Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Two very interesting stories came to my attention yesterday, and to me both had a bit to do with race. One was blatantly obvious, the other was a bit more subtle.

I'll start with Donovan McNabb's complaint that black quarterbacks are under more scrutiny than white quarterbacks. I have heard many people basically say that Donovan is playing the race card, and he needs to stop crying. I hear others say that given his terrible game on Monday Night Football, he really should shut up, not knowing that this interview was filmed on August 31st. And then I hear some people saying Donovan is right, and they start giving examples of current quarterbacks who are singled out. In this instance, everyone is right and wrong. Donovan has a right to be sensitive about qbs and race, given that a few years back he was called out by Rush Limbaugh BECAUSE he was black. That gives Donovan about a 10 year pass to speak about race and QBs. Also, every time a black QB comes into the league, questions about his intelligence surface, and I've been seeing this since I've been watching football. It's pretty laughable at this point. The other side of this argument, is that there are more and more black qbs coming into the league, getting jobs, losing jobs, starting, playing backup, than at any point in history, and of course they will be scrutinized, because ALL quarterbacks are in the NFL. So this is not a simple issue at all, in fact it sparks excellent debate.

The second story I noticed yesterday, was the this kid from the University of Florida, who got tasered at a John Kerry speech. Apparently he got a little overzealous with the questions while he was on the microphone, and despite being asked to step down(or off as the kids used to say), he proceeded to keep talking, and the police swooped in with great vengeance and furious anger, and tasered this kid, and then arrested him. In less than 24 hours this story has been all over the news, some kids on the campus(both black and white I might add) are protesting, and the policeman who tasered this kid have been put on administrative leave while this is investigated. And all of this attention is justified. I just don't understand why an equally news worthy story, involving some racial injustice in Louisiana, has not gotten this kind of publicity. You could argue that John Kerry's presence at the University of Florida incident, instantly makes that story newsworthy. And then I could come back at you and say that this Jena 6 story is happening in Louisiana, which just two short years ago, was the site of a hurricane that took the world by storm(bad pun) and sparked a huge debate on race and class for that matter. So i'm not cynical towards my main man in Florida, just upset at the disparity in media coverage.

In a lighter note, there are two things funny about the taser incident. Right before he got tasered, the kid said don't taser me bro...which reminded me of this article. And second, while the kid was being tasered, he kept yelling and screaming, and it reminded me of this scene from Star Wars.

Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey - Sly and the Family Stone

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is interesting, why don't you write more about it. I would love to sit in on a QB debate.

LOL @ the taser guy screams. It's not funny but then again it is.

BewRadley said...

Brotato!
Am i wrong because i like to see the people shake when they get tazed?

maxwellsmusze said...

Dont call me a nigger, Whitey!
(hahahahahahaha)

Between this tasered up "bro" and the missing little foreign white girl, I'm sick of the "news". Thank goodness O.J. is sticking folks up.

redhotmama said...

dude sounded horrible. i'm sure he was adding extras 'cause he and his family are about to get a nice piece of change off that. when i looked at people's reaction to it, their discomfort didn't seem to be about their unwillingness to help or about witnessing such unnecessary hemming-uppedness. (no, that is nowhere near a word). they all looked like they wanted to say, "man up, bro."

GemEnigma said...

In response to the QB topic, a friend and I were having a discussion via G-Chat. He gave me permission to post his opinion:

jawann@gmail.com: I just dislike when black people claim race on issues where race isn't that big an issue or just irrelavent. Woe is me, I'm an unloved multimillionaire. Not to mention that he hasn't won and the media has always loved him. Plus he plays in Philly, the city that booed Santa Claus but hasn't booed him. And Peyton Manning was more criticized than anyone before he won the super bowl and he is white
me: can i post this comment on rashad's blog?
www.rashadiscrazy.blogspot.com
jawann@gmail.com: sure

redhotmama said...

oh yeah.
this football stuff is really blowing me, yo.
football sucks. :( :)
i tend to skim over that portion of the entries.
sorry.