The Race Card -- With Thanks to Donovan McNabb
Mr. McNabb is not having a great year. And he is taking heat. And this is because he is black. Or so he says.
I am so tired of the race card that I think it needs to be taken out of the deck. Jesse Jackson makes racist comments about me (telling us that Obama is "acting like he's white,") and my friends (the Hymies in NY). I am white and I presume that I act white most of the time. I didn't know that that was bad. Is Jackson in trouble for that? Of course not. Should he be? Of course. But he is too busy these days playing the race card on behalf of Blacks. When it uses it against a Black by equating him with people like me, then that must be okay.
I have blogged on this phenomenon in various discussions making the point that it is actually impossible to insult people at the top of any social pyramid by using some putative slur. Suppose you say, "Hey, Mike, you white son of a bitch, if you don't quit hitting on my wife, I am going to knock the snot out of you." I am not going to be insulted by your calling me "white." I probably won't even take offense at "son of a bitch." I have heard it too many times. The term "honkey" was brought out to try to offend people like me. You can see how successful that effort was.
The "Hymie" reference Jackson laid down on the city of New York did need some corrective work on Jackson's part. Jews don't much like being insulted, especially those in New York. Look at all the items on this page. You see denials that he used this anti-semitic slur. Then he bitched at journalists for hounding him about it. Then he admitted it. A hell of a preacher he is.
Back to Donovan. The man must be an idiot. Does he not know what position he plays? Does he not know what city he plays in? I will remind him. He is a quarterback and any quarterback who does not meet the standards the fans and media expect of him will be excoriated by the fans and media until they are hounded out of town. Rex Grossman catches constant grief in Chicago. And for good reason. What color is he, Donovan? Donovan McNabb plays in Philly, the most notorious city in the country for booing their own players. They think their football stadium is the Roman Colosseum. And they treat their gladiators in the same way the Romans did. Thumbs up if they played hard and smart. Thumbs down if they played badly or made stupid errors.
Bret Farve, who may go down as one of the top five quarterbacks in history (there will in a few years be too many for five to be the limiting number) has been criticized in recent years for throwing monumental numbers of interceptions. He is a football diety and even he has been booed in Green Bay. What color is he, Donovan? He is having a very good year this year. He deserves it.
When a Black multimillionaire bitches about people bitching about his play and says that part of that bitching is because he is black probably has had too many concussions and ought to retire before the brain damage is total. Does my saying that make me a racist? Probably. Please don't tell Jesse about my blog. I used to love McNabb and would have made him the first pick if I had had the first pick. Now I must see him as a pitiful whiner.
Labels: Donovan McNabb, Hymie slur, Jesse Jackson, race card, white slur
posted by The Language Guy at 7:12 PM
5 Comments:
I think the problem with racism is that you can't ever be quite sure why someone has taken offense to you. Sure, it might be the totally inappropriate explanation for McNabb, but can anyone be absolutely certain that a white quarterback in exactly his position would have gotten the same response?
As a white person, I can be reasonably certain that if I get passed over for something, it isn't because of my race. A black person can never be certain of that.
5:34 PM
In McNabb's case it is easy to evaluate whether treatment of the races is equal. Rex Grossman has been replaced, whereas McNabb has not. Poor Rex had no race card to play and had to conclude that his performance was all that was at issue. but if the same were to happen to McNabb I am sure he would say race plays a role.
In fact, given how Michael Vick played the QB position, I believe his being Black i played a huge role in his being forgiven for his lousy play doing well as a passer in half the games and doing quite badly in the other half. His being taken down by authorities is beginning to bother me. The state of Virginia is piling on him. I am worried that his being Black may be part of their motivation but a better explanation is the Virginia prosecutor is trying to score political points. I am very troubled when someone is tried in state or local courts for the same crimes the feds are charging him with. That is double jeopardy no matter what they say.
7:08 AM
Fair enough.
6:13 PM
You missed the point. McNabb is not saying that his race is an excuse for his poor play. He's saying that his race results in increased pressure and increased scrutiny because the NFL has historically lacked black quarterbacks. The fact that so many look for excuses to hate McNabb, to the point that they will blatantly twist his words is proof of his point. I care about this issue so much I wrote about it myself. As an African American, I find it personally insulting that anyone would assume that the burden of his race is a light load to bear.
McNabb played the race card because that's the card he's been dealt time and time again over that last 3+ decades. Start living in the real world.
9:37 AM
Kevin, you can't be serious that the burden African-Americans bear is so great that it is a primary cause poor job performance. The burden any QB bears is vastly greater than any specific budon that race might impose. Every missed pass, sack, fumble by a QB is endlessly questioned. I noted that Troy Smith was the QB at Ohio State and had the distinction of beating Michigan 3 straight times. Are you suggesting that if he were White he could have performed better? That, my friend, is ridiculous. He won the Heisman trophy. This excuse-making by African-Americans insults African-Smericans and adopting the attitude that "I am a victim because I am Black" will be more damaging to you than being Black.
10:12 AM
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