Vilifying black athletes

There has been no indication whatsoever that race played any part of the brawl at the Pacers/Pistons game in Auburn Hills, Mich., last month. Yet, race has permeated the media coverage and commentary -- albeit covertly -- in the weeks since the melee.\nWhile I cannot condone the actions of Ron Artest and the other players in the fracas, the blanket condemnation and Psych 101 analyses of many sports journalists have been irresponsible, at best, and somewhat racially biased. \nMitch Albom, best-selling author and sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press, wrote a diatribe explaining the ordeal as a "chain-reaction" of mistakes stemming from players' egotism -- making sure to repeat the dialectical verb "disrespecting" as often as he could. \nHe added, "I'm talking about the bastardized "respect" in today's sports world -- (meaning) ... nobody does anything to you that you don't like ... or you let them have it."\nThrowing a projectile at someone's head is an act of violence -- no matter if it causes serious injury or not. A reaction to such an act goes well beyond someone "not liking it." Furthermore, a professional wordsmith repeatedly using the black colloquial term "disrespecting" throws a racial and cultural spin on what was just a big fight.\nChicago Sun-Times columnist and ESPN personality Jay Mariotti, wrote that Artest -- who has been suspended for the remainder of the season -- now "has time to promote his hip-hop business, perhaps from a rubber room" (emphasis added). In another column, Mariotti wrote that NBA commissioner David Stern should crack-down on players to prevent the "inmates" from running the "asylum." Mariotti could not be clearer in showing his contempt for the mentality of NBA players.\nWhile these comments have few implicit racial overtones, except that NBA players are disproportionately African American, Mariotti supplements these with more despicable and overt vitriol.\nIn praising new NBA phenom LeBron James, Mariotti asserts that, unlike many other players in the league, James "isn't into thuggery."\n"Thug," it seems, is yet another euphemism for "black" -- and more often its negative epithets -- to be added to the likes of "urban," "hip hop," and "ghetto" in the white American lexicon.\nWhat's more, in two separate articles, Mariotti refers to Artest, a 25 year-old man, as if he were a juvenile. Granted, Artest has some maturing to do. But to say that he and, among others, Latrell Sprewell, 34, and Kobe Bryant, 26, are "problem children" is a blatant insult which has deep roots in the black community. \nMariotti might not be well-versed in black history. He does, however, know that a white man should not be calling grown black men "boys" or anything resembling it. \nTalk about "disrespecting."\nWhen two fans attacked a Kansas City Royals first base coach in September 2002 and were promptly beaten down by players, there was no talk of "thuggery" or, as Albom suggests, an ego-driven response to "disrespect" -- even though the cleats and fists continued to fall after coach Gamboa was out of harm's way. \nMost agree that those two "fans" got what they deserved. \nYet, when a white man with multiple assault and DUI convictions heaves something at a black millionaire, the black man is held to "a higher standard."\nA double-standard, that is.\nAlthough it has been said that "violence begets violence," people like Albom and Mariotti would rather lampoon black men than say throwing objects at a people is likely to garner swift response.\nI am not a fan of the NBA, the Indiana Pacers or Ron Artest. I simply feel that the media and fans must realize that these men are not second-class citizens like the gladiators of old -- subject to the whims and abuse of the blood crazed public. They are men -- not thugs, children or lunatics -- men, and should be treated as such by fans and journalists.