Monday, April 7, 2014

Kentucky vs. Wisconsin: did we witness a Culture War?


We here at the “RaceCard” like to get deep into symbolism and social memes in sports.  Saturday night’s Kentucky vs. Wisconsin game was simply put worth the appointment-viewing label.  It was the best game of College Basketball I have seen in a while but I could not help but notice the obvious and the effect it had on me as a black viewer.  Watching the game, I noticed the game was an inverted version of the 1965 Texas El Paso vs. Kentucky game that for the first time featured an all-black line up.  This time it was Wisconsin in the Texas El Paso role living up to every racial stereotype by scheming buckets through back door cuts and the extra pass.  They played a brilliant game, seemed to find wide open three’s and somehow even I as a Midwesterner couldn’t get down with them.
Hmmmmmm, I wonder why.
Mind you, I started my day at the gym arguing with a homeboy who argued “Brady” (not Bradley) would KO Pacquiao next Saturday.  His premise was that Bradley was the superior athlete, which could not be further from the truth.  Yet, when Kentucky seven footer Marcus Lee dunked on Frank Kaminsky I was “all in” with the young bruh’s from the bluegrass state.  I was roped in by the optics and the eb and flow of the game, like millions of you I gave my allegiance to those who looked like me.  When Dakari Johnson gave Kaminsky the “get up off me” shove under the basket Greg Anthony and Steve Kerr (both equally smart people) inherently got behind their own tribesmen.  Sports can do that to you, and you don’t have to be a flaming racist to acknowledge this truth.  Anthony was a Running Rebel in the early 90’s, so you cannot tell me that part of him didn’t have a paternal instinct toward Johnson.  He knows what can happen, and “it” often happens to young black men in a group setting.  Steve Kerr did a great job of redirecting the debate because the contrasting picture of the game was enough to open up discussions we do not want to have.
Like the fact that African American “one and done” basketball players are demonized as people when white tennis players go pro at 15.  Adolph Rupp must be rolling over in his grave watching his Kentucky become the clearinghouse for black ballers who aint cracking one book.  Villanova coach Jay Wright believes Coach Cal is the only one who can be successful in the model because out of 30 kids who believe they are “one and done” he gets the three who really are.  Culturally the game must be an inconvenience for newly minted NBA commissioner Adam Silver who will try to push for a two-year minimum.  The way the game ended proved that freshmen (Aaron Harrison) can close games out and execute in the clutch, why would anyone deny them employment?.  There once was a freshman named Jordan who hit an NCAA Title Game winner who stayed around to average 13ppg and make millions for UNC.  I also found the game unique because the black team represented the “establishment” while the white team was decidedly counter culture.
The reason I root for Kevin Love and will root for Doug McDermott to “ball out” is that we should always root against entrenched establishment.  Basketball is beautiful, but nothing is more beautiful without inclusion and full participation.  Golf, Hockey, and Boxing are dying without diversity and the NBA is the vanguard of progressivism in pro sports.  Kentucky’s ability to roll out five black freshmen every year makes them an establishment outfit today just as they were it was five whites in 1965.  For the culture to change in earnest all 24 players must participate in the revenue generated from the event.  Team owners were not told when they could start making real money; there is no age restriction on men with the capacity to become billionaires.  The game last Saturday was a contest between the “Soon to be Rich” and the “Soon to be comfortable” which keeps the status quo intact for the “I want it yesterday” crowd who build monstrosities like the one the game was played in.
 

Friday, March 28, 2014

Mayweather, Maidana, and the Cruel Emasculation of Adrien Broner





Some time ago, I floated a theory and it goes a little something like this; Adrien Broner should get out of the little brother business and aim for a showdown against Floyd Mayweather.  I did not say he was as good, nor did I say he deserved it, I merely stated that Mayweathers patronage was a ploy designed to make the boy assume shit that isn’t guaranteed.  Nobody knows this better than a 37-year-old man who could have easily ended up a run of the mill black defensive fighter that nobody wants to see. Now he is an institution, and institutions crush people like Broner.  It was that close to happening, until Mayweather became the best-marketed fighter of a generation.  In becoming, “that guy” risks were taken and avoided all at maximum compensation and none of it easier than Adrien Broner thought it was.
I told everybody then that “Lil buddies” do not play well when Kevin Durant was working out with LeBron James.  Isiah Thomas was exhibit A for this experiment and it failed, it also failed with Kobe and it will hit Broner too late.  I’ve told you again and again that Broners “act” was never bound to play unless he got down to the business of hunting down the man with the Brinks Truck.Now, the man who claimed to be his “mentor” advised him to go down to 140lbs. only to circle back around and rob him of career defining redemption.  How’s that “when Floyd retires I’ll take over boxing” thing working out Adrien?  The Mayweather “poll” was an antiquated way of doing to Broner what he attempted to do to Maidana, this time the dry hump paid off.  Mayweather was always playing chess, and I repeat he is not the least bit obligated to stop Broner from playing checkers.  Yeah, he tried to give Adrien advice but this came after exposing him to a lifestyle of luxury and whispering in his ear that he would be “next”.
Only Broner could have created a demand that mirrored anything close to what boxing fans felt (and still feel) about Pacquiao, but big brother knew that it was only a matter of time before he played himself.  A dominant performance in an immediate rematch against a certified knockout artist would have put Broner in a position to earn grudging respect- but now he has been reduced to a bully victim.  Floyd will handle Maidana as if he were going for a walk in the park further illustrating Broner's foolishness and it’s all his fault.  Broner should be in there getting that ass kicking on May 3rd, had he been mature about why you fight, had he really accessed his “inner Floyd” he’d be more than “Hood Rich” by May 3rd. Entering the ring against Maidana as a Mayweather Fan boy was the worst thing he could have done against a dangerous, grown assed MAN.  Had he entered that fight as the #1 threat to a man he respects but wants to hurt it would have given him a significant psychological edge.  If you are not fighting to be the man in your division then you are fighting to be the boy, and boys usually end up broke.
Floyd’s psychological mastery of Broner is in the fact that he took something intrinsically dangerous, structurally & designed for the young to kill off the old and turned it into Hip Hop Marketing 101. Moreover, Broner being a D-League rapper himself bought that bullshit hook line and sinker. Rappers are surrounded by protégés they promise to “put on” once “I get my shit poppin” and most weak personalities either end up being "under promoted" or never seeing the light of day. The strong, alpha personality usually cannot wait for homie to hook them up and end up becoming rich themselves by attacking the former mentor on mix tapes. They put themselves on, because they know Hip Hop is a blood sport with words, and rivalries are lucrative for all.  Broner had proximity to the King and did not have the sense (or balls) to stab him, now he is doing awkward interviews with Brian Kenny and taking solace in ripping fans who hate Floyd.
Name one athlete in any sport that profited from being a fan boy of his idol?  Even Kobe (the ultimate facsimile) had the good sense to go at Jordan every time he saw him.
How many fighters who say they can “beat anybody” call themselves the closest thing to the active reigning Champion in their weight division?  How many world class pound for pound champions concede seniority (a cute word for superiority) to any fighter?  Wilfred Benetez did not play that shit and he was 17!  Sonny Liston slapped the taste of Cassius Clay’s mouth in a Vegas Casino and at the time was considered as good as Joe Louis was, and it did not matter.  What if Clay had waited around out of deference to Liston and ended up being clipped by some obscure left hooker?  Do you think Liston would have cared?  Do you think it was hard for Floyd to take a fight that Broner absolutely needs?  Of course not, and neither does Al Haymon.
Even a nice guy like Kevin Durant woke up and realized that he had to either snap out of the “LeBron’s buddy” bs and confront him directly or risk being Alex English.  Broner may have as more of a BEEF with Amir Khan, who at least was man enough to try to get paid even after being reduced to a punch line-but Broner, is the bigger joke.  Broner bit hard when Floyd instructed Khan to first beat him if he wanted his shot, so much so that he focused on “fucking Khan up” instead of asking himself what he deserved “if” it were to transpire.  Pride and self-respect matter with men because often it is all we have, it is called masculine currency, and this young man is rather bankrupt.  He is so absent of the currency that instead of getting pissed about Floyd taking his much-needed redemption (vs. Maidana) from him he is now fighting pillow fisted Carlos Molina on the undercard.  Floyd is the kind of big brother who takes your girl after she dumps you and invites you to the wedding and Broner isn’t man enough to see it.
The reason I called for Broner vs. Mayweather is that “AB” was no less overmatched than anybody else was in the Golden Boy cache if we are playing by Cold War rules.  To be the guy Floyd promised he would be post 2015 at the bare minimum he needed to handle this Maidana business and now he has to stand by emasculated while his “Big Bro” does it for him.  If he were anything close to a grown man, he would have screamed bloody murder when Floyd mentioned Maidana in his phony poll.  What good is Maidana to Broner’s sense of self when Floyd is done with him?  Is that something you want to have on your resume?  Boxing is not a schoolyard, it is a hard place with nobody to hide behind, and Broner seems to have a loose interpretation of what that means. To make the cringe fest worse Broner tries to emulate Mayweathers Twitter polls as if there is a hint of mystery to his career.  Newsflash, Floyd took the guy you needed to fight and he will take the next guy who beats you-congrats, your Andre Berto with a shoulder roll.  
Much attention was given to what Maidana did to Broner in the ring but I liked what I saw in Broner, he faught hard even when it was clear he was going to get his ass whipped.  Maidana did what he had to do, but Broner’s mindset before and after the fight is his real weakness.  Maidana knew what we all knew, that he wasn’t Floyd but Broner’s delusion is what put him in this bad position in the first place.  Had he been his own man he would have differentiated himself from Floyd from the start and just maybe he’d be in a more advantageous place right now.  Everything he has done publicly chipped away at his manhood dating all the way back to the disgusting fake marriage proposal on HBO.  I was on to him and his lack of masculinity back then but nobody listens in this “Worldstar” climate.  A person capable of that is a person who has no gauge on what being the man really is, nor when he is being patronized.  Mayweather (with Broner’s complicity) had been chipping away at this little boys manhood for a while now, Marcos Maidana merely swept up what was left of it.
 
 

Monday, March 24, 2014

The Last and Final Word on the NFL and Nigger







“The Feudal Overlord of the one world Global System is the Corporate CEO”

                                                                                        Carroll Quigley

The 15 yard “N Word Penalty” is unenforceable and the NFL knows it, but it sent the stronger message is that old black men DID NOT go to “Massa Goodell” to curtail the speech of young black men.  The Corporate/Neo Feudalist NFL “culture” will be protected even though nobody can hear the N word; any controversy (manufactured or otherwise) will not get in the way of our Hunger Games.  The cabal of the men in suits is one of Non Profit Status, Billion dollar partnerships and the blackmailing of fan-bases (ironically of the same taxes they do not pay) to erect brick and mortar monstrosities.
The “N word” penalty is only provocative in that it isolates cultural language and criminalizes benign exchanges between men who are not even speaking to the customer.  Intimacies between powerless black men are now under scrutiny by liberal plantation overseers and their faithful nonprofit (a top down swindle) butlers.
The Fitz Pollard Alliance is a Non-Profit Organization that monitors and advocates for minority jobs but now they are in the “proper respect” business.  This is important because they are in partnership with the (Anglo) Corporate Oligarchy that now want to define what is “hate speech”.  Hate speech to CEO’s is better described as “don’t get in my way” speech, because people who are protesting are not buying- a preferred permanent state.  The customers are white, and when they feel they have been shortchanged they use the word in ways that would make Incognito blush.  In these free speech outbursts, gladiators have to accept the eating habits of the lion- because it is the lion that fuels the non-taxable profit.  Many of these same Fitz Pollard brotha’s grew up in the 60’s and consumed Muhammad Ali, Gil Scott Heron, and Richard Pryor-all of whom used the word commercially. 
That’s right, Nigga’s are scared of Revolution, but they are all about some well-funded fake reform- and our brother’s keepers shall keep the funds.  One should go out on the limb and say they only objected when Tupac came along in the 90’s, because that is when they had officially reached middle age .Ironically, Tupac was of more danger to fuel an autonomous, indigenous black revolution than all of them put together, hence his FBI surveillance.
Neutered, Black Corporate bullhorns amplified to the public to espouse the virtues of intellect and progressivism when they know good and damned well that the field is not a place for that shit.  The football field is “regressive”, it is not a work environment (the facility, media room and film room are) it is a fucking warzone and men in duress are brutal men physically and verbally.  They know this, but they have jobs and brotha’s with jobs within the corporate matrix will say almost anything.  Even the Godfather of Douchebags Bill Romanowski identified Incognito and Riley Cooper as outliers, which places the “target” squarely on censorship of Black Players. 
Whereare the great activist and orators of years gone by?  he is in sports, falsely telling you sports is a microcosm of society.  Our following generations all took to sports journalism where they became “individuals” commissioned to make LeBron’s decision sound like a cultural happening instead of what it was a show.  ESPN is 24/7 folks and so is the NFL, which is fastly becoming the opiate of a people unaware of the world around them.  Today, whether a Football Player calls his teammate “my nigga” is more important than the poverty and disenfranchisement that makes one see football as his only way out.
Not unlike slavery, we need a steady supply of the poor, big, black, and strong.

Many of the black players who complained about Goodell's overreach were inarticulate (James Harrison) and written off as ignorant brutes by paid operatives of the corporate controlled media.  Inherently they know you cannot render something politically safe that is built on violence (except national security) and we have all forfeited a slice of our humanity every Sunday in the fall.  We are living in times of Consolidation and full spectrum surveillance and now the NFL wants to practice censorship with the approval of intelligent men who would never challenge Hip Hop directly.  Because those rappers’ cannot be controlled so easily, many of them (with corporate sanction) are in the very process of becoming feudal lords themselves.
Corporate interests have merged with the state and yet nobody will challenge Roger Goodell's lack of leadership, when you wantonly use coercion instead of reason you are an autocratic dictator -not a leader.  Yet in the parallel universe of the NFL, this style is lauded because the American psyche is still imprinted with the mythical danger of big black men run amuck.  When so-called black men of reason side with the state they are saying, “We aren’t the elders we thought we were” so please do the hard work for us.  Corporate interests make a ton of money on the fallacy of a post racial world, and bullying a workforce into biting their tongues 50 yards out of earshot of the customer sends one message…  “The Gladiators are now becoming more and more mechanized folks, that way you don’t have to be reminded most of them come from places you don’t care about”.
Roger Goodell’s $44 million dollar “salary” is not a symbol of our vaunted free market system as proverbial social Darwinists would lead you to believe-he is actually a symbol of the new “game”.  Corporate Feudalism is the New Normal, which is why Goodell would not “step to” the Billionaire Dan Snyder (a fellow lord) about his own blatant racism-because Snyder paid some of that 44 million!  Michael Sam will be protected more than Native Americans will because the Gay Community has deeper pockets and lobbyist who can afford the patronage of the tastemakers in politics and media.  Who is lobbying for the mostly black workforce who has been reduced to all manner of scrutiny by outside forces on and off the clock?  Harry Carson can call “Nigga” disrespectful but he will not have to suffer the ludicrous symbolism of old white men exposing young black men to instant viral condemnation. “Schadenfreude” for those sorry saps who watch the black players participate in “acceptable violence “on Sundays.  Maybe it can be collectively bargained in the future to install Orwellian styled confessional booths on the sidelines in the future.
The league already has an investigation body and routinely treats Draft Prospects like suspects complete with body language experts and background checks.  Feudal Lords can ask black men if they intend to “stay clean” or if their mothers are prostitutes all for the coveted, right to get their brains scrambled for money.  Next, there will be thought crimes and technology based predictive screening where they can weed out the Aaron Hernandez’s of the world-to separate those who cannot turn the violence off from the herd.  If Silicone Valley can merge with the surveillance, state companies as powerful as the NFL will soon court the assistance of the Government.  If Politics and Big Time Sports were incompatible, the President would not invite the Super Bowl Champion to the White House.  The Rooney Rule is great but it does elimate the possibility of an African American “maverick” coming into the league without the “stamp” of approval.
Ultimately, the feudal lords with help from the NSA will be able to identify potential narcissists like Chad Johnson and T.O. and disqualify them before they apply for the privilege of gladiatorial status.  “Potential for Self Aggrandizement and Distraction” Nigger please keep the helmet on and your mouth shut.  The continued prohibition of African American perspective (positive and negative) will not cease until en masse we make it clear that some things we will not stifle for money.  This will be impossible because nobody needs money like black folks need money; nobody is more vulnerable to Oligarchies than we are.  Michael Wilbon was the only media type with the courage to point out the irony in white feudal lords telling black subjects what they cannot say to one another regardless of context.  It will take more courage to identify the fascist nexus of corporate power and political correctness, and the sickening irony that as the world becomes less empathetic people with influence want the underclasses to talk nicer.
Corporations and Special interest groups are well trained by Bernay’s to speak from utopian platitudes but the truth is in the actual behavior of monoliths like the NFL.  The cost of going to a game is skewing up, the players on the field are coming from poorer black neighborhoods, and yet the NFL’s response to the “Gladitorialization” (David Zirin- the Nation) is to pander to white middle class mothers.  White women are not producing the “product”, but they are important because if white boys get hurt in Pop Warner mom just may force dad to give up the season tickets.  Poor Black Mothers give birth to the player who is willing to risk life and limb by age ten and there’s no appeal to her maternal instincts.  It may be instructive that now he must learn the syntax of the Duke of Windsor in order to get out of poverty.  You also have to assure true stakeholders in America’s Hunger Game that the rich brotha’s on that field are under control, that ultimately they must be culturally sanitized for the privilege of millionaire servitude.
Who cares why they say Nigga? or if it’s generational?  Alternatively, if it is the whole “Blame it On Hip Hop” meme; the bottom line is “if” the word is “taboo” to the dominant society it should not be a luxury to the powerless minority.  Repressed angst because they are prohibited to use the word?  One of the few things white folks have no unfettered access to despite it being thrown in their faces every day like cherry cheesecake?  Older Black Folks who can recall overt racism usually fall for this stuff hook line and sinker much as they do the victimhood based rhetoric of so-called liberal “talkers”.  Roger Goodell is not emotional, no corporate welfare recipient is, but he knows he can get emotional support from a certain segment of the population who are conditioned to obey and reform.  That is right, obey and reform as opposed to tear down and rebuild in a self-determined structure like early Hip Hop.  Our community always tended to lean toward reform politics and it always seems to be led by the brotha’s from the Non Profit sector and academia.  The same people who think the word Nigger is obscene did not find anything wrong with a Militarist, tool of Wall Street using MLK’s Bible when inaugurated again in 2013.
In fact, many of them cried, So Nigga’s Please.
Let us get one thing straight, the generation that put their lives on the line for Civil Rights Legislation is directly responsible for our plight today but they do not own the young .They are “Baby Boomers”, and prone to self-congratulatory grandstanding and practicing the "politricks" they once despised just like their white counterparts.  They have the impulse response of using the system to throw empty legislation at every perceived problem even when it has been a disservice to their children and grandchildren.  Their obsession with integration as opposed to nation building rendered the following generations more capitalistic and less interested in one another.  Poor folks were calling one another Nigga for years, but it is now unbearable for the educated class to see those same people making money.  They were making money in the 70’s and becoming transcendent when New York was milked dry of resources, those same poor black children transcended them in return and created Hip Hop.
The Rappers and Athletes grew up in places the talented 10th gave less of a shit about than white folks did because success (and foundations) demanded they forget about their origins.  The same foundations divested in MLK after the “Beyond Vietnam” Speech and the well-funded class of Negroes (who ceremonially burry “Nigger” today) turned on him for messing up their paper.  Those that were left behind do not talk like them and view the world with clear delineation between those who know and those who do not know.  If you do not know the difference between “that nigger” and “them’s my nigga’s” then you fall in the latter.  They know that if they weren’t as big and fast and violent as they are they’d be shut out from the American dream many are one major injury (or 9 baby mama’s) away from going back.  They had no time to read about the history of the game or Civil Rights (the real pet peeve of former players) because they were totally focused on survival.  Now they have to concern themselves with gag orders from a generation that left them behind to die 40 years ago.
When Lyndon B. Johnson a devout racist signed the Civil Rights Bill of 1965, he crowed prophetic words to insiders “I’ll have them Niggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years”.  That usage of the word is the only one Black Men of a certain age should be concerned with, but few of them even know about it due to myopic talking points being fed to them.  They are a cynical and pragmatic lot, willing to look the other way when white men of power throw them crumbs while becoming mean as rattlesnakes when it comes to the Hip Hop Generation.  During the ESPN Propaganda piece dedicated to that “hateful word”, Jason Whitlock scoffed and giggled at the notion that the word was not still the intellectual property of white racists.  The statement alone is a tip of the cap to the despotism of whites in that it suggests they can steal everything culturally from us (like Rock and Roll and soon Hip Hop) but we could never steal anything from them.  Wilbon put it best when he correctly stated that “ownership don’t get a vote” but I’ll go one further and say neither do the Talented 10th.
They left these young men to Hip Hop years ago and now they want a measure of control since the sons of single mothers are earning generational wealth.  I say until the Fitz Pollard Alliance can pompously concern themselves with pathologizing the rank and file they must first fulfill the obligation of all Non Profits and provide a disclosure page on their website.  Prove by financial disclosure that their ideology is autonomous and not simply the continuation of the Non Profit Industrial Complex.  We have had our share of 501 3C’s marketing blacks as “at risk” and victims of the system while the money always seems to make its way to the bourgeoisie.  “Respect” is a vague “goal” but financials tell us the real story of just why certain sectors of our community prioritize the things they do.
 
This will article will be reposted on RaceCardsports.com
 
 

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Richard Sherman: The Unspoken Words




Richard Sherman’s timeline is our shared and gory truth about race, a truth that no amount of time will eradicate.  You cannot wash it out with political correctness and you cannot shame it into nonexistence so corporations can keep printing money, cynically it just “is”.  Some of the most thoughtful and intelligent black voices have had their say and they have the platform to do so.  However, because of that platform, they can only say so much and Rockefeller education will never give them the full spectrum of enlightenment and bravery that Malcolm X had.
He said it plain.
To “say it plain” is not fruitful, and it requires a willingness to abandon the niceties and eloquence in which many have placed a high priority. When trying to trying to dispel a stereotype we have to accept that those who place them on us and those who contribute to our livelihoods are one and the same. Our history makes this impossible, and the sheer numbers suggest that only 13% of the population at minimum will even bother to hear Richard Sherman out. Being well spoken is now more important than being succinct and to the point, it’s as if the whole of black folks in sports have set out to prove in the next week they all are more than just “thugs”.  Richard Sherman did screw up, but he screwed up in ways much more practically hurtful to black players than the hyper sensitive, ineffectual racists on Twitter.
Indirectly he messed with another Black Man’s Money
There was a sports media type who “favored anarchy” and WWE styled trash talk who (giddily) said that the post-game interview would end up as a “remember when” watershed moment.  Plainly, that means more brotha’s clowning brotha’s after games, in a league that does everything in its power to avoiding paying them.  Sherman may be the best, but ask Derelle Revis how long that ride may last at a fast twitch position like Cornerback.  The truth is once a brotha sits down with the organization to try and “cash out” on his second deal most organizations are armed with everything from advanced metrics to reports from private investigators.  Sherman’s judgment of a fellow union member’s performance on TV should not be tolerated  because he is opening a Pandora’s Box to a pack of wolves. 

The organization is always trying to get a brotha for as little as possible; hence, the reason ultra-white Bill Simmons makes no qualms about vilifying Rudy Gay for having a “bad contract”.  He can use his platform with impunity with no regard for Gay’s wife or family when ESPN is legendary for prohibiting media on media crime. If there is a person at ESPN who thinks he is overrated we will never hear about it, must be nice.  Crabtree is Sherman’s brother in the very sense that one day soon they will both be treated like pieces of meat, by calling him “mediocre” he spoke on the man’s contract.  To say what he said about a fellow piece of meat in such descriptive market based terminology is a crime because it will be used in the future if the 49’ers decide they want to “go in another direction” or lowball him.
Fans already dehumanize Football players with fantasy football and other coping mechanisms, now the black players can use language to lower one another’s market value after a bad play?  What if it were a poorly thrown ball by a white Quarterback?  would Sherman be so willing to affect that man’s ability to make a living?.  If you’re an adult you know that there are professional jealousies and brutal language on and off the field but once it bleeds onto microphones it can affect a man’s bottom line.  If commentators and coaches evaluate and find a player mediocre that information will reveal itself but adding post-game interviews to the process is too much like the social Darwinism that makes “us” an ugly reflection of the dominant culture.
Moreover, it lends to the growing stereotype that blacks (for lack of ethics and racial identity) have no problem destroying other blacks for a buck-Hip Hop is built on that ratchet shit.  The “him or me” mentality is evidence of a people with a strong identity based on scarcity and “not enoughness” masquerading as competition.  White folks don’t suffer from crab in the barrel syndrome because they are the barrel. Peyton Manning vanquished a man who dogged him for the better part of his career but he handled it the way someone who assumes prosperity for all (of his kind) does.
“I TOLD YA’LL HE AINT A BETTER QB THAN ME!  DUDE WAS BOUT THAT SYSTEM, SPYGATE WHAT!  NOW CUE THAT WACK AS IM THE MAN SONG!!”
The emphasis on Sherman’s education “is” a poor reflection on us
Stop talking about Stanford, because it makes you sound historically and politically naive.  Places like Stanford are renowned for high IQ’s but a lot of those high IQ’s (Prof. Stephan Schneider) are enlisted in think tanks who propagandize global initiatives (Agenda 21) that negatively affect poor people who aren’t 6’3 and run a 4.4 40.  Our greatest institutions have produced some of the biggest thugs ever to walk the face of the earth and under white supremacy it is all legal. One should never forget that Sherman comes from a place that highly educated people thought it was cool to dump crack while defunding programs that produced strong children.
When black folks point to education in the face of racism what they convey is “I should be exempt” much like the stars and media types who have to suffer the inconvenience of being treated like a brotha by traffic cops once a year.  Stanford will not exempt you, and when you hold it up as a shield, you further isolate those who are far more vulnerable than an athlete or Harvard Professor like Henry Louis Gates.  You separate yourself from the people who truly risk themselves in times of struggle because intellectuals never do.  Muhammad Ali could barely write and he often defended himself in a way that was unapologetically black.  Too many blacks in media legitimize themselves through association with the dominant cultures institutions when the truth in combating racism is asserting ones value from their day of birth.  The ability to assimilate within the dominant culture is not a virtue; it is a survival tactic we have mastered.
No matter where you went to school if you go Busta Rhymes in the white ladies face she’s going to recoil plain and simple, and guess what?  It’s her problem not yours.  Should we discuss the media being all up in a brotha’s face right after a game?  Sure, but do not plan on winning that one, because if you’re from Stanford you know the media is a major contributor to the revenue generated from football.
The latent venom from white fans aint going away
A lot of white football fans where the chafe to a brotha’s wheat in high school football and basketball.  However, a lot of them love the game more than they hate the brotha who put them on the bench back in the day, so now they consume it irrationally.  When you are addicted to a sport where you do not see yourself and you are the financial engine of that sport you passively want those brotha’s to make you feel better about your sickness.  You want to believe you can control them that your words and character attacks actually hurt, your only release is the occasional controversy, or when a player goes broke so the inner racist is can to run wild.
 Fans are vicious at games because they drink, but they are also vicious because they love people they would not normally give a shit about in real life.  They are vicious because they cannot stop paying black men who make them sick, that “junkie’s remorse” puts them on edge with few opportunities for relief.  Black players like Richard Sherman should know this, especially in markets like Seattle and Minnesota where racial coding on sports radio is the accepted native tongue.  Thug “is” code for Nigger, but I am happy to live in a world where white folks have to take the emasculating path of cryptic language and “tweets” because my grandmother didn’t.
In her day, the word came from men who had lives, resources, and power not the mouth breathers who attack Sherman on Twitter.  Those same losers who call him a nigger on Twitter will tune in next Sunday to help the ratings soar just as they do when Mayweather fights some handpicked bum.  There was a time in this country when black arrogance led to white violence, many died when Jack Johnson was whooping ass in 1909- now the descendants of that white trash must “tweet”.  These “men” will continue to contribute to creating an uber class of black men who will send children to Ivy League institutions to become real legal thugs who may run for office on day.  They will also continue to make bullshit Hip Hop and 250$ headphones billion dollar industries, because despite hating you they cannot be cool without you.
What is unspoken is those same people who call Sherman a Nigger are most likely consumers, and if you are a consumer, you can say whatever you like because economically there are no ethnic or territorial lines.
In Economics, the Buyer is always the Nigger.
PART 2 COMING NEXT WEEK

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Adrien Broner: Will April Bring Bravado or Courage?





The way we felt about it wasn’t "normal", it happens only a few times in the sport of boxing with the last occurrence in 2001 when Marco Antonio Barrera exposed Naseem Hamed as an HBO construction. Boxing is emotional, and the way we respond to fighters is the most visceral in sports, even more raw than Football because fighters are more psychologically accessible. We root for football players, but we can’t see ourselves in any of them; in fact we can’t see them at all. But Boxers are shirtless, and many of them aren’t as big as we are so in some way their personalities are more important to us than Football players who are encouraged to spew clichés in accordance with the corporate behemoth they represent. Football players rarely evoke hatred and though we love them it isn’t as personal as our love for boxers- which is why their mortality reminds us of our own. Few fighters have courted hatred in such a misguided, uninformed and unproductive way as Adrien Broner and I fear that he isn’t finished going down this path.
I don’t have to itemize the many things that led to that as whipping last month, the reasons are many and varied- I can only touch on the two driving expressions that he seems to struggle with inside. Bravado and Courage, both are distinct within themselves and yet somehow when one lacks character the former is easily mistaken for the later. Broner and his following grow up around Bravado and see it as a laudable characteristic, they even see it rewarded in industries like Hip Hop and the drug game. Many young black men cultivate Bravado to cope with an upbringing without men and the results have led to men who primp, preen and talk about material goods- ironically both characteristics were associated with women 50 years ago. Broner latched on to someone else’s marketing formula through lack of character and courage, it takes a brave person to be themselves and stand on their own merit but when you lack an authentic personality this is foreign to you. Broner has every reason to be arrogant about his level of talent but Floyd Mayweathers Bravado was rooted in a maniacal work ethic and resume -the courage came later when he rejected the price HBO (AKA “Boxing”) tried to put on his services.
Bravado or “Swag” is easy to perpetuate when you are fed a steady diet of mismatches and assumptions but courage is the ability to recognize that like a baby your food is being puréed for you. Marcos Maidana at the very least could understand that Broner would brag in the lead up to the fight but what Broner showed instead (low character) must have made him sleep like a baby. Maidana had already showed courage in victory and defeat, Broner didn’t even know he was being commended for having the courage to step in with the Argentinian in the first place. He was too busy showing bravado; he was too busy blustering about an easy fight to take much deserved credit for taking a hard one. When he simulated humping Maidana the gesture backfired with the same folks he wasted so much time trying to impress- because real thugs don’t act like that when it’s time to fight. Broner was so focused on humiliating Maidana (as with previous opponents) he couldn’t be bothered with putting his hands on him enough to win. Bravado is an impediment to “appropriate fear”, the kind of fear that is the driving fuel behind some of Boxing’s greatest performances.
Had Floyd Mayweather stood in front of Diego Corrales (in 2001) mugging and showing off for friends he might not be sharp and coherent enough to be the “face of boxing” in 2013.
That is why Maidana’s initial attack was so devastating, the shock on Broner’s face said it all; he’d only prepared himself mentally to show how much “swag” he had, when did he anticipate having to display courage? One never knows. Al Haymon and Floyd Mayweather can’t give you character, and Band Camp rappers are never obligated to take hard punches to the face- their services can strictly be filed under “bravado management”-an abstract. Even when showing courage Broner let his bravado keep him from laying it all on the line, he never faught to win in the middle rounds, he merely faught to save the face bravado created. His punch output was still low, and he was still “too cool for school” for a man in the ring with someone who is trying to kill him. Ali used bravado to win “round one” against Foreman but he’d long mastered his fears which allowed him to show courage when Big George unloaded on him against the ropes. Without substance bravado is eventually going to be tested, even Joe Frazier understood that he may have dusted Ali off and shut his mouth for an evening in 71’ but Ali’s courage guaranteed he’d see him again.
Courage is taking vulnerable moments and viewing them as opportunities
Opportunity that even his idol has never enjoyed- the chance to bond yourself on a deeper level with fans through defeat. Floyd Mayweather is an outlier due to his elite matchmaking talents post Top Rank, but the one thing he can’t afford is what Sugar Ray Leonard paid for in blood. Leonard is beloved for his conduct in and out of the ring in the first Duran fight; the last years ESPN Documentary about the two  fights only solidified the Sugar Ray myth. How he dealt with challenge and loss is something we can all relate to, Broner had an opportunity to join us (as Prince would say) “in this thing called life”-  and all he needed in that moment was a little courage. The door was open, and he could have secured Latin fans that wouldn’t just tune in out of hate but respect as they did with Shane Mosley. He couldn’t do it, and believe it or not that weakness to Bravado will make him a cinch to get KO’d if he’s ever challenged again. Bravado is rooted in delusion; the guy who makes the most noise about his “bitches” is probably the guy wounded the most by a past girlfriend- and in circles like Broner's this isn’t OK. If you can’t “feel” then you can’t get your mind right enough to overcome, and if you’re going to the club on the same night how do you find the mirror required for real transcendence?.
Broner recently stated that he would continue “as if nothing ever happened” as his mentor sits idly by endorsing the self-defeating bravado. Boys continue on as if nothing ever happened, narcissistic children simply change venues when things require courage- now that he has his rematch in April what will be different?. Sugar Ray Leonard KNEW something happened to him in Montreal, he also had the courage to be away from people who would lie to him about it. Boys full of bravado never get a real "sense of the room", which is why Broner’s antics always seemed to fall lame on the public. Leonard knew if he dealt with the loss accurately he’d come back from a place of courage and not the denial exhibited by Broner.
He's now going back to Maidana and I'm not sure he's done any self reflection. In the next fight he has to shut his mouth because there are no words that can save him from what we saw, and the only way to fix it requires a great deal of courage. This is not about money, and Floyd is no position (having avoided a prime Pacquiao) to tell Broner his payday and infamy can somehow make it easy to fool the man who beat him down. In fact when (and if) Broner subscribes to this empty course he isn’t hurting nor fooling Maidana, he’s ducking and lying the most important foe he’ll ever face….himself.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Timothy Bradley: The Time is NOW to become Mayweather Foil





In a recent interview Larry Merchant gave to Chris Robinson (follow @hustle boss) the veteran Boxing scion theorized Tim Bradley possibly becoming a future opponent for Floyd Mayweather Jr. Currently Mr. Bradley is waiting on that call from Manny Pacquiao to finish a little business in 2014 but Merchant believes the WBA Welterweight Champ could possibly challenge the current trade sanctions levied on Boxing fans by Monopolistic promoters- you call it a “Cold War”. I call it Bullshit. The truth is Bradley, like any other “precedent” case looks good enough on paper to force the hands of “Boxing” because he isn’t in debt to Bob Arum or the IRS. I’m going to venture to say that Arum owns Manny’s ass like King once owned Tyson and he will fight out his days as a deterrent to big fights as opposed to being a maker of such fights-enter the uber credible Tim Bradley. What Merchant didn’t do is make the itemized list of “things” Bradley would have to execute besides buying one house and one car to elicit the ire and interest of Floyd Mayweather, which is where I come in.
‘Positioning” in the marketplace is hard when you don’t have the benefit of a built in ethnic fan base, even the great Mayweather requires foes to bring fans when he’s supposed to be the face of boxing. Why else does Amir Khan merit discussion? And why else would Golden Boy be prudent to keep Danny Garcia in the Barclays Center for the foreseeable future? Bradley is suffering from the oldest of maladies and it can be traced back as far as Charley Burley and Marvin Hagler. He’s going to have to make himself worth the risk to a fighter who resembles Jack Johnson in his propensity to profit from tribal passions in Floyd Mayweather and it can’t be done without planning. As of now on a mainstream level he’s seen as “that guy who didn’t beat Manny Pacquiao” and he has to change that perception before setting out on the Mayweather campaign. Yes, I said campaign and campaigns require more than a few well-placed quotes here and there. Here is the blueprint for making Tim Bradley a candidate for a super fight with Mayweather beyond his sterling resume.
#1 beat the Breaks off of Manny Pacquiao
A tall order if Manny turns in a 6 week camp, but if it turns out to be a war then that’s all the better. The general public will endorse Bradley if ESPN jams highlights from a slug fest down their throats, remember this is a highlight generation and there’s no advertisement like a quip from a Sports Center anchor. If he repeats the next level FOY performance against Manny Pacquiao Floyd Mayweathers name will come attached with the clips and he’ll be forced to explain it away to a less than receptive audience. A decisive win over Pacquiao is a game changer, it puts Arum in a position to where he has to choose to put his golden goose back together again while letting Bradley cross the street Miguel Cotto style. Arum isn’t a believer in black fighters as “draws” which is why Floyd hates him, trust me he’ll be too busy looking for another punching bag for Manny try to leverage Bradley. And after beating "Pacman" decisively Bradley can easily co-opt his fans with a gracious demeanor and respect for the Champion of the Philippines. Hell if he can he should go there and support Manny’s political efforts and bond with the people who would gladly transfer their hopes of beating Mayweather onto Bradley in the short term.
                #2 Call Floyd out early and often
I know I know, everybody calls him out but Tim Bradley will be the most decorated welterweight to call him out in years. Remember, there’s no shame in calling him out when you consider the fact that he is actually listening to everyone but the guy you just beat Pacquiao once and for all. Calling out Floyd will be greeted with derision by his propaganda arm but all one has to do is point out that Amir Khan, Juan Manuel Marquez and Ricky Hatton were all “heard” (by Floyd) because they all had no shot. Bradley has no better platform than post fight once he handles Pacquiao to let it be known and do it in a colorful and unmistakable way. This will assure face time on ESPN’s “First Take” and Bradley must find a way to lead Stephen A. Smith (A Mayweather “fan”) to the water because he’s not hard to convince. Hell even where a Floyd Who? T-shirt to Max Kellermans “Face off” if you have to, remember Floyd will start saying Bradley’s trying to “get paid” but make it clear to every hot microphone  within 50 feet that he deserves to get paid. Turn his words against him, Bradley shouldn’t be the least bit shy about reiterating Mayweather's “they call it prize fighting” mantra.
             #3 Hire an Aggressive PR Firm
There has to be some outlay in order to bring the money home, and hiring a professional group is a wise investment. Picture it as a real campaign, a product that needs to be sold just like any other new product. Ali was his own PR machine who had no problem showing up in Denver and Philly to harass Sonny Liston and Joe Frazier because they had what he wanted. Floyd’s backyard is Vegas so why wouldn’t an aggressive firm run spots in Vegas? why wouldn’t Bradley do something charitable in Sin City and invite Floyd out to help?. Go on a Hip Hop Radio (Power 105, Hot 97) media tour and piss all over his backyard, this is the one constituency his opponents haven’t exploited in the call out stage so Bradley should be the first. A firm can stress the importance of doing more than press releases, how getting out there as a public figure is the way to sell anything in 2014. If Bradley can get some kind of cameo on a BET or "TVOne" type of show it would work wonders. Hell put on a suit and make yourself a presence at Black Hollywood Gala’s and hobnob with the celebrity set. At this point he’s a “who”? With black people and he needs to at least become “that dude who thinks he can whoop Floyd” by the fall- a serious upgrade. If Floyd is playing for anybody its black folks, specifically young black males so Bradley should appeal to the "WorldStarHipHop" crowd because if they “think” Floyd is on some punk shit they’ll call him on it.
 
                            #4 Frame Yourself as the Contrast to Mayweather
Believe it or not the fights that capture our imagination present us with two opposing forces like boxer vs. puncher or flashy vs. down to earth grinder. Bradley is a grinder with the opposite personality to Floyd, shine a spotlight on it! Mayweather cornered the market on “flashy, obnoxious African American” so Bradley has to bring attention to the differences between himself and the Grand Rapids native. HBO’s “Real Sports” can do a feature on him to create the kind of framing needed to polarize and make people choose sides. If they can play the race card by bringing in Michael Eric Dyson to lob Mayweather fat juicy softballs bring in someone else to draw the very real conflict ( us vs. them)  now bubbling in the black community. Facebook is filled with young black men posing with stacks of money that they didn’t get by hard work and dedication thanks to Floyd, so why not highlight this fact? Tim Bradley can present himself as the alternative and become a celebrity for his overtly non celebrity image if he “puts Floyds name in his mouth”. Bradley’s very lifestyle isn’t vulnerable to Mayweather’s usual claims aimed at Pacquiao, with resume in hand he can sell himself on integrity alone and put Floyd’s hypocrisy “all out on front street”. Even if he’s embraced by the conservative right as the kind of athlete African Americans “should” root for it’s better than anonymity and it also tears a page out of the Mayweather book on self-promotion. Make “the rounds”, late night or any non-boxing forum your firm can arrange because it’s about finding a supportive mainstream tribe. Floyd found the vicarious video game playing “ballers” back in 2007; in 2014 Bradley has to find his.
                                #5 Send Joel Diaz “after” the babbling Mayweather’s
It’s the worst kept secret in all of Boxing, the Mayweather’s aren’t elite trainers but their involvement with Floyd gives them license to comment on any other trainer in the business. Diaz should hit them where it hurts and make it clear that at this point training Floyd Mayweather is like coaching LeBron James which is why you can switch the babbling brothers in and out between rounds if you wanted to. I’m not sure he’d notice. Floyd may be a major league shit talker but he got it from these two, and his uncle and father aren’t as secure in their position as he is. Diaz may be a class act but getting muddy can lead him to the only fight that makes sense if Bradley beats Pacquiao in impressive fashion. The uncle and the father talk shit more consistently than Floyd so Diaz should get the running chatter going now before Bradley steps in with Pacquiao. Any claims of Cold War go out of the window after Floyd steps in with Amir Khan, by my estimation once that farce is signed Diaz can say the following to the babbling Mayweather’s.
“How can you talk so much shit about who can’t fight and take on Guerrero, Canelo and Khan in succession?” Diaz may be the trainer of the #2 fighter pound for pound in Boxing by spring and you’d have to be a fool to let any one of these guys (Floyd Sr. or Roger) tell you he don’t deserve the shot. More importantly Diaz can point out that “his” guy doesn’t quit which is more than you can say for ALL of Mayweather’s recent opponents with the exclusion of Miguel Cotto.  Bradley made his bones not caring about obstacles and Floyd’s trainers are masters at hypothetical obstacles that don’t mean shit to guys like the desert storm. If he starts now he can break down all of the obstacles figurative and literal that makes this fight a long shot because the truth is he’s probably the last fighter “worthy” of fighting Floyd Mayweather.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Amir Khan: Cold War Profiteer






“War is a Racket, Always has been and always will be. Few profit and many end up paying”

Smedley Butler

 
Truer words have ever been spoken, only a select few know the truth behind a war and yet in boxing everybody “knows”. When rich men in suits posture and feign disgust while both providing a watered down service at inflationary prices only boxing fans believe they deserve that product. Now that Floyd Mayweather is searching to do business in this so called hostile environment we are confronted with a “product” guaranteed to be overvalued in this surreal marketplace- Amir Khan. Yes, he of quick hands British accent and shaky chin is now available to you at a 75$ clip because Golden Boy is taking their act global! War usually leads to shortage of supply in commodities and in this case the shortage is of welterweights who the public believes can beat Mayweather. But it won’t matter once the Showtime hype machine starts rolling, when they’re done with him many of you reading this will believe he’s competent at your own peril. And those of you already committed to the (cough) “war” will say he’s even more live than Pacquiao, Hall of Fame credentials be damned.

Cue the lights and camera’s because the boy can talk shit too, a great “fight selling” tool when you’re woefully overmatched and lacking credentials. War profiteers often exploit the largess of the state by overselling them commodities they really don’t need like mosquito nets and second tier junior welterweights. Few contractors profit from the delusional premise that Khan should be on this stage but War offers advancement to he who is willing to propagandize a meritless cause. Floyd Mayweather has an online propaganda arm in full bloom for those acolytes willing to obsess on Manny Pacquiao’s finances and Virgil Hunter calls Khans “troubling speed”. He also has family members as disinformation agents belittling Manny Pacquiao just enough to keep you from focusing on the fact that turning Khan into a threat will be a feat insurmountable by even Don Draper himself. Amir Khan will profit greatly from all of this because anyone approaching truthful analysis about the Brits “level” will be shot down and called a “broke hater”- and many of you can’t stomach the thought. This synthetic War apparatus will protect him as it will those who engage in staging “Pacquiao vs. Marquez 10” in 2015. Once a profiteer has his claws into the revenue stream of phony war it’ll be hard to get him off of the Government dole-which is why we still care about what Victor Ortiz is going to “do” in the future.

Khan is so intent on getting his Government bailout that he’s hinted at fighting Pacquiao if the Mayweather deal falls through; he’s no stranger to the fact that these two have been “using” one another to market themselves for years. Remember, in fake wars profiteers have no real allegiance and will sell pieces of themselves to whoever is willing to overpay; only Miguel Cotto swam this political swamp having delivered valuable services. Shane Mosley? not so much. The “state” (Top Rank/Golden Boy) only appear to be at a stalemate much like Democrats and Republicans but the truth is war allows them to inflate value and further control those already under contract. They also have the ability to govern with the consent of the fans who don’t realize our PPV “buys” are construed as votes for the continuation of shadow Government. They are behind the scenes a single monopolistic force who leverages one another as the NFL leverages existing franchises with the threat of expansion to LA.

War profiteers are shameless creatures who exploit the suffering of the whole to become one of the benefiting few. Khan is a product of this designed chaos, he’s seen guys of his ilk line up and get paid so he wants his handout too-and why not? He’s got 1.4 million twitter followers mate. This war seems to be designed to deny the historic and important and replace it with rhetorical fan chatter and a ton of rushed, not ready for primetime puppies. You know how I can tell Danny Garcia will be an All Time Great? because he’s clearly better than Khan and Broner and yet he isn’t itching to get at Mayweather. Somehow (unlike the guy he beat handily) Garcia knows the machine can turn him into a credible B side for a career high payday but he’s content with the long play  that he may possibly be Floyd in 5 years. Without a bunch of youngsters with instant gratification issues this war is at a standstill, under peacetime coherence the Brandon Rios’s and Amir Khans of the world sort themselves amongst each other while Manny and Floyd tend to historic business. But no, we are led to believe that incredibly wealthy men simply don’t like one another while men with similar grievances make BILLIONS with one another in every other industry daily. The belief in a War that makes grown men act like middle school girls is the belief in the cover story being fed the uninitiated-when the truth is somehow this thing is more profitable for all involved parties this way. One would have to suspend his faculties of reason to accept Amir Khan as anything more than another line item of the overhead needed to keep the  charade (I mean war) going.

Amir Khan is doing his part by acting as if he wants Mayweather more than he wants money, when you sign a bout agreement before your number is called son it’s about the money. By round 4 like most Mayweather foes Khan will run out of answers and his true colors will show. He’ll behave like the paid patsy he is and start protecting future paydays as opposed to fighting with little regard for tomorrow, you know like the guy he barely survived back in 2011. Back then he was fighting for more, back then he at least had the inkling that he might be special. That ship has sailed, and all that’s left is to exploit the Cold War to get paid like he’s special. In May he’ll be reminding us of our complicity and apathy, and our willingness to accept anything power tells us is reality- and yes “power” includes the networks who KNOW their use of the phrase “Cold War” is legitimizing to the promoters. Speaking truth to power is hard in wartime, and few benefit from pointing out the obvious-those who tell you to accept life as a casualty are usually those who like to call themselves the winners. But history can be cruel to many Wars and boxing history is only kind to wars that occur in the squared circle.

The History of Boxing will not forgive for the things we obsess upon daily, and there’s no room for larva like Tommy Summers or even the esteemed Al Haymon. History is for the fighters and what they did and didn’t do; history is cold and devoid of nuance much like accounting. Maybe one day there will be a book about these fascinating times (look for a subsidiary of Ring Magazine to publish it) but characters like Khan won’t register in real history books. When independent historians who aren’t beholden to the machine look at it they will examine it as political scientist does this country “after” JFK. Without the “WAR” you cannot justify how soon guys like Khan and Ortiz have reached this PPV status, with the War Mayweather and Pacquiao function as tools meant to add value to the whole stable of Welterweight talent regardless of whether they’re ready or not. “Bigger Checks Sooner” is what I call it. The model works, and we’ll never know if any of them could have grown into fighters who could legitimately retire Mayweather or Pacquiao because it don’t pay as well nor as soon. Amir Khan is perfect for this climate and if he’s OK with being “cash out” insert opponent here then more power to him.

But just don’t tell me it’s a War.  

 

 

UFC MMA Extreme