You may recall a diatribe I posted a couple of weeks ago concerning ESPN.com’s Jason Whitlock and his bold yet inane theory that rooting against the U.S. men’s basketball team in the Olympics was an act that bordered on racism. Judging from the feedback I received in the comments section, it would seem that most of you agreed with my assessment that Whitlock had no appreciation for basketball history, turned a blind eye to any other reasons why people rooted against the team, and was generally full of it. As I mentioned in my follow up post, quite a few people in the sportswriting world agree, as more and more of them attacked and mocked his position as the days passed.
I bring this up again because I came across Whitlock’s response to all of the hard-edged rebuttals his articles caused. Not surprisingly, he attempted to whip out Occam’s razor (i.e. the position that states the correct answer is the simplest one), and he proceeded to slash himself with it.
The title of his rebuttal? “Admit it, America. We’re All Racists.”
Whoa. Back up there, fat boy. (For the record, he is a man of a stereotypical sportswriter’s porportions).
His position rests on how people enjoyed verbally beating up on USA basketball and calling them “lazy, unpatriotic, and stupid” because they were black, and it gave middle America the perfect forum to slam a group of people that would be absolutely taboo, if not for the context of the team. His mantra throughout the column is that the way to deal with this kind of racism is to acknowledge it exists and combat it on a daily basis. On the way, he even calls himself out as a racist, because of his fandom of Tiger Woods’ dominance in a sport dominated by whites.
To be fair, I think we can all agree with one thing that he says in his argument. Racism does exist. To deny its reality in our society is to be an outrageously naive soul. I’m sure it’s a problem that sane people would want to have lessened with each passing generation. However, Whitlock’s careless use of the word racist is a direct slap in the face to anyone who sees no color. It proves to me that he indeed has no idea what the word “racist” means, that he is just using the word as an act of blanket convenience, covering every white who has made a joke about blacks or every black who has called a white a “honky.” By not seeking the deeper issues of what lies behind the word “racist,” Whitlock ultimately does every race in America a grave disservice, coming off as a whiny, grown-up version of the Michael character from “Good Times,” who accuses whomever he can about society’s ills, yet does not work to do anything to better it. Besides, by calling everyone a racist, he implies that people from both sides of the racial spectrum who have tirelessly toiled for equality in society have the scourge of racism under their skins. Whether that was Whitlock’s intentions or not, it is certainly there. If you despise racism, this can not sit too well with you. It certainly does not with me.
Also, his Tiger Woods example is beyond rediculous. The notion of merely rooting for the black man in a sport dominated by whites is in no way shape or form racism, and the insinuation of such is downright insulting. Woods is an important figure in golf, that’s impossible to deny. But one of the reasons he is so important is that his color allows the sport to reach out to a whole different sector of society that previously was not accessible. If anything, Woods presence on the golf course helps to unite races and dissolve racial barriers rather than trump up “racism” on account of blacks rooting for a black guy. Golf will be around after Woods hangs up his golf bag, and if some of those black fans that rooted for him still tune in afterward, then that’s only good for the sport, and ultimately society. In fact, this very reason is one of the main issues I have with the NHL right now. The league’s (and the world’s) best player, Jarome Iginla, is black, yet the league has not done squat to market this fact. If they put in the effort sell Iginla like the PGA has done to sell Woods, I would gurantee that it would open the game up to a much wider audience that would have otherwise not paid too much attention to it. The end result would then be the same after Iginla hung up his skates. Call me crazy, but that simply does not look like racism to me.
It should be plainly obvious to any rational human being that who you like or dislike, or who you root for or against, does not make you a racist. However, as long as idiots like Whitlock have the audacity to wedge racism into things where it doesn’t exist in the first place, we’re going to have to deal with such carless verbiage, as sad as it may be.
