Regarding the RGIII/Rob Parker fiasco...

[j2k4]

...Leonard Pitts has the most salient commentary I have seen yet:

In My Opinion | Leonard Pitts Jr.

Cornball ideas about ‘blackness’


I suddenly find myself concerned about my blackness.

It had never occurred to me to worry about it before. Then came the incident last month on ESPN’s First Take program that initially got commentator Rob Parker suspended and then, last week, fired outright.

It seems Parker, who is African American, analyzed what he saw as the insufficient blackness of Robert Griffin III, rookie quarterback for the Washington, D.C., football team that is named for a racial slur.

Having returned their team to relevance for the first time since the Clinton era, RG3, as he is known, can do no wrong in the eyes of Slurs fans.

But Parker, saying that the young man’s fiancé is (gasp!) white and that he himself is rumored to be — cover the children’s ears — a Republican, found him lacking in the area of authentic blackness.

“My question,” he said, “which is just a straight, honest question: is he a brother, or is he a cornball brother?

He’s not really . . . OK, he’s black, he kind of does the thing, but he’s not really down with the cause.

He’s not one of us. He’s kind of black, but he’s not really like the guy you really want to hang out with . . .”

That explosion you hear is the sound of my mind, blown. I’m left second guessing my own blackness.

I mean, I listen to Bruce Springsteen, for crying out loud! There’s even a Dixie Chicks album on my iPod. Should I download more James Brown and Al Green to save my, ahem, soul?

And I read books sometimes, man — even when no one’s making me do it. Some of them are thick as bricks. Some aren’t even about African-American themes.

It gets worse. I have no natural rhythm, no criminal record and can correctly pronounce the word “ask.” I don’t curse nearly as much as I ought to. Oh, and I went and married my baby mama.

Obviously, my blackness is on life support.

Many of us have been taught that it is demeaning and delimiting when someone presumes to say who you are, how you will behave, what you think, what you like, and how intelligent you are, from the color of your skin. We have been taught that such behavior abridges the other person’s individuality.

But apparently, that’s only when white people do it to black people. When black people do it to black people, it’s called assessing your blackness, making sure you aren’t some “cornball brother.”

How enlightening to learn that. It is even more enlightening to discover that we have such easy-peasy rubrics to go by. You can’t be black if you are a Republican? That means Colin Powell isn’t black.

Neither, if published reports are to be believed, are rappers LL Cool J and 50 Cent. Who’d have thought?

And if you can’t be black and have a white significant other . . . wow. There goes — what? half? 90 percent? — of all the brothers in the NBA.

Poor Frederick Douglass has a double whammy. He was a Republican and had a white wife. Who’d have thought this former slave, one of the towering heroes of African-American history, wasn’t black enough?

It is this kind of bold insight and trenchant analysis ESPN loses in sacking Rob Parker. What is the network thinking?

Parker, who also contributes commentary to WDIV television in Detroit, defended himself in an interview with the station that aired shortly before ESPN dropped the ax.

He pronounced himself shocked by the fallout and suggested his comments were taken out of context.

“You can’t be afraid to talk about race,” he said. He’s exactly right. In discussing race, we must be fearless. We must also be thoughtful. And informed. And exact. And alive to the ramifications of what we say.

Surely, Rob Parker knows this. Or if he didn’t before, he does now.

As for being black enough, he is probably a greater expert than he was before. He is, after all, a man out of work. It doesn’t get much blacker than that.

[AudibleSilence]

Eh..I get this shit all the time. People tell me I'm not black or that I try to be white. "Oh you don't sound like a black guy" "oh you date white chicks, you must hate black women" "oh...you don't vote democrat?!?! You're a sell out!"

[HilbillyHomeboy]

I like that.

Jeremy

[j2k4]

Eh..I get this shit all the time. People tell me I'm not black or that I try to be white. "Oh you don't sound like a black guy" "oh you date white chicks, you must hate black women" "oh...you don't vote democrat?!?! You're a sell out!"

I imagine all that is quite true Mike - but you don't have a newspaper column with which to respond.

Go for it, please.

[AdamVR4]

I hardly ever watch that show but I actually saw this shit the day it aired. Rob parker embodies so much of whats wrong with america today.

[IPD]

Rob Parker Was Right To Question RG3′s ‘Blackness’–But Not On ESPN | Breaking News for Black America

parker isn't alone in his sentiments. racism IS alive and well today, but the greatest myth about it is that it's NOT WASP's who are doing it. it's the black-subculture itself. i hear shit like "so many black people in prison" or something, and it's used as "proof" that "the man" is keeping the entire race down. news-flash: it's young black men BUYING IN to the stereotypes that keeps young black men in prison.

there's a gigantic mis-perception championed by the likes of sharpton & jackson that believes that if "blackness" isn't embraced, that one's racial identity is lost. the funny thing is, they are 100% correct. and even funnier "blackness" is a fabricated racist concept. "blackness" isn't something you find europeans prattling about. several of the national soccer teams have black players (france, the netherlands, etc). "blackness" isn't an issue over here. if there's ANY cultural tension, it's between muslims and the rest of the native population: a RELIGIOUS issue. (one that, mind you, the entire world is suffering from, as of late).

can i blame these "superstar athletes" who marry "white women"? not a bit. "blackness" would require them to marry the fare of women who regularly appear on the Maury show. how long must it take for people to realize that in the USA, the biggest limit to your success is you, yourself and ye?

[AudibleSilence]

Honestly...you guys saw an ugly side of black culture.. It was like talking family business outside of the home. :/

[IPD]

Honestly...you guys saw an ugly side of black culture.. It was like talking family business outside of the home. :/

mike, the world will not be at peace so long as there is "black culture". or "hispanic culture". or any other similar "culture".

we have "american" culture. all of us, collectively. even if you were born and raised in a foreign land, if you are living in the USA permanently, then drop the pretense; you are officially an american now. what made america great was the melting pot of culture. trying to preserve "black culture" is in essence spitting in the eye of what makes this country so great. if the chinese, irish, germans, etc--never assimilated, this country would be as fractionated as the former republic of yugoslavia.

appreciate who you are and where you come from, and remain mindful that ethnicity has no bearing on your abilities as a human being. not in america. conceptions of personal limitations are what holds someone back, not "the man". maybe this is easier to see for someone like me, who is as dis-connected from his birth-family as he is from popular culture--but i stand by this assertion: when you perceive yourself as an independant, autonomous entity--unsaddled by concerns over "group membership"--it is then you can be truly free. it is then when you are yourself alone, and not of the mold of any grouping or stereotype that some may wish to place upon you.

god bless america.

[j2k4]

It was like talking family business outside of the home.

Sounds like a Jesse/Al-type of sentiment...honestly.

[IPD]

Sounds like a Jesse/Al-type of sentiment...honestly.

agreed.