I hope that when he wrote this latest article for msn/foxsports, he was playing Devil's Advocate. Otherwise.... side-eye
Excerpt:
Would someone please write a handbook? "What Will and Won't Piss Black Folk Smooth the **** Off"; would be an international bestseller.
I'm black, and I'm pissed off most of the time, but I wouldn't leave home without the handbook. Not in these racist-ly confusing times. I can barely keep up with when I'm supposed to be disappointed as opposed to offended as opposed to being pissed smooth the **** off.
He is making reference to the controversy over the LeBron-Gisele cover on Vogue. His opinion on the photograph is not clear, i.e., I'm not sure if he thinks that LeBron is not imitating King Kong and black people are overreacting, or if he thinks that he is portrayed as the beast, but that LeBron (and other athletes) also perpetuate stereotypes, so why are black people mad now. I'm pretty sure it's the latter, but that's beside the point of this post. My issue is with Whitlock's line of reasoning.
One of the ways he thinks LeBron is making himself a beastly stereotype is via tattoos. Apparently, and this was news to me, black people get inked up to look like prisoners. Betcha didn't know that. Here I was thinking that we all had different minds and motivations. Silly me. No, no.
According to Whitlock, when LeBron "covered his body in tatts years ago, mimicking a death-row inmate, [he] invited people to jump to the conclusion that he's dangerous." Did LeBron say that he got tatted because he was "mimicking a death-row inmate?" Or is that just what Whitlock sees when he looks at him? You know, "we" can be prejudiced, too. Couldn't be imitating rock stars or skaters or being alternative, or hell, just plain liking tattoos? Nope. Not according to Whitlock. Per him, "Half the black players in the NBA take the court each night in front of white audiences tatted from neck to toe like they're shooting a scene for Prison (Fast)Break."
Thankfully, we have Jason to voice what is apparently our one collective mind as black people, which he does in an article replete with "us" and "we" in reference to black folks. We all get tats to look like prisoners, we all get mad about the same thing, and we all love Tyler Perry's movies.
Not.
But hey, Jason, folks gotta make money some way, I guess, and if coddling white people who feel troubled and who like to chalk black people up to being overly sensitive is how you get down, more power. But one request:
Please stop speaking for the rest of "us". "We" are not all of one mind. YOU are perpetuating the idea that "we" are, which makes "you" worse than "them", because "you" should know better.
Hmm, I wonder why msn.com is highlighting this article as one of their headlining stories?
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