David Zirin’s new book, Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports touches almost every sport genre. It does not matter what sport you follow for this book to be enjoyable. If you are a basketball fan Zirin has a chapter entitled, “The NBA and the Two Souls of Hip Hop.� International soccer fan? “Soccer: The Perilous Practice of Political Projection.� And one of my favorite chapters for you baseball fans out there obsessed with steroids, “Barry Bonds Gonna Git Your Mama: When Steroids Attack!�

Zirin looks beyond sports in his book and dives into the social aspect these “games� have on our lives, nations, and communities. I learned about a Hispanic civil rights activist named Roberto Clemente who happened to play baseball. Clemente fought has hard as any African American against the laws of Jim Crow. When told by a waitress, “We don’t serve Negroes,� he responded, “That’s okay. I don’t eat Negroes.� Clemente helped sponsor the Black Panther morning breakfast program and probably did as much for baseball as the storied Jackie Robinson. Zirin praises Clemente for everything he accomplished on and off the field before his untimely death.

Want to know why the MLB is about 40% Hispanic? In the chapter titled, “Beisbol: How the Major Leagues Eat Their Young,� you will find out. Zirin informed us about the horrible baseball farms the MLB uses in Central and South America exploiting impoverish young kids dreams strictly for financial gain.

Unleashing the power of the World Cup, Zirin attempts to unveil meaning behind sports and how it feels to represent your country. To the United States soccer is David Beckman, Posh Spice, and Fifa 2008 on Xbox 360, but to the world soccer is a political stage. Zirin dives into the 2006 World Cup recalling what the games meant to different countries. He explains why people of color are seldom seen in the stands for fear of safety.

In the chapter, “The Olympics: Gold, Guns, and Graft,� it was interesting to see how the Olympics coincide with social change. How an eighteen year old Cassis Clay gave his 1960 Olympic boxing gold medal a home at the bottom of the Ohio River after being turned away from a whites-only restaurant in his hometown of Louisville. Zirin writes how track stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos changed the world view of American segregation with their proud fists raised high in the 1968 games. Zirin explains hosting the Olympics can cripple a city’s economy as it did Greece in 2004 and how the Olympics caused social backlash by the way the cities less fortunate are violently shoved to the side in tragic story of Tlatelolco, Mexico. Zirin also introduces us to the racist Avery Brundage, former president of the International Olympic Committee.

Whether it is Don Imus, John Amechi, Pat Tillman, Sheryl Swoopes, Jim Brown, Lance Armstrong, or Etan Thomas, Zirin leaves no stone unturned in his book. If you couldn’t already tell by name, he also touches on Katrina and the Superdome. This book is a great read and if that’s not enough to convince you… The foreword is written by Chuck D. I rest my case.

Since we have yet to score any notable interviews — most likely due to not actively reaching out for them as we remain rooks to this online sports talk world — it only seems fit to point out other interviews that took place by folks with better connections who put in the work.

Today’s group of interviews are interlinked in some way, shape or form. You’ll notice early. As we round up more, we’ll post more “Interview This” spots through the summer.

(If you have any noteable interviews you’d like to point out, go ahead and drop a comment off or send us an email us at mindritesports@gmail.com)

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Jason Whitlock via TheBigLead
This interview, once it moved down the line from web reader to web reader, proved that even the largest powers-that-be do, in fact, read your blogs. The boys at TBL squeezed this interview out of the self-proclaimed “Big Sexy” and the rest is history. Already having removed himself from ESPN’s Page2 for what he viewed as greener pastures with AOL Sports, ESPN removed Whitlock from their network TV shows (The Sports Reporters and guest-spots on PTI… although the most recent rumor was that he guest hosted Rome Is Burning a week or two ago).

His riff with Scoop Jackson and hip hop music was nothing new, but in this interview he was very candid with both, as well as adding that his fellow coworker was “bojangling” — a word that makes people of all sorts, especially big networks, uncomfortable. He’s since taken to a higher platform, appearing on CNN and Oprah, accusing people across the country of bojangling. Also, let’s clear this one thing up — Whitlock is not “the voice” of Black America. Rather, he is “a voice” of Black America. His views are just one of millions but he seems to make the most noise by calling people out — rightfully or not — from his sports platform, either by way of his Kansas City Star post or AOL Sports.

This initial TBL interview was, in my opinion, life-altering. But he has since done multiple interviews, including one with Michael Tillery (first appeared on BlackSportsNetwork.com but now available on MichaelTillery.com).

Etan Thomas via TheStartingFive
Not a big fan of Whitlock, Etan Thomas is one of those athletes who isn’t afraid to speak out about his feelings of societal issues. More athletes should follow suit and take Etan as a shining example. He writes for SLAM magazine online, and at one point wrote an open letter to Whitlock addressing the Don Imus issue and how he felt Whitlock’s methods were hurting Black America (my words, not his). Athletes are on a unique platform to speak out and be heard and Etan risks hearing the infamous words, “don’t quit your day job,” by separating himself from every being called a sterotypical jock, but instead shows off that he has no time to bite his tongue — he has a world to save.

Dave Zirin via TheStartingFive
Zirini knows how impactful Etan Thomas is — he sang Etan’s praises back in ‘05. Of course, mixing sports and politics makes people uncomfortable, but so does mixing politics and air. Zirin is a white man who deals with issues combining sports, society and politics — an atypical assortment of topics to constantly focus on for for the typical white journalist. Zirin’s no average journalist, as he has written a number of books, including “Welcome To The Terrordome” and “What’s My Name, Fool?” He can also can be found at The Nation or his own site, Edge of Sports.

Scoop Jackson via TheStartingFive
Jason Whitlock seems to hate this guy. A lot. Called him a “bojangler” even. What did Scoop do after reading the aforementioned hate in the TBL.com interview? He wrote a wonderful, tame yet thoughtful piece in his ESPN Page 2 spot, called “The importance of being civil.” (unfortunately, it’s insider-only) Among all of the words he spoke, my favorite were: “Regardless of how I personally feel about another brotha, I understand that the first step in creating a Civil Rights Movement is being civil.”

He’s disliked in circles both black and white for his unorthodox writing voice that is definitely his own, but he’s been around the writing game for many, many years, notably moving from a big-time spot at SLAM magazine notably before he moved over to ESPN.com. Say what you will about Scoop’s presentation or laid back, conversational style of writing, but he does have his own voice. Much of the debate surrounding him tends to be whether or not he is a “representative” of Black America, or if he’s being stereotypical by adding an atypical voice to a very popular network’s site. He’s unorthodox and although he may not be universally loved, he does his thing regardless of any dissenting opinions.

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Until I read otherwise, the biggest interviewer right now is Michael “Mizzo” Tillery, currently of TheStartingFive. He’s scored some of the best, most insightful and mature interviews seen anywhere in the sports world. Among notable the noteables: David Aldridge, John Cheney, Dan LeBetard, Jason Whitlock, Scoop Jackson, Dave Zirin, Jemele Hill and the Christies (Doug and Jackie). You can find them all at his personal website, MichaelTillery.com and TheStartingFive where he currently posts.

Welcome to the dog days of summer! The world is without NFL and NBA action for the next few months so I find myself reading about them educating myself in the world of sports and how it interacts with society. For the next few weeks MindRite will be letting you know what sports books to read while you’re on the bus, metro, or subway in transit from work or in the car or plane in between vacation, or when your significant other makes you sleep on the couch and have nothing better to do.

Black Planet; Facing Race During an NBA Season, written by David Shields is an interesting book as the author follows the 1994-95 season of the Seattle SuperSonics. Shield attends every home game, watches every road game, and listens to every Sonics sports talk radio show. The book is written in diary form throughout the duration of the season making the book easy to follow. The reason this book is so intriguing is the brutal honesty in which the author writes. Shields does a great job of “saying it how he sees it.� Throughout the book Shields discusses how he views race and cultural on the NBA landscape. The book is about cultural interaction having basketball as a backdrop. Because you do not have to be a basketball fan to enjoy this book, I recommend to any sports fan or anyone interested in race or class.

Shields lets you see deep into the mind of a middle aged white man who is an obsessive Seattle SuperSonics fan bored with everyday life. Throughout the book Shields notices racism within the NBA and in his own life and shares his prospective with us. My description cannot do the book justice, so I have including the, “Author’s Note,� along with a few passages, enjoy!

“During the 1994-95 NBA season, I attended nearly all of the Seattle SuperSonics’ home games; watched on TV nearly all their away games; listened to countless pre- and post-game interviews and call-in shows on the radio; talked to or tried to talk to players, coaches, agents, journalists, fans, my wife; corresponded with members of the Sonics newsgroup on the Internet; read articles and articles and articles. Although I’m a passionate basketball fan and Sonics fan, when I was writing the book I wasn’t interested in the game per se-who won, who lost, the minutiae of strategy. I was interested in how the game gets discussed. By the end of the season, I’d accumulated hundreds of pages of often illegible notes, the roughest of rough drafts. Over the last three years, I transformed those notes into this book- a daily dairy which runs the length of one team’s long forgotten season and which is now focused, to the point of obsession, on how white people (including especially myself) think about and talk about black heroes, black scapegoats, black bodies
What John Edgar Wideman calls “our country’s love/hate affair with the black body� can be seen nowhere more clearly than in the National Basketball Association, which is a photo negative of American race relations: strong young black men have some of the power, much of the money, and all of the fun. The NBA is a place where, without ever acknowledging it- and because it’s never acknowledged, it’s that much more potent and telling- white fans and black players enact and quietly explode virtually every racial issue and tension in the culture at large. Race, the league’s taboo, is the league’s biggest subject.
Listen:
Auother’s Note

“Virtually every NBA team has a white coach and (out of three assistant coaches) one black assistant coach, who acts as mediator between players and coach. Paul, my friend and former graduate student, calls these black assistant coaches “lawn jockeys.� The Sonics’ new black assistant coach, Dwayne Casey, “who got hired to baby-sit Kemp,� recruited Kemp to the University of Kentucky for a brief time Kemp was there before leaving� Everything Else Is They (p31).

“Kemp and New Jersey’s Derrick Coleman are remarkably deferential to each other, talking, laughing, kidding each other, helping each other up, barely playing defense against each other. They played together in Toronto this summer on Dream Team II. Fans want to think it’s us against them (Seattle vs. New Jersey, say) and that the players on “our� team are in cahoots with us, in some difficult-to-define way- difficult to define, since their contempt for us is so manifest. One of the things I’ve felt at the games so far is how bound together the five Sonics on the floor are with the five players on the floor for the other team, like boxers, and how the opposition is really the noise of the everything else- coaches, refs, cameras, commercials, mascots, especially fans. The players are the ones sharing the jokes together at the foul line. Fans always want to ask Player X what he was saying out there on the court to Player Y. Player X always deflects the question, since it is, in a sense rude to question. It’s tantamount to asking lovers the content of their pillow talk: it’s our camaraderie, not yours� Everyone Else Is They (p36).

“11.24.94- Robert Parish, a former Boston Celtic playing this year with Charlotte- asked by reporters what he meant in a Boston Globe article last week that quoted him as saying, “Boston is a white town; they like white heroes�- replies, “I said this town is a white town that appreciates their white players. It caters to their white heroes. It has nothing to do with race. I don’t want to get into that racial thing. It’s not about race. It’s just a fact.� What interests me is not what Parish says, which is a bromide- working-class Irish Catholics don’t embrace black athletes- but that he feels compelled to pretend to undo what he’s saying even as he’s saying it, thus enacting the weird code in which this discussion almost always gets encrypted.� Everyone Else Is They (p41).

“Laurie and I and our friends Karen and Ross go see Pulp Fiction, which Laurie and Karen and Ross like a lot more than I do. To me, Pulp Fiction just comes down to Tarantino’s getting to play the only white character in the history of the movies who is cool enough to say “nigger� to a black man and use it- mean it- as black vernacular.� Proof Of My Own Racism (p57).

“12.8.94- On the George Karl Show, a caller asks about the progress of a rookie with the perfect name of Dontonio Wingfield (Cf. Angela Davis: “I think we can have an obsession with naming ourselves because for so much of our history we were named by someone else.�) Karl replies, “Well, it’s kind of unfortunate, because with a coach and a rookie in the NBA a lot of negativity tends to build up, and so he becomes sort of a whipping boy.� He immediately corrects this. “A whipping post. But Dontonio is coming along.� Karl’s enlightened enough to know that he shouldn’t say “whipping boy,� but not so enlightened that the phrase didn’t come, unbidden, from his mouth.� Proof Of My Own Racism (p61).

“In the NBA, as nowhere else in America, white people are utterly beholden to black people, and they’re not about to let us off that easily; it is kind of very mild payback for the last five hundred years.� The Beautiful and the Useful (p91).

“1.7.95- Driving home from work, a white female colleague in the English department picks up a black male hitch hiker in order to prove to herself that she is not racist. She tells the hitch hiker, “I picked you up to prove to myself I’m not racist.�
The hitch hiker says, “You’re a fool. I could have killed you.�
Converting our Self-Loathing to Hatred (p103).

“Payton hits a 3-pointer, and as he runs back down the court along the sideline, a fan offers him a high-five, which Payton quite pointedly refuses; then, just as pointedly, he high-fives Kemp. I ain’t your fuckin’ plaything, I feel Gary telling the fan, I ain’t your buddy, you don’t know me, don’t think you can slap my palm.� An Agony of Enthralldom (p149.)

“Apropos of the NCAA Final Four college basketball tournament, which is being held in Seattle in a few days, a white fan calls Rob Tepper (T-Man) on KJR and says about North Carolina’s Rasheed Wallace, “The boy can play ball�
T-Man is very quick to say, “Refer to him as a man. He’s a man.�
Fan: “He’s a man.�
T-Man: “He is THE man.�
Fan: “He’s THE man.�
This is all very sentimental and easy. What’s interesting is the next thing T-Man says: “He refers to you as boy.� Can you feel now what power feels like?� Can You Feel What Power Feels Like? (p163.)

The fourth of July is the day our nation celebrates independence. With everything going on in our country the day should be about more than barbecues, fireworks, and beer. Sports is a way our country escapes everything that is wrong in the world. It give me great pleasure that even though we might be at war, I am able to escape and watch a basketball game. I will probably scream and curse at the television swearing I can defend better than Jamison, jumping up and down as if the fate of the world depended on it, but after all, it is just a game.

On September 24, 2005 Washington Wizard power forward Etan Thomas gave a speech at an anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C. The transcript of the speech is below. As we celebrate the birth of our country and how it has come, let us still remember we have a long way to go;

“Giving all honor, thanks and praises to God for courage and wisdom, this is a very important rally. I’d like to thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts, feelings and concerns regarding a tremendous problem that we are currently facing. This problem is universal, transcending race, economic background, religion, and culture, and this problem is none other than the current administration which has set up shop in the White House.

In fact, I’d like to take some of these cats on a field trip. I want to get big yellow buses with no air conditioner and no seatbelts and round up Bill O’Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Trent Lott, Sean Hannity, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Bush Jr. and Bush Sr., John Ashcroft, Giuliani, Ed Gillespie, Katherine Harris, that little bow-tied Tucker Carlson and any other right-wing conservative Republicans I can think of, and take them all on a trip to the ‘hood. Not to do no 30-minute documentary. I mean, I want to drop them off and leave them there, let them become one with the other side of the tracks, get them four mouths to feed and no welfare, have scare tactics run through them like a laxative, criticizing them for needing assistance.

I’d show them working families that make too much to receive welfare but not enough to make ends meet. I’d employ them with jobs with little security, let them know how it feels to be an employee at will, able to be fired at the drop of a hat. I’d take away their opportunities, then try their children as adults, sending their 13-year-old babies to life in prison. I’d sell them dreams of hopelessness while spoon-feeding their young with a daily dose of inferior education. I’d tell them no child shall be left behind, then take more money out of their schools, tell them to show and prove themselves on standardized exams testing their knowledge on things that they haven’t been taught, and then I’d call them inferior.

I’d soak into their interior notions of endless possibilities. I’d paint pictures of assisted productivity if they only agreed to be all they can be, dress them up with fatigues and boots with promises of pots of gold at the end of rainbows, free education to waste terrain on those who finish their bid. Then I’d close the lid on that barrel of fool’s gold by starting a war, sending their children into the midst of a hostile situation, and while they’re worried about their babies being murdered and slain in foreign lands, I’d grace them with the pain of being sick and unable to get medicine.

Give them health benefits that barely cover the common cold. John Q. would become their reality as HMOs introduce them to the world of inferior care, filling their lungs with inadequate air, penny pinching at the expense of patients, doctors practicing medicine in an intricate web of rationing and regulations. Patients wander the maze of managed bureaucracy, costs rise and quality quickly deteriorates, but they say that managed care is cheaper. They’ll say that free choice in medicine will defeat the overall productivity, and as co-payments are steadily rising, I’ll make their grandparents have to choose between buying their medicine and paying their rent.

Then I’d feed them hypocritical lines of being pro-life as the only Christian way to be. Then very contradictingly, I’d fight for the spread of the death penalty, as if thou shall not kill applies to babies but not to criminals.

Then I’d introduce them to those sworn to protect and serve, creating a curb in their trust in the law. I’d show them the nightsticks and plungers, the pepper spray and stun guns, the mace and magnums that they’d soon become acquainted with, the shakedowns and illegal search and seizures, the planted evidence, being stopped for no reason. Harassment ain’t even the half of it. Forty-one shots to two raised hands, cell phones and wallets that are confused with illegal contrabands. I’d introduce them to pigs who love making their guns click like wine glasses. Everlasting targets surrounded by bullets, making them a walking bull’s eye, a living piñata, held at the mercy of police brutality, and then we’ll see if they finally weren’t aware of the truth, if their eyes weren’t finally open like a box of Pandora.

I’d show them how the other side of the tracks carries the weight of the world on our shoulders and how society seems to be holding us down with the force of a boulder. The bird of democracy flew the coop back in Florida. See, for some, and justice comes in packs like wolves in sheep’s clothing. T.K.O.’d by the right hooks of life, many are left staggering under the weight of the day, leaning against the ropes of hope. When your dreams have fallen on barren ground, it becomes difficult to keep pushing yourself forward like a train, administering pain like a doctor with a needle, their sequels continue more lethal than injections.

They keep telling us all is equal. I’d tell them that instead of giving tax breaks to the rich, financing corporate mergers and leading us into unnecessary wars and under-table dealings with Enron and Halliburton, maybe they can work on making society more peaceful. Instead, they take more and more money out of inner city schools, give up on the idea of rehabilitation and build more prisons for poor people. With unemployment continuing to rise like a deficit, it’s no wonder why so many think that crime pays.

Maybe this trip will make them see the error of their ways. Or maybe next time, we’ll just all get out and vote. And as far as their stay in the White House, tell them that numbered are their days.â€?

In January, ESPN’s E-Ticket series wrote an excellent piece about a former football prospect from Georgia who used to give former Georgia Tech phenom Calvin Johnson trouble at defensive-back, Genarlow Wilson, who was put in jail two years ago for having consensual oral sex with a a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.

The main argument for Wilson, filed by his lawyers, stated that the mandatory 10-year sentence was “grossly disproportionate” to the crime.

For background on the story, read the ESPN E-Ticket piece.

For background on a similar injustice, read this piece by Bomani Jones years back, showing that the Georgia law books may need a serious dusting-off.

The reason he has garnered so much attention in the sports world is because allegedly in high school he would put the lock down on soon-to-be Detroit Lions receiver Johnson, a freak of nature in the sports world. When an athlete has sporting potential, they garner attention most average, non-athletic types could only hope for. At least in this case, Wilson’s story doesn’t seem as if he did a huge injustice to society. Again, the charge against him was one made so kids under 18 wouldn’t be sexually active. If every child having oral sex, or sex in general, was bound to do time, our future would be run from behind bars.

Other Links:

• Yahoo! News was the first place I found the breaking news on Wilson’s story
• Find the ESPN E-Ticket story here. Keep up with that E-Ticket series because that, along with Outside The Lines, seems to be the best journalism the World Wide Leader has going for them. (Although I do enjoy the occasional Page 2 columnist and sports beat reporters for the main-page)
• To follow-up with the trial, the following site was put together by supporters: http://www.wilsonappeal.com/index.php.
• A similar trial in Georgia was written about a long time ago by ESPN Page2’s Bomani Jones about a young athlete named Marcus Dixon.

Over the holiday weekend Duke University and John Hopkins University competed in the men’s lacrosse national championship. After all the scrutiny Duke’s team faced in the past year, most of the country rooted for the Blue Devils in the final. Last year three Duke Lacrosse players (Collin Finnerty, David Evans, and Reade Seligmann) were charged with the rape of an African American 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University who was stripping for the team at an off-campus party. As a result of the allegations Mike Pressler resigned as Men’s Duke Lacrosse coach and Athletic Director Joe Alleva suspended the Blue Devil’s lacrosse season. The end result of this racial storm on tobacco road was that all charges were dropped leaving District Attorney Mike Nifong looking foolish. Duke on the other hand seemed to be on their way to a sports movie deal. In an effort to silence the critics, Duke was on their way to winning their first Lacrosse National Championship. Disney had the papers all drawn up for the movie deal that would have had Chad Michael Murray play Finnerty. Too bad John Hopkins University had other plans, triumphing in an exciting 11-10 victory over Duke in the final.

Although happy no rape occured that fateful night, the Duke players are far from innocent and do not deserve a country rallying behind them for the title of National Champion. The team’s athletic skill was never in question, because former coach Mike Pressler did an excellent job recruiting and coaching these young men when it came to lacrosse. It was their decency, moral values, and manhood off the field that are in question.

District Attorney Mike Niafong was wrong to rush into charging these boys with such a harsh crime, but was absolutely right when he gave these collegiates the name “hoodlums.� The student athletes of Duke Lacrosse were found innocent of rape, but the culture of the program is completely unacceptable. Over half of the 2006 roster had been in trouble with the university because of on-campus drinking violations and conduct issues while 15 had been arrested for public drunkenness, public urination, and other public disturbance charges. Collin Finnerty was charged in 2006 of assault in Washington, DC. According to the police report, Finnerty and two of his friends attacked a man near Georgetown in the early hours of November 5, “busting his lip and bruising his chin.� The man told the boys to stop “calling him gay and … derogatory names.� Finnerty was ordered to serve 25 hours of community service in Washington, DC. But since he did not rape anyone, he must be a good kid.

The Miami University Football program is constantly under attack because of their culture of unruly troubled African American youths. The Hurricanes deserve to be constantly under attack because of their culture and they are an embarrassment to anyone who was/is a part of college athletics. With that said, having 41 players charged with misdemeanor crimes since 1999 and having players involved in underground “fight clubs� is also unacceptable and Duke Lacrosse should be held to the same standards as Miami Football.

I find it repulsive the way our country embraces these boys. Duke Lacrosse merchandise moved off the shelves in record numbers after the rape allegations. The fact that Fathead.com decided to make a Free Duke Fathead ensures the fact that I will never purchase a fathead to put on my wall, no matter how good a LaRon Landry fathead would look next to my bar. Why does our country celebrate and rally behind unruly youths that scream racial slurs and spit on women? Did we forget that one of the players wrote an email saying he wanted to “skin the stripper alive?� I will not cheer Duke Lacrosse anytime soon because I am still offended and you should be too!

By now everyone has heard radio announcer Don Imus’ racist and sexist comments regarding the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team. People were appalled, disgusted, and disappointed.

You talked to your friends and family about how shocked you were that today, in 2007, people still think like that. Got up on your soapbox at work letting everyone know that you thought he should be fired, never allowed on the radio again. I would bet some of us even joked about being locked in a room with him for five minutes to show Imus some manners. After you voiced your opinion and let your anger be heard what did you do? You turned on the radio and hear your favorite Game song “Wouldn’t get far.�

My point? How can you expect America to take African American culture seriously if African Americans do not respect the culture themselves… ourselves. Although angered, I was not shocked when I heard Don Imus’ comments from a few days ago. America has a LONG way to go when it comes to racism. We live in a society where Paris Hilton can call producers niggers with no backlash from the community. We live in a country where Abercrombie & Fitch can settle out of court for a measly $40 million dollars for discriminated against minorities in 2005 and yet is still one of the highest selling clothing lines amongst the youth. The settlement was not even major news! Last week during my flag football game, I was told to “know my place boy,� emphatically by a white player on the other team. The sad thing about last weekend’s events is that the opposing team was half African American and not one of the black players felt the need to reprimand their teammate or apologize to me. Does America still think like Kramer, who we still can see on television at least three times a day?

Being almost twenty-five in America, I am no longer surprised by racism. I do however hold my family accountable for their actions. I demand that we stop calling each other niggers, bitches, and hoes.

This morning I heard Snoop Dog and Stuart Scott attempting to explain why it is acceptable for black men to call their friends niggers and black women call their friends bitches and hoes. I could not disagree more. On Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio (April 11, 2007) Stuart Scott tried to justify this unacceptable behavior by saying it was a way of turning a negative into a positive, a way of taking the power out of the word. Making these terms words of endearment. I would like Stu to go home and call his wife or mother a bitch or a hoe and see what type of loving reaction he receives and have him give them the same lame excuse to them on why it is acceptable. My father did not take part in sit-ins while in college for his son to call himself and his friends’ niggers. My mother did not get spit on for being the only black person living in her New York City building for me to call black women hoes and bitches. How can I possibly get mad at Michael Richards or Don Imus if I use the same language?

I went to Allegheny College, about an hour north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since my home is Alexandria, Virginia, I was not able to go home often. Easter was particularly hard because I was never able to go home during that weekend. I had a close friend who would take me home with him every Easter and considered him one of my best friends in college. Spending Easter with his family was a big deal to me. We would go over his grandmother’s house, eat, and have Easter egg hunts with kids, it was great! Our senior year of college we were hanging out in my apartment playing Madden before a night of drinking, obviously Redskins versus the Steelers. As Laveranues Coles caught a deep bomb for a touchdown my friend called his defensive back, “a stupid nigger.� I was shocked; I had been to this man’s grandmother’s house for the past two Easters! I calmly told my supposed friend that language like that was not acceptable in my home. His rebuttal was, “Come on Ian, you know we are cool, you guys say it in rap songs.� My response was had he ever heard me call anyone that word, he replied with an embarrassed no. Needless to say, I did not go to his home for Easter that year. The point of this story is what could I have said to him if I used that type of language? How can I hold someone accountable for something that I have no problem doing?

Hip Hop artists need to realize that the majority of their music is bought by suburban white youth. I do not knock Snoop Dog, 50 Cent, and others for trying to support and financially establish their families, I am happy for them. All I am trying to say is, Talib Kweli put it best when he said, “Where else in America can a black man get in front of a microphone and say whatever the hell he feels like? That is a lot of responsibility.�

Jason Whitlock, from the sports media point of view, is the latest whistleblower from the black community. As you can imagine, as with most whistleblowers, he’s catching a lot of heat. As it goes, he knew this would be the case, but what gets lost in the heat is the topic he’s speaking of. People dismiss his argument altogether to personally attack how they believe Whitlock himself is “bojangling” for the white media he speaks to through the Kansas City Star and AOL Sports.

A common misconception tends to be that Whitlock is clearing Don Imus of wrongdoing. This is most definitely not the case. Imus should be (and has been) held accountable for what he’s done. Albeit a slow response, MSNBC removed Imus from his simulcast and hopefully sponsors will continue to drop and WFAN will follow suit.

Whitlock’s argument is meant to get people to focus less on Imus as the ultimate, end-all problem. Imus is one of many “shock jocks” who gets his popularity by speaking his ignorance and bigotry. For every Imus there are many, many others waiting in the wings to overtake his old “throne” on-air (Not to mention the countless others without radio time).

It would be more ideal for Whitlock to sit down in an open forum with various other well-respected journalists and leaders and discuss the issue at hand. He had this forum at the World Wide Leader (WWL) but following his interview with TheBigLead.com, he was removed from the best current sports forum.

Another common argument I’ve heard has been that Whitlock is voicing his outrage through the wrong medium. He’s on a popular, national stage with AOL Sports, as well as the KC Star, where he repeatedly writes about how he things the gangster culture is destroying the black image. People in hoods and impovershed neighborhoods cannot always access his work.

Whitlock is speaking through the medium that will access the most people. His medium speaks to many of the leaders and idols kids look up to. He’s speaking a lot to those players in the league who work side-by-side with those 2% of trouble-makers giving the rest a bad rep. Athletes and leaders of communities who have access to Whitlock’s work can make a difference. More importantly, his focus is specifically at the persons who he is particularly angry at — the media who chooses to cover that 2% with all their resources. Why are they giving coverage to these few bad seeds?

The answer is simple: Consumers love to hear about it. We pay more attention to lead stories covering more wrongdoing than charity work.

Whitlock stepped up and takes the heat from the black community as the lead whistleblower. Because of this, he’ll catch heat from various persons and groups, but after more Imus-like issues arise, people will begin to see the light. I don’t doubt he’s went to hoods, suburbs and all types of communities to speak his message, but it doesn’t matter. People will ridicule him and say he’s not “down” enough and hate will follow. And, just like with the Imus, everyone will again stray from what should be the primary focus.

Have a better method for what Whitlock is trying to do? If so, feel free to let the rest of us in on your solution. Sometimes the bold method, with a whistle in hand, is the right path to take.

Don Imus isn’t smart enough to understand the wave his ignorance started.

But do realize that this is not a new issue. For years now, and most notably ever since his interview with thebiglead.com, Jason Whitlock (Kansas City Star, AOL Sports) has been the ring leader for the main issue people are just now starting to focus on.

The terms Whitlock use to make his argument, however, tend to make people of every race, religion and color extremely uncomfortable. When a person refers to a group of people as the “black KKK,” expect for hate and insecurities to follow. JWhit just simply refuses to bite his tongue — ironically, much like most shock jocks — pointing out that it is the black community who should be looking inward and not outward in searching for a way to start solving racial inequality issues. The same issues we keep focusing on when idiots like Imus show off their inner bigot.

And the leaders first to lend their voice for the community in cases such as this one, when ignorance is heard ‘roun the world, are more than susceptible to losing focus on the real issues at hand.

Which is why, using his AOLSports stage, Whitlock calls for Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to step down.

From his Kansas City Star platform, Whitlock pointed out the most overlooked issue: Don Imus isn’t the real bad guy.

Leave it to JWhit to say the words no one else has been willing to say. And, not to overplay the cliche but, no truer words have been spoken.

What started as a few ignorant words over the airwaves became a complete storm overnight. Rightfully so.

The issue at hand is larger than a decaying old radio voice, and can only be solved with the cooperation of not only black society, but the all others. People who support and celebrate rappers and gangsters who degrade their own culture are in the wrong. Hip-hop culture, specifically, needs to reassess itself.

More importantly we, as consumers of all types of degrading mediums, need to have higher standards for what we support. Years ago, when Imus first uttered ignorant remarks, people should’ve been outraged and demanded his ouster.

Instead, we see everyone just now catching up and showing outrage for an issue that, as Whitlock has repeatedly said, should have been addressed long ago.

Here are some selected, related Whitlock columns:
*Note: Most of these are from AOL Sports, but his KC Star collection can be found HERE*

• End Welfare for Non-Revenue Sports
  
• NBA, NFL and NCAA Must Get on Same Page
  
• Pro Football, Basketball Drawing Line
  
• Basketball, Football Rotting As We Watch
  
• Vegas Backlash Misses Point
  
• Time to Stop Looking Past Black KKK
  
• Hip Hop Serving Up Plan for Failure
  
• Mayhem Main Event as NBA All-Star Weekend
  
• Black Community Must Combat Gun Violence
  
• Vick Standing Pat With Enablers at His Side
  
• Irvin Joins Ranks of ‘Bojanglers’
  
• ‘The Wire’ Calls Out Destructive Culture
  
• Welcome to Real Talk With Jason Whitlock
  
• 10 Rules for Rolling With Big Sexy