Football is a violent sport. No doubt it plays into the gladiator blood sport mythos of days gone by. It’s also BIG business. I’ve heard that the current labour dispute between the owners and players is at the root, really about how to divvy up $9 billion is yearly revenue… basically the owners want a larger share of that pie!
Anywayzz, I like many others, mainly watch the NFL on Sundays to see the BIG hit… and, I like many others, watch our local sportscast to see the BIG hits in the other games we didn’t/couldn’t watch… and, there’s no BIGGER hitter in my (our) beloved NFL than James Harrison, linebacker with the Pittsburg Steelers.
James has created some controversy with his interview in the upcoming August Men’s Journal magazine (see here). People are “up in arms” (is this a bad pun I wonder?… lol!) about comments he made about racism in the league, comments about the commissioner Roger Goodell, including referring to him as a “faggot”, comments about his teammates, as well as levelling accusations against other players. The truth of the matter is that we live in the “age of instant but fleeting celebrity”… and the more outrageous and controversial you can be, the longer you can stretch out your allotted 15 minutes of fame… maybe to 30 minutes… and if you’re really luckily, a couple of news cycles!
As a football fan, I found the article to be interesting. No better or worse than most that I have read. However, what made me “shake my head” in disgust was the above photo, with the caption, James Harrison: Confessions of an NFL Hitman. What troubles me most, is as a police officer, that image only re-enforces a stereotype that places Black men is danger… and as a conscious and conscientious Black man (also bald with a little muscle) and father of a young Black son, that image only re-enforces a stereotype that places my son and I in danger… primarily from my gun-toting police brethren!
As Black men, we need to move beyond this gangster mentality… and I don’t just mean rappers, reggae dancehall artists and sports figures… and I’m not only talking to the our young Black men. I’m talking about and to all of us! This fascination of being (seen as) the hardest and wickedest, the Al Pacino “baad guy” persona is not only self-destructive, more significantly, it’s childish!
Also if you are so baad as you want people to believe , then why all the whining the next day that you were misquoted, your comments were taken out of context, making clarifications, apologies and statements that your comments and slurs weren’t meant to be derogatory against “whatever” group (see here).
Bad Up and Man Up! Stand By What You Say or Shut The Fuck Up! You can’t be misquoted and taken out of context if you keep your mouth shut! And you certainly can’t be a gangster and a whiner at the same time!
The only “real niggazz” I know are “wannaa-bee gangstazz”.
afrospear.wordpress.com 
Exacty Asa, and the “real” gangsters that I know are locked up or dead, this is a fact that I’ve seen with my own eyes, not just a cliche. I’ve seen young men that are so into the gang life that no matter their talent, some more talented than Mr. Harrison, live out the gang protocols and die or become incarcerated rather than ascend to the NFL, or Major League Baseball,even when they have been recruited/drafted.
On the other hand these “gangstazz” are sellers of a false and dangerous image. Not a reality. They are playing and selling to a young “white” market and the back lash is to our detriment. The Albion (white folk) sees the “gangsta” image when they see even me or you. They don’t see Dr. Sebi, Dr. Nathan Hare or Dr. Phil Valentine when they see us.
Much the same is true of Michael Irvin’s homo-thug image on the cover of Out Magazine. Thus, the two are representative of a conflicted “dead” society. On the one hand here is a tough “gangsta” that later sucumbs to whining and lamenting like a little b*tch (IMO 75% of all b*tches are male) about mis-qoutes, for now his FEAR of reprocussion reveals his “gangsta” is only a facade and exposes the efeminate male slave that he really is, who buckles at the whims of “massa” and apologizes louder than he previously ranted.
Then there is the out right exposure of the pseudo “gangsta”/tough guy, homo-thug, as the slave that chosses to play the homosexual roll out right to gain favor in “massa’s” eyes as in the case of Michael Irvin. This slave will deal on a homosexual level with massa, play the roll or live it, to show massa he is worthy of whatever crumbs he can garner. And believe me, the multi-million endorsements are what at stake here, but they are only corporate crumbs.
Endorsements are the bread and butter of professional athlete, not so much their lucrative contract. Too us average workers, these endorsements would be a great financial boon, but for the corporate sponsers, they are but crumbs. Ergo, these men are but slaves buck dancing and shuffling for massa’s crumbs and are not gangster at all.
“…bun di wicked image and di wicked man dem profile…”
-Turbulence (Rasta singer)
Asa, the other issue you point out is so true as well. Being a black man in law enforcement does not exempt you from the racial stereotypng and can even become physically hazardous.
There was a case in San Diego several years ago when I was still living there, in which an off duty police officer was nearly beaten to death by two California Highway Patrolmen. He was pullied over (DWB), he explained he was an off duty officer, yet they still beat him to a pulp.
In Los Angeles, two off duty LAPD officers did a drive by on a Black California Highway Patrolman while he was on duty making a traffic stop. Of course the Black under cover officer was shot and killed while reaching for his badge in New York not too long ago. And, closer to home for me. My son is in the U.S. Coast Guard, and is legally authorized to carry his weapon (Coast Guard is a law enforcement service in the U.S.) was stopped by a Baltimore police officer and harrassed as he was going to work for duty. The officer stopped initially because he saw a Guatamalan flag hanging from his car mirror (the policeman told him this), then proceeded to grill him about wearing his weapon. MY SON WAS IN UNIFORM!!!! It didn’t matter to the police officer. Had to show ID, show information about his weapon, why he was carrying it and the whole nine yards. Because…..he is still a YOUNG BLACK MAN WITH A GUN!!! Forget the uniform.
This is another reason this “gangsta” image is so dangerous.
Peace
That harassment is their fear. Their mind is already defeated.
Football is a semi-brutal sport but it does take brains and nerves to be on the starting line-up. That being stated Mr. Harrison should have enough intelligence to realize that he is selling magazines for europeans (ie making them more money) but the least he could do was realize that his words are HIS and they should be chosen carefully because they weld positive AND negative power. When people see him if they have melanin they see reflection of self then they see that negative caption. He is in a star’s position and should use that position to promote the anti-thesis to what racist think melanin represents. In summation we are just surprised that he let the magazine use him like that. He could of at least demanded editing rights after the fact to remove damaging words. What do you (the reader) think?
More black men need to start speaking up against this type of behaviour and simply ostracize them and let the world know that these fools do not represent them.
I was with my brother one day in his car and a couple of black men walked by with their pants sagging, their behinds on display for the entitre world to see. My brother was so disgusted that with a frown on his face he turned to me and said: And to think that women sleep with that.”
“Gangsta” behaviour, attire and lifestyle have been accepted as Black culture for a long time now. I doubt some of the people involved in this culture realize how far away from being normal they are viewed by most people.
Perhaps we should be doing more to educate society about the dangers of expecting morons and buffoons to be anything more than what they are. These men were not chosen for their brains. They were chosen for their athletic ability. Every once in a while you will see a mixture of brains and brawn, but usually these athletes are not the best representatives of a cultures intellectual or moral ability.
@ Ana: Does it have to be black men, or black people, who ostracize them?
Recently, a black high school student sued her school for allowing an annual “Wigger Day.” The purpose of the event seems to be to allow white students to mock black people who are, in your words, acting like “fools” and seen as “far away from being normal.”
@ Unamused: No, it does not have to be black men, or black people who ostracize them.
@Unamused: I don’t get the nonsense by some blacks at being offended when whites ostracize and make fun of the fools within black culture.
If a line had been drawn in the sand from the first place no one would have to be offended because it would simply be: “well they do not represent me.”
Because this vanguardism never occured, now you have blacks feeling offended when the larger community mock in derision the thuggish behaviour some young black men have become famous for.
Who says that gansgta behaviour is pure black expression?
Bad behaviour is unacceptable worldwide.It is universally frowned upon as something that is totally unacceptable within civilized society.
For the life of me,I could not understand why many blacks did not come out against Isaiah Thomas when he said in public that it is ok for black men to call black women bit***s.
You see too many great moments for drawing the line in the sand have been lost.
Saludos…
Unamused: I linked back at the Root and saw your posts. Don’t ever believe I agree with your position. Mine is clear.
I will advise you next time first to go over and criticize those rednecks with no teeth in their mouths who believe they run America before you show up here.
And anybody in this country have ample people to mock, because there is a fool practically on every corner, suburban development, barnyard and trailer park in this big United States.