Clear Channel.
A pop culture moment?
No.
Smith and Carlos would be held up as shadow figures illustrating all that is wrong with black athletes and black people today. As they were in 1968, in 2008 the two track stars would be seen as ungrateful “African-Americans”; ungrateful for the “freedoms” they allegedly possess, ungrateful for the opportunity to do what niggers do best - run fast - provided them by a white U.S. Olympic committee to represent their country.
Boyd’s column does serious harm to those people who understand the true nature of media, commercialism and how they intersect with racism in the 21st century. And don’t think ESPN.com’s editors, especially black managing editor, Rob King, weren’t smiling themselves to sleep after reading such tripe.
Ahhh, yes, times have changed, all right. They have changed to the point where, instead of allowing another black columnist to write a rebuttal to Boyd’s black Rush Limbaugh-ish piece, King will call Boyd so the two can walk hand-in-hand to the bank after letting white sporting America know that what real black people feel is that acts of protest in reaction to the state of racism in America today are frivlous and nothing more than planned money-making ploys by any black athlete who would engage in them.
And these are the type of black people who would have white America believe that if Barack Obama is elected president, it is a sign of that we’ve turned the corner on racism in the U.S.
So while the hubbub over Hill’s piece is what grabs people’s attention, Boyd’s insidious commentary, placed right before our eyes has, until now, escaped our attention.
The best way to commit a crime is to perform it right in the face of its intended victims.
———————–
Just this morning ESPN First Take host Jay Crawford interviewed Carolina Panthers wideout, Steve Smith. Crawford took a right turn in his interview and attempted to bait Smith into making a negative statement about his friend Cincinnati Bengals wideout, Chad Johnson.
Crawford wanted Smith to tell the viewers what he would tell Johnson about becoming a “more mature” person and a better teammate. To which Smith replied:
“I don’t really swing like that.”
Smith was saying, in other words, ‘what the fuck is your problem, cracker. Do you really think I’m stupid enough to fall for your want to pit one black man against another for your ego and your show’s ratings - just so some white - or black - writer can tell Chad that even his closest friends don’t approve of his actions?’
Every day black people are being hounded with the goal of being pounded into silence and into submission. It is 2008 and we need more than ever to hold up our black-gloved fists to white America.
And we need to do it every chance we get.
Comments
37 Responses to “ESPN-ing Blackness”
Got something to say?
dwil, an old school
“Right on, right on!”
Very well put together and stated. I don’t know about Hill or Boyd. They do well sometimes, then they write something that is just off.
And Steve Smith handled that situation like a real man should. That wasn’t his business and he wasn’t going to discuss it. Period.
dee and Big Man-
Thanks… When “they” have us writing against us, us actively working to marginalize us, we know we are in difficult times.
Brotha Dwil can you explain to me since boyd believes that a athlete who protests would get all these purks. Why did’t chris jackson/abdul rauf get the same love. Didn’t he receive boos and hate mail from the fans. Where was his Oprah interview, his boost in popularity in jersey sales, why wasn’t Jay-Z mentioning him in songs. Why wasn’t he celebrated.
These writers are straight ignorant.
Good for Smith for telling them bast@$#s to F off.
Anyway once again thanks for telling it like it TIS Dwil.
I just read both articles. Jemele’s was all over the place. She denounced the NFL’s crack down, while endorsing the NFL. Of course, working for the WWL, I wouldn’t imagine they’d let her column get posted if she were too critical of the NFL. If I didn’t know who Boyd was, I’d swear up and down that it was Whitlock using a psuedonym. All that was missing was for him to blame hip hop for the NFL’s current state for needing to ban hand signs. If Smith and Carlos were to “step out of line” in today’s world, they’d either have to leave the country to make good lives for themselves, or live out their lives in obscurity and probably asking: “do you want fries with that?” or “paper or plastic?”
Heroes in todays world….Nope. They’d be on the blackball list with Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Curt Flood, and Craig Hodges.
Couldn’t agree more Kos.
Not to highjack your post Dwil. But how in the world the pats player not get charged with intent to sell. 202 pills………….good lord.
So he and Matt Jones both get over in the last 2 weeks. Man I swear Tim Wise ain’t lying about that white priviledge. Anyway what do these dudes have to have on them to get charged with intent to sell……….some WMDs?? A big @ss nuclear missle???
202 pills and just a speeding ticket…………man you can’t make this stuff up.
Aahhh…yes..of course…protesting at the upcoming Olympics today would just be self-serving…I mean, just because the Olympics are being held in one of the most inhumane countries on the globe…so what? Just because the secret police of Chine have been letting those in the entertainment districts know that “blacks and Mongolians”…and other “undesireables” should be prohibited from some establishments…well, that’s really for the athletes own benefit, right?
origin-
Kaczur got out of his charge by getting the supplier arrested… plain and simple, you turn on your supplier and we’ll let you go easy. He got probation and if he completes his probation the charge is wiped from his record. It’s normal for the police to do that with drug cases, with white or black people.
kos-
She let us know the NFL is a do-gooder league quite a few times in the column. Plus the shot at “sagging” (as if that was pertinent) as copying “prisoners.”
Hill does not seem to realize that people in prison “sagged” because they got just a few sets of clothing to wear while doing decade-long sentences. So they clothes three times larger because they would shrink over time. But in the end they were too big. When they hit the streets they had a choice of wearing the clothes they were arrested with or their prison clothes; they wore the prison clothes.
Black kids on in urban neighborhoods began asking their mothers to make them clothes that mirrored the prison clothes as a means of protest to say, ‘Not only are we in prison in prison, but we’re in prison on the streets, too.”
The clothes went out of style quickly - by the early 1970s - but came back in style in the 1990s (as learned from a professor in an African.-American History class).
As for Boyd? Whitlock in professor’s clothing…. And it was highlighted as a top article on the homepage!
Dwil,
Didn’t Kaczur admit he actually got the pills from somebody else? Some mysterious guy named Danny just hanging around on the highway? Its the craziest thing I’ve ever heard….no wait, I’m lying…..its no crazier than most of the mess we read everyday.
Could someone explain why the new CEO of US Track & Field felt compelled to write to Dubya and demand he not consider Marion Jones request for a pardon…..and he actually had the nerve to say its “for the children”….while we’re actually getting ready for the Olympics to be held in Beijing??
Miranda-
…but Kaczur later came clean (hey, when faced with prison, he snitched okay?! lol)
DO NOT PARDON Marion Jones!… back to reality. Black woman lied to the govt. which is something no white man could ever get away with (but Martha Stewart couldn’t, either)… blakc woman goes to prison. Black woman IS NOT to be exonerated for her sins….
40 years ago T. Smith and J. Carlos raised their fists on the medal stand at the Olys — a few nights ago they accepted ESPYs…. Go figure….
Miranda, wait. I forgot he crossed the border w/ the oxys…. That’s federal - AUTOMATIC, yes, no?…
and Big Man-
To your comment from another post… yes I should have added Kaczur to the damn list. I completely forgot…. sorry all.
Fuck the ESPY’s
I hate that shit. “I grew up.” It’s patronizing as hell and to me just means you got tired and gave up. That’s what she meant to say: “I gave up” or “They paid me” Don’t cast others as immature just because you can’t or aren’t allowed to offer sophisticated analysis or viewpoints.
My fault brotha Dwil I didn’t know he snitched on his dope dealer. Also its amazing when considering Ali, T. Smith and J. Carlos can be loved today but hated by america years ago.
So does that mean that TO, AI, Kobe and Tyson will be loved by America 20 or 30 years from now???
Also I am glad you gave that story on where sagging came from. I always felt that there needed to be like KRS-ONE or Run or DMC. You know one of these old rap heads to explain where the sagging paints came from. I just never thought it was actually how the folks in the media claim it came about.
Actually I always thought it was the influence between the hip hop back packers/taggers and the skate boarders kind of a mesh of styles. Also there was a need to have the pants bigger so that they could fit over your boots (I.E. Timberlands). Over the years the pants have gotten bigger and bigger. The same way rims have went from 12″ to 30″. I always ask folks so do the rims that went from 12″ to 30″ have an influence on prison too?? Do dooh rags have a prison influence or cornrolls.
Do you know brotha Dwil I actually had a uncle Tom Kneegrow at work have the nerve to tell me that black folks braiding hair and doing cornrolls came from the prison culture. I then told the coon that black folks been braiding their hair for centuries and that it was handed down from our african ancesters. I then showed a picture to the fool of african tribes braiding childrens heads and asked him did he think they got that from prison culture.
Dwil,
Ummm…..no when Kaczur drove across the Canadian border, with drugs that were made in Canada (how cute the little “cana” is on their to let you know..lol), somehow, no…that is not federal…I don’t know why, but evidently its not. Is Canada just another state now? I don’t know…I’m still not buying that this guy got stopped just for speeding and wound up getting his vehicle searched…I would buy it if it was Adalius Thomas…but not a Nick Kaczur…….and I’m still conused on him setting up a supplier, who wasn’t the supplier of the oxycontin he had….anybody else get the feeling its a WHOLE lot being kept under the rug??
Smith and Carlos being honored at the Espys……..for an act that is considered the displaying of a “gang sign”..curious, who presented them with their award? Skip Bayless? That would have made the circle complete.
origin-
That sounds like some Whitlock shit - cornrows came from prison culture shit…
Miranda-
Not federal, eh? I thought the DEA was busting scripts the elderly try to get from Canada because they are cheaper - and the DEA is the Feds… But I agree that the story is real weird…. I need to do some homework on Darling Nicky Kaczur….
Kev-
For real….
awb-…
agreed wholeheartedly.
Wow! The conclusions of that Boyd article are all the more surprising because he doesn’t have a Whitlockian history. How can he possibly get his conclusions so wrong? What basis does he have to support that today’s protesters would be celebrated? Or that there aren’t 101 things going on right now that aren’t worthy of protesting? I suppose that protesting say, on-going genocide in Darfur, or the criminal justice system in America would only be the work of a selfish publicity seeking opportunist… That article literally had my jaw dropping to the floor. Unbelievable.
Also, it may have very well have been a purposeful counter-piece to Stephen A.’s article in the Mag last week: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3487980
Sorry Awb I just over looked your comments. Anyway so true brotha and real talk.
Miranda that mess with the CEO of track and field is a complete joke. For the kids yeah whatever. So when them folks in China turn back on their smoke polluting cars and plants after the olympics will you think of the children there as their lungs are being destroyed by the poisons in the air??
I swear politics and A-holes go hand and hand.
Stay strong Marion these punks just trying to break a sista down.
MODI-
If the Boyd commentary is in reaction to Smith’s (which it might well be), black people should boycott ESPN.com and call for King to be fired….. and it would confirm the racism is dead, only commercialism lives, thought implied in Boyd’s piece.
….and I love this sentiment from a commenter from Smith’s piece:
islanders084 (27 minutes ago) Report Violation
good article but can’t we get over race all ready? its 2008 everyone in the country is equal, affirmative action allows everyone but white men to get jobs.
Isn’t how many, many white people think about racism and black people just grand?
God, that Boyd column is profoundly stupid, and a reason why I don’t read Page 2 any more.
I’ve been writing back and forth with someone on whether athletes should make political statements at this year’s Olympics in China, and you just articulated why I say they shouldn’t have to: the press will DESTROY them. Boyd conveniently forgets that Carlos and Smith were ostracized for what they did in Mexico City. It will be much, much worse for anyone who does anything similar in Beijing — because the 24/7 news cycle on TV and online is now in place.
Good on Steve Smith for not answering that leading question.
Dwil,
It has been a while since something has caught my interest like your recent articles. For now, I will address your latest offering.
I am very impressed by your production and thought processes. Personally, I would like to see more precision to go with your passion because we are reliant on voices like yours to bring balance to the dialogue on race and empowerment to those seeking to be vehicles of conduits of change.
In the first part of your article, by way of the Jemele Hill example, you advise us that the mainstream media is now devoid of diverse voices such as those that appeared in national publications through a rich history of Black writers speaking truth to power. I am slightly confused here. Clearly you are writing mainly about sports journalism when you discuss Ms. Hill and “ESPN-ing” the news. However, when you reference the change from a rich history of black voices in national publications to today’s void, you seem to be talking about journalism in general.
I get (and agree with) your point that there is “no” diversity in mainstream sports reporting and analyses. I would also (but not agree so much) understand your point that there is “no” diversity in mainstream reporting and analyses.
However, you lose me on a couple of accounts. First, I would love to know more about this rich history of African-American writers speaking truth to power in national publications because I am not sure that this is true, especially in sports writing. Certainly, there is a long history of Blacks outside the mainstream media writing about African-American life, but most of these writers, from slavery to the 1970s, graced Black owned publications where they spoke to and for a particular audience.
As you may recall, it was in 1967 that the Kerner Commission, spurred by inner city rebellions, admitted that the coverage of African-Americans in mainstream media was dismal in both its breadth and depth of coverage of African-American life and in its characterizations and representation of people of African descent.
As late as the 1980s, there were few black voices in sports with a national audience and reputation in the mainstream media. For example in the early 1970s, the only black person covering baseball on a daily basis in a major newspaper was pioneer Larry Whiteside of the Boston Globe. For years, Whiteside himself kept the one page Black list of sports reporters for prospective employers. Similarly, one of the most brilliant and prolific national sports writers, Ralph Wiley, did not start writing for Sports Illustrated until 1982. My point is that in the history of mainstream sportswriting Black history is neither rich nor lengthy. It has been as abysmal as it can be described today.
Last year, an Associated Press Study found that Blacks constituted only 6% of the nation’s sports writers. Without looking at a study, I can accurately guess that the presence of African-Americans in other areas of mainstream journalism is almost as bad.
II.
Precision is the writer’s scalpel. Passion cuts. Precision carves.
Brother, I feel your passion, but I doubt very seriously that any mainstream African-American journalist, with the interests of the Black community in his or her heart, ever sought as a priority “to better express their sadness, anger, and dissatisfaction with American society” or to “better perceiv[e] and identify expressions of racism in every nook and cranny of U.S. culture.” I would be totally surprised if any responsible reporter or writer with a national audience and a concern for the African-American community did not have as his or her priority the telling of a story from the vantage point of a “different truth” or the presentation to the world of hidden, silenced and/or ignored voices.
Perhaps the responsible reporter’s work ultimately becomes an expression of their “sadness, anger and dissatisfaction,” but writing about African-American life, or the life of a Black person in the context of America, is about far, far more than anger and racism. It’s about presenting the full range of our humanity to the world and about expressing and showing who Black people are in spirit, body and soul. No national writer worth his salt would waste time trying to “better perceive and identify expressions of racism in every nook and cranny.” First of all such an endeavor (to improve an ability to perceive and identify) is a waste of time because racism is not some hidden aspect that requires much searching – it is an intrinsic part of American life and it has impacted all of humanity in a multitude of ways.
Second, the responsible and skilled writers that you are referring to grew up in racist America. The hard task was not finding racism, but telling the story of racism in a way that informed, empowered and motivated readers.
Third, the national writer who gets lost in the easter egg type hunt for “expressions” of racism is practically worthless if the thrust of his work is finding such expressions simply to prove and remind us that racism exists. This is not revolutionary. This “nook and cranny” search is not even effective activism. If it exists, it is simply a game – a way for the writer to prove to himself that he is neither insane nor futilely screaming about phantoms and running from the shadows of his own ghosts. Racism exists. I would suggest ESPN and much of mainstream media acknowledge it and now make money from it. Jemele Hill is just one example of ESPN’s foray into the area of racialism as a major component of it’s info-pinion profit center. The problem is not finding racism, it is expressing, showing and explaining it in a way that demonstrates the need to abolish racism and/or remediate and remove the impact it has on the entire nation.
III.
Now this point is a bit tough for most people on either side of it to deal with.
For a long time, since slavery, we have framed out struggle for change in stark terms of color: Black versus white. Black versus white. Black people this. White people that.
It is a language thrust upon Black America by a white power structure. It was a juxtaposition that was clear during slavery. Most slaves were black. And although those who sold many Blacks into slavery were Black themselves, in this country the owners were white. During Jim Crow, we were segregated into Black sections and white sections in housing, education, employment and just plain every day living.
No doubt the segregation is much the same numerically. But there has been a qualitative change that this language created by a white power structure does not convey. Black versus white does not convey that the enemy of change is not just white anymore – it is monied, it is black and white, it is international. Black versus white does not convey that alliances have grown across racial lines. Black versus white does not convey the multi-cultural nature of our community.
I think it is hard not to talk in such stark terms. But simply because it is hard to avoid does not make it correct, effective or the best way to discuss the struggle. Black versus white is simply us being intellectually lazy. It is us not wanting to take the time to recreate and reshape the language so it is one of empowerment and alliance building and reaffirmation.
Black versus white is old school and inaccurate. I wonder who out there (and it will be a young voice) is bold enough and revolutionary enough to make sure the language is shaped to fit the current reality and the struggle for change.
IV.
Dwil, you have put a lot in your piece worthy of consideration and discussion. Your thoughts are provocative, which is good. You are clearly a voice that we need, but we need you to be better, to be sharper and more incisive. You are a different writer from Modi who can kill an opponent with a series of irrefutable facts, but Modi is pinpoint accurate in his language. We need you to also be accurate.
Personally, whether you are angry or sad does nothing for me or my children. Most people are angry or sad about something. What makes what you do important for me is that you write and inform us in a way that allows us to see what you see and have our passions ignited as yours have been.
Can you handle that mandate? I think so. But sometimes I’m right. And sometimes I’m wrong.
Lives, the time and articulation put into your commentaries is always appreciated. …About writing “purpose”: Personally, I don’t really consider myself a writer, but more of a singularly-focused activist. More than anything, I simply try to tediously document media bias (although I’d like to write about sports more). I rarely ever write explanations about the perceived depths of racism because frankly, I’m unqualified to understand it on that level (see white privilege!). And if I were qualified, I still don’t fashion myself half the writer D-Wil is. I’ve always perceived his writings as artistic pieces of self-expression that may or may not double up as purely “activist posts” depending on the particular intention of that particular piece. Ultimately, interpretation is inextricably tied to intention.
D-Wil, I would say that ESPN should be boycotted by black AND all other people, and that King and many other execs should be gone. But i had that sentiment long before the Boyd piece. Of course, we should be granted a pass from the boycott only on the grounds of exposing their continued BS!!!
Modi,
I appreciate the fact that you fashion yourself an activist, but that does not negate the fact that you are a writer. As you well know, communication,particularly writing has historically been one of the most important tools of any movement whether liberal or revolutionary. Journalists, columnists, poets, novelists and editors play critical activist roles in educating and mobilizing others for any cause.
I also appreciate that you may benefit from some privelege borne from your American ancestry, but my journalistic point in pointing to you had nothing to do with race. My point is that accuracy and precision in use of facts and language is critical. I have an appreciation for dwils writing, but forgive me, it can be tighter and it needs to be tighter, especially if his task is to reveal and lead through his writings.
As to explaining the perceived depths of racism, I don’t know any one person that can do that. Not Skip Louis Gates, not James McPherson, not P-Diddy, Not Tupac, and not Jesse Jackson. Racism is a group experience and the growing amount of literature along with the constantly changing aspects of racism require a variety of perspectives to gain a expansive understanding of racism. No one person knows, feels and understands it all. Not a one.
WIth that said, I believe that your presentation of evidentiary material and your precision in language is instructive for a person of any racial or political persuasion. It is certainly nice to be praiseworthy, especially when it is deserved as in dwils case. For me it important to not only encourage our writers to continue good work, but also to challenge them to do better.
Lives, let me clarify my previous point a little about “depths of racism”. I just want to acknowledge that the limitations of my life experience and my writing would prevent me from ever writing something like this:
http://sportsonmymind.com/2008/07/07/on-bernstein-and-much-more-the-black-sportswriter-%e2%80%93-a-shameful-story/
And my limitations as both a writer and sport insight would prevent me from ever writing a piece like this on on Wimbledon:
http://sportsonmymind.com/2008/07/08/how-the-courts-of-wimbledon-stole-immortality-from-roger-federer-and-made-rafael-nadal-appear-great/
Whether one agrees or disagrees with any parts of each of these two pieces is irrelevant to my larger point. Of course, that doesn’t mean that i can’t make important contributions within my own sphere of knowledge and style because I believe that I can. I promise you that I am not being falsely modest, falsely trying to kiss D-Wil’s nasty ass, nor do I have trouble accepting praise. It is only to say that I’ve read about 600 different articles from D-Wil, and judging from across this landscape, he is the most versatile writer that I know — mainstream or blogging. He has written with pinpoint precision on many occasions (most often highlighted when writing a “lawyer piece” about a court case.) I guess that I’m saying that he could easily write the way that I write should he choose to, but I couldn’t duplicate what he does as the above examples show. I am not diminishing my own worth with that statement, just stating a plain fact. Nor am I saying that D-Wil or any other writer on the planet is above criticism. That was all I was saying in the previous post.
———————————————————–
Now it’s probably my preference that we don’t belabor this previous point, but would like to address a larger interesting point that you made about ability to “perceiving the depths of racism”.
Now you mention Tupac. I think Tupac might be an example of what i am talking about artistically. Now from strictly a lyrically point of view, there are many better MC’s than Tupac, but there was something about Tupac’s delivery in that you were almost able to touch his soul in a way that exists with no other MC (even far more talented IMHO like Biggie or Rakim). Now i don’t know exactly how to put my finger on it, but when i listen to Tupac I FEEL him. And that trandscends my life experience that is not a shared one, which makes it all the more remarkable. It is also why he spoke for so many who did share similar experiences. And that fact does not make Tupac right or wrong in any given verse, but it does mean that he has a greater ability to communicate the depth of his pain and the pain around him in a way that could only come from someone who has experienced great pain. It simply couldn’t be produced without the pain. I think that is what i mean by “depth”…
BTW, a similar statement might be said about that song (”You Oughtta Know”) by Alanis Morrissette and her ex-boyfriend. Unlike recent Carrie Underwood or Beyonce boyfriend -revenge tracks, you just KNOW that she went through pain with some serious DEPTH! That shit couldn’t come from a ghost-writer
Last few comments were really good.
DWil & Miranda,
Kaczur’s case had the potential to go federal had he not cooperated with the federal government. But, because he cooperated the US Attorney’s Office probably decided to let the local district attorney handle the plea agreement for speeding and possession (with the possession charge being put on hold for six months).
Lives in…
As far as our rich history, etc. I suggest you do your own homework rather than have me hold your hand.
Brother, I feel your passion, but I doubt very seriously that any mainstream African-American journalist, with the interests of the Black community in his or her heart, ever sought as a priority “to better express their sadness, anger, and dissatisfaction with American society” or to “better perceiv[e] and identify expressions of racism in every nook and cranny of U.S. culture.” I would be totally surprised if any responsible reporter or writer with a national audience and a concern for the African-American community did not have as his or her priority the telling of a story from the vantage point of a “different truth” or the presentation to the world of hidden, silenced and/or ignored voices.
You “doubt,” but do not know? And where would you find evidence for your statement? Please never come at me about my writing and its content with opinion and attempt to present that opinion as fact.
As far as black/white affairs and attempting to pigeon-hole how I framed the premises presented in this piece you missed the fact that by including Hill and Boyd and stating that we do have a history of truth to power speak and that it is missing from MSM black journalism today implies that we harm ourselves and act as co-signers to the institutional racism that exists and was set into motion by a largely white, Western male worldview and mindset.
By not bothering to read other writings of mine to either validate or invalidate your opinions you fail to know that I have written at length about the vagaries of what ails our society, the conditions that create the various disparities that exist in America, and the templates used to implement and maintain those disparities - including and far beyond simply “black” and “white.”
As far as a comparison with MODI’s writing…. This commentary is just that, a commentary. It is not a historical-to-present article where my intention is to lay out that past-present continuum on a case-by-case basis. When I embark down that trail I write in a completely different voice…. in other words, if you fail to understand the piece, I am speaking at you.
———————————
I’ve said this to others who do what you seem to be doing with your comment…. there are plenty of editor opportunities out there, perhaps you should seek one, but first learn the craft of editorship. Coming here and writing an uninformed editorial critique of my work just makes you look like someone with an ax to grind as you write under the guise of aiding you and “the children.”
If you were really trying to help with all that you allegedly see, you’d simply email me privately. But since you put this out in a public forum it is apparent that you are looking for a response so that you can engage in some sort of inane back-and-forth verbal battle for which there is a “correct” and “incorrect,” a “winner” and “loser.”
And yes, people like you who comment under the quasi-protected verbiage of “constructive criticism” anger me. Should you be acting in the negative manner in which you appear, you know well that doing what you do in a public forum is ultimately damaging and it is nefariously, evil.
By the way, I never mentioned my emotional state in this commentary. In fact, beyond the italicized introduction, I never interjected a first person reference - relative to me - in the piece. Presuming that I am angry or sad subtly elucidates what appears to be your mal-intended “comment.”
Finally, I will not further engage you in this comment section. This response is necessary only because I am clarifying your misrepresentations of me and this commentary. However, should you file another comment in a vein similar to the above, I will fully know your intentions. Your comment, though, will be deleted, you will be blocked from commenting here in the future, and you can read - or not - from afar.
Dwil,
Sir, your response is very unfortunate and misguided. First, I see that you can deliver criticism but have a very difficult time receiving it, especially in the spirit which it was given. Second, I have been reading this site and your work since Modi joined you and I stand by much of my praise and all of my criticism of this piece. Third, I recognize the threat to strike my voice or comment from this site because I simply disagree, for what it is. You know what it is. Brother, after reading your response, (for which my comments would make my previous offering seem like a warm hug to you) I apologize for wasting my time addressing you and I could not care less whether you erase me from this hallowed site or not. If the MSM can play devil and silence others, then why shouldn’t you exercise that power on your own site.
Good fortune to you sir.
No dude, the problem I have with people like you is that you don’t read my work and don’t know me at all but provide opinion under the guise of a “thoughtful critique based off of a few articles that have had the cumulative effect of making you fucking snap…. and usually with people like you, it’s about race.
MODI talked with me at length about you, your website, and your usual responses to to people’s writing. From what I am told this is completely out of context with anything else you might write, comment, or otherwise. And reading my work since MODI joined means you’ve read little of what I’ve written - as I think about the well over 1200 or so pieces I’ve written, you’ve read about 7%.
I do not mind disagreement at all, so you grossly overestimate the thought that you might somehow be a “threat” to me. I fully explained what in you comment is completely out of line and that had you truly wanted to have a meaningful dialogue with me and ASK ME QUESTIONS about me and my writing - fine. But opinions passed off as facts - about my personality…. in public, on this site?…. No.
You do not have that luxury with a stranger, at least not this one.
And by dissing me in the manner in which you did, you dis the community of readers here…. NOT cool.
Reminds me of this old school jam…how’d it go again?…
I think it was called, MODI In the Middle, I’m pretty sure.
I’ve engaged LINJLNY before. Many times. It bes like that with him. Like an old man with emphysema addressing a single-candled birthday cake — a whole lotta noise, blowin out nothin.
I’ve pointed out his own confused/imprecise writing nuff times. I suspect this is mostly about a lil flexin, a lil exercise, a desire to play in the sandbox with some me too also can play exuberance. In the end, he’s inert once you see through to real subtext/intent. Don’t worry, we get it.
“MODI in the Middle” — LOL!!! Yeah you can say that.
Listen, here are the facts. I’ve got love for D-Wil. I’ve got love for Lives. And I’ve got love for you too Folly. Three of the most intelligent and insightfull people that I have had the privilege to come across… as I have learned from all of you. I also know that you are all good people. And yeah, I’m one of those “c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-can’t we all get along type of guys”… The shit is in my DNA like Obama!
HOWEVER, my track record ain’t too good as my mother and brother haven’t spoken to each other in a couple of years now. When I finish that one, then I’ll come back to you fine gentlemen, before following up on the latest round of Middle East talks. Nas and Jay Z? Phil and Kobe? Anything is possible. In the meantime, I’m signing out for good on this post as I try and hone my inner Gandhian powers…
Peace
Ha, I hear that, MODI–I add my my voice to the “Can’t we all get along” chorus.
Lives, I hear some of the points you’re making…but it’s hard to trust a commenter when the first-ever comment is critical. For me, if I like some stuff a guy does and don’t like other parts, I try to only mention the stuff I like in the first few comments. Just a well-meaning FYI from me, hope you all can work this out.
Way to step to him, Dwil! I also saw through his “critique” . I will say this: both you and and MODI are exceptional writers with the ability to tap into the thinking of the underrepresented sports fan, such as myself. Decepticons like him are only interested in trying to disrupt constructive discourse by interjecting thinly veiled attacks disquised as commentary, going so far as to trying to insight animosity between the you guys with his flawed comparisions.
Also, nice side step, MODI
wa-diddy-
true, man, true.
Dwil, for what it’s worth I respect your work, I don’t always agree with your position, but I sure as hell not going to tell you how to do your blog. I think that’s where lives in jersey crossed the line, the first time. Dwil let me commend you for keeping your composure while under attack, seems like this shit could have escalated, but you handled it well.
Also Brother, Within the community your perspective is unique. IMO you have some nuanced positions that differentiate you from some of the other brothers and sisters writers. That’s not ment to diminish others, because all of you have a contribution to make, and every voice can play an important role in addressing the various inequities that exist in sports and society.
Lives in Jersey, That was a punk ass move to drag MODI into whatever beef you have with Dwil, and then to make it public, that was uncalled for. To quote the 2nd best kinck point guard of all-time “you are better that that!”
Dwil is the best journalist in America, my opinion of course. LIJ = long winded critque with zero substance! Man get your own site to post those prolonged blurbs, full of nonsense, you owe me 10 minutes of my life!
[…] ESPN-ing Blackness (July22, 2008) […]
a thought-provoking piece DWil…..keep up the pressure and let ESPN/Disney know that this cannot and will not be tolerated. i applaud your pressure on this ‘top-down’ pressure which has no place in modern journalism.