#BLACKMANNERSMATTER — CALLING OUT CLASSLESSNESS ISN’T RACISM

by Alexander Zubatov

André Carlisle’s “Cam Newton and the Suppression of Black Ego” is just another installment in a depressingly familiar series, which consists of claiming that anyone black who is called out for behaving like a classless and disrespectful thug is really a victim of racism. If it were Cam Newton rather than Peyton Manning who was now being accused of using performance-enhancing drugs and covering up decades-old sexual assault allegations, we’d certainly be reading how this is all a high-tech lynching of a successful black athlete. If it were Cam Newton rather than Tom Brady who was being routinely vilified as a cheater, investigated by the NFL and branded a can’t-take-a-hit-pretty-boy, with people reveling in the battering he got by the very same Denver defense that undid Cam Newton, we’d undoubtedly be reading how another successful black athlete is being tarred to prevent white America from having to deal with the fact that a black athlete is dominating the sport. If it were Cam Newton rather than Richie Incognito who had been kicked out of football for a whole year because he had bullied a player with psychological problems, we’d surely be hearing how this is just another case of a vibrant and expressive black athlete being controlled through the oppressive machinery of league discipline. But, of course, the standard M.O. of race-baiting apologists writing pieces like Mr. Carlisle’s is to ignore such instances of prominent and successful white athletes having to answer the critics, while putting a laser-sharp focus on instances of black athletes being likewise called to account.

Let’s stop sugarcoating this and call a spade a spade: basketball and football have become nearly unwatchable for anyone with any aesthetic sensibilities as a result of the now-routine classless celebratory antics that were spearheaded largely by prominent black athletes. In all but the most egregious instances, broadcasters and leagues just joined in on the fun. They “boo-yeahed!” and laughed along all the way to the bank because this was “showtime,” and “showtime” in prime-time meant big-time tickets and sky-high ratings. Sure, such celebrations were egotistical and poor sportsmanship as measured by any traditional standard, and maybe some older, whiter, more conservative fuddy-duddies were being put off, but the powers-that-be, principally concerned with their profit margins, started noticing that classlessness catering to the lowest common denominator made the cash register go ch-ching. As a result, in-your-face gloating that once would have raised many an eyebrow became everyday, every play, every-which-way occurrences, even as those raised eyebrows were turning whiter and bushier year by year. We went from Barry Sanders to Deion Sanders, from classy athletes who let their otherworldly talent do all the talking to those who felt the need to jabber, strut and high-step on every play. As surely as Muhammad Ali consciously appropriated the incendiary showmanship of the notorious pro wrestling villain Gorgeous George, professional athletics became more and more like professional wrestling. In the span of a few decades, the standard of behavior changed markedly, and all notions of “class” went out the window. Athletes became “entertainers” (as Isaiah Thomas likes to call them), and the line between sports and “sports entertainment,” which is what the WWE labels its product, became ever thinner.

Cam Newton, a new low in egotism and classlessness, is the logical conclusion of our progressive degradation. He’s classless in victory, classless in defeat, egotistical to the max, celebrates himself every chance he gets and believes the world revolves around him and his colossal talent. And when an America finally beginning to get fed up with the image of pro athlete as narcissistic thug revels in his defeat, while he gets justly criticized for his unsportsmanlike behavior, those like Mr. Carlisle point an angry finger back at Newton’s critics and, with time expired and no other plays left at the end of regulation, play the old race card. Let’s not kid ourselves: this is about class, not race. It’s about a legitimate expectation that those OF WHATEVER RACE who are fortunate enough to make it into the public eye show some class, some humility, some appreciation of the other folks it takes to make the whole show worth watching.

It’s time to end what George W. Bush — not my favorite person in the world but right on this point— called the “soft bigotry of low expectations” and to hold black people to the same standards to which we hold everyone else. That means that when the race card gets played out of turn, we start calling personal fouls. It means, as I have argued elsewhere, that we stop tolerating black people (and their elite white lackeys) who are trying to exploit the real anti-black crimes of U.S. history in order to shut up anyone and everyone who doesn’t agree with them: https:[email protected][email protected]-98eeea6b6151. It means, as I have also argued, that we stop tolerating divisive Superbowl halftime shows that, using the excuse of “a display of black pride,” attack and alienate much of the white audience (and, for that matter, that we stop listening to hip hop music that is vulgar, profane, offensive, racist, misogynist, homophobic and otherwise vile): https:[email protected]/stop-singing-along-to-the-hatred-f8f8a67cd71c#.c8lhenw7m. And it means that we stop tolerating black athletes (indeed, ANY athletes or celebrities) who expect a free pass when they behave like classless thugs. It means that #Blackmannersmatter, that #Allmannersmatter, that, as I have also argued here (http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/160181/sec_id/160181) and here (http://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/2014/05/2d-be/), the way we conduct ourselves and expect others to conduct themselves in public is one of the essential hallmarks of a healthy society. Judged by that standard, ours is a society in decline. Let’s take the well-deserved, ole-fashioned whippin’ Cam Newton received in the Superbowl not as some racist metaphor but as a rousing call-to-arms: Newton is a symbol of an arrogant America in decline; we have to rise to the occasion and be Denver’s historic defense keeping the invaders at bay, preventing the enemies within and without from getting to the endzone of national collapse.

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Alexander Zubatov is a practicing attorney specializing in general commercial litigation. He is also a practicing writer specializing in general non-commercial poetry, fiction, drama, essays and polemics. In the words of one of his intellectual heroes, José Ortega y Gasset, biography is “a system in which the contradictions of a human life are unified.”

Some of his articles have appeared in Acculturated, PopMatters, The Hedgehog Review, The Montreal Review, The Fortnightly Review, New English Review, Culture Wars and nthposition.

He makes occasional, unscheduled appearances on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Zoobahtov).