America’s NWA: Sports IS a Magnifying Glass
We don’t need a scalpel to dissect football because the industry of sports, itself, is a biopsy of American Thought.
Three years. Three sports seasons. Three Super Bowls. Three Black men with three vastly different personalities.
One sport. Football. And one critique of all three Black men… “Classless”.
“Let’s play a game.” Don’t worry, you won’t have to saw off your left foot to escape a room in a low budget horror film. However, it may require you to place a hoodie on your son and tell him to walk to the store at night.
I know, equally as terrifying.
No, this game requires YOU to choose a personality assigned to MY Black son and then look him in the eyes when he’s 18 years old and explain to him why he is what’s wrong with sports, society, and with how non-black people view Black people. After all, depending on how a Black boy exudes confidence, he may be a poster boy for America’s new “Nigga With Attitude.”
So let’s start, option one:
My Son is… “The Greatest Corner[back] in the GAME!!”
Born in 2014, this son of mine is born under the Negro Zodiac Year of the Sherman. He is confident; when he’s involved in intense competition, he talks trash and backs it up. However, anytime he opens his mouth before winning a Super Bowl, the word “THUG” is uttered on television 625 times to describe him.
You wonder why in a Country predicated on being able to be free, his version of confidence upsets the sensibilities of “the good American public”. It tells us one thing; a child born in the Negro year of Sherman lacks “class”.
“Loud and obnoxious is NOT the way for YOU to act.” — America
My Son…”Is Just Here so He Won’t Get Fined.”
Ah, a birth in the year 2015, the Negro Zodiac Year of the Lynch. He’s Meek, but no Mill. Learning from his older brother, he knows that he’ll be ostracized if he talks the talk while he walks the walk. So he walks…actually he bulldozes in his performance and only expresses his blatant mastery in the work that he does, all while remaining cautious in what he says.
He isn’t trying to be your friend. Actually, considering how you’d perceive and twist his words…he shouldn’t want to be your friend.
And Society has a problem with that too. There’s a certain way to act when we’ve been given an opportunity to make rich men richer and risk concussions, right?
My Son does the…”Cutest Lil Dab! Yes you do! Yes you doooo!”
Born in 2016, the Negro Zodiac Year of the Newton. He’s just great at what he does. And you know what else, he’s living that “American Dream” of accomplishing the rare feat of mastering a career that he enjoys. Think about that for a moment. Think about how you’d feel if you were him, waking up with a smile on your face because you enjoy life. Being able to just skip to work, dancing in the rain and giving touchdown footballs to little kids. He’s just happy.
But you just don’t like that either, huh? It’s not classy, it’s too arrogant…
I mean…He’s no Peyton.
There’s that lack of class charge again.
We Haven’t Fit the American Cowboy Persona
These Black Athletes are not fitting the American Cowboy persona and it makes people uncomfortable. Considering Football is America’s baby and the Super Bowl, where commercials charges $5mill per 30 sec, it is the place where the world sees American culture on display.
America and the “patriots” who LOVE it are extremely territorial about how you behave at their party. The party is “theirs” because the host and the birthday boys are the only one’s who are allowed to blow out the candles the way they want to. So, if you thought it was your party, but you’re being told that you need to check your behavior…you’d better look at America’s birthday flyer again…because your face and name is probably under “guest”.
Again, it’s funny that in a place dubbed the land of the free, certain aspects of life demand that the measuring stick be flexible and acceptable to change of one’s personality in order to fit the status quo of society however, those same defenders of the status quo fail to be anything but rigid with regard to tolerance of others.
Imagine the affects, of observance of a yearly American media tradition of creating a new villain out of a Black guy, on a young impressionable mind. Imagine subconsciously being shown every year a new example of how YOU are not allowed to express yourself because it’s not the American Cowboy way.
And I guess if, throughout this entire read, you’ve found yourself arguing to yourself, “well they could be classy like Russell Wilson”, then, this article is an indictment on you, huh?
At least an America where one day we will only be judged by the content of our character is more realistic than an America where a Flint Michigan water company will have a Super Bowl commercial, right? Wait, they go hand in hand…nevermind.
