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| Black History Month! |
| 02.10.05 (4:37 pm) [edit] |
|
Over Super Bowl weekend, I watched sports coverage. My TV was either tuned to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, ESPN Classic, or NFL Network (Aside: NFL Network, IMHO, is the GREATEST human achievement in the field of television.) If I spoke spanish, I probably would have been watching ESPN Deportes. Something that caught my eye was an advertisement for ESPN's countdown of the 100 Greatest African-American Athletes, coincidentally airing during Black History Month. I hate "Black History Month." Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe we should teach others that the contributions blacks have made to our America consist of more than the just Civil Rights Movement and 101 uses for the peanut. However, I think that this effort should not be set aside and confined within a single month, it should be taught alongside regular old American History. I think its long past time that we moved away from "Okay kids, its Black History Month, so I'm going to teach you about George Washington Carver." One of the reasons I support the idea behind Black History Month is that I believe the contributions of black people throughout American History were DELIBERATELY downplayed as our country "matured." That is, blacks were underrepresented in what they achieved in History 101. However, "The 100 Greatest African-American Athletes"...The concept seems to imply "Hey, if we did a special on the 100 Greatest AMERICAN Athletes, blacks would be underrepresented in that list, so we should redress that with a 100 Greatest AFRICAN-AMERICAN Athletes special." (Briefly, let's drop that whole "African-American" business. I don't refer to myself as an Irish-Franco-Anglo-Native -American, technically I could. We don't label Americans of Egyptian descent as African-American. Likewise, people of Carribean descent are erroneously labled African-American. Let's stick with "black.") I'll stick with football, since its the sport I have the most experience and knowledge of. If you were to ask 100 sportswriters to compile their list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, without regard to race, you'll get 100 different lists. I also guarantee you'd get 100 lists where blacks were over-represented proportional to the US population as a whole. About 14% of the US population is black. Quick, name the 10 greatest running backs in NFL history. Are any of them white? Hell, are any of them NOT BLACK for that matter? Name the 10 greatest Receivers, Linebackers, Defensive Linemen, Defensive backs. If your list contains 2 or more black players, I'd say that blacks are pretty well represented. Sure, you could probably come up with a list of the 10 greatest quarterbacks that doesn't contain any black players. But name the 10 best quarterbacks in the NFL TODAY. I can come up with a list that has at least four black players. Let's look at the current active roster an NFL teams. Not necessarily a decent sampling, but I promise you other teams would look the same. NFL teams are allowed a maximum of 53 players on their active roster, this does not include practice squads or injured reserve players. Cleveland Browns, 53 active players. 38 are black. The rest, just 15, are either white or hispanic. Quick, name the 10 Greatest Hispanic players in NFL history. Name the 3 best Asian-American players RIGHT NOW. These minorities are STILL minorities in the NFL. Blacks are not a minority in the NFL. Nor the NBA. Nor Major League Baseball. They are in Hockey, but Americans in general are a minority in the NHL. I reiterate, this is not an attack on blacks or some sort of complaint that whites don't get a fair shake. The Cleveland Browns have selected the 53 best players available to them...if 38 of them happen to be black, so be it. But if we are to ever going to "Eracism," if we are to truly embrace each other, if we are ever going to live up to Dr. King's words "...judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character," isn't it about time we dropped making lists of the "Greatest (insert skin color here) athletes of all time"? |
| US Soldier Captured in Iraq |
| 02.02.05 (11:24 am) [edit] |
Islamic fanatics have captured a US Soldier and are currently holding him hostage. The Mujahedeen Brigade has posted a picture of a captured US Soldier with what appears to be an M-4 carbine pointed at the soldier's head.  The soldier has been identified as Specialist Lonzo R. Wilkinson. Spec. Wilkinson is an Infantryman of Special Counter-terrorist Group Delta. Wilkinson also serves as a field medic and interpreter. Wilkinson's wife could not be reached for comment. Now you know, And knowing's half the battle! P.S. Don't be a dumbass. |
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May contain prejudiced, offensive, right-wing, sexist, homophobic, redneck, or other generally offensive language. Not suitable for children under the age of 3. If you are easily offended, like to point out grammatical or spelling errors, or are just generally disagreeable, go away.
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