What if Suzy Favor Hamilton were Black?

If you have a sore spot for African American males who have strong opinions and make you feel like they view everything through the chasm of race; this one is not for you so leave your racial epithets at the door with your parting gifts please. Now that we have that shit out of the way let’s make a few disclosures; I am an extremely liberal man so you don’t have the puritanical “card” to play after I lay down my race card. I’m also a man who favors more of the Christina Hendricks “full grown woman” look but I can see why many would find Suzy Favor Hamilton extremely sexy. I also believe that what Suzy Favor Hamilton  was “caught” doing should be legal for a myriad of reasons; I also believe consenting adults who choose to marry aren’t bound by monogamy nor anything else the general public “believes” they should be doing in their bedroom. Now that we have all of it out of the way and you know who you are dealing with lets’ play a little game I like to call “What if that Chick were Black?” I think it’s important because when you consider some of the scrutiny Black Female Athletes have to endure you can’t look at the Suzy Hamilton Favor controversy and believe it would be covered in the same if she were a Sista. Don’t get me wrong, Mrs. Favor Hamilton is being shamed but there is a difference in the tenor of exposure and vilification, in fact I may already be late in commenting on the “story”. Lo Lo Jones was brought to tears for being a young girl capable of profiting from her sex appeal, something the All American girl (Hamilton) did way back in the 1990’s before the age of social media. Marion Jones lied about PED’s, and she and he co conspirators went to jail for it, real jail, where she had to fight women who were probably prostitutes at some point in their lives for way different reasons than suburban malaise.

Mrs. Hamilton with Favors may not know this but she fits a profile that is becoming increasingly more prevalent, but the luxury of being white means she’ll never be profiled. Her so called crime is given the benefit of individual examination, if she were Black the case would open up a larger discussion about the ills of our community and the ravenous sexual nature of “those people”. You see if you examine modern pop culture there’s been a favorable emphasis on 40 something white women –still hot and behaving badly. “Desperate Housewives” is a signal to a culture that is now glamorizing attractive white women in their 40’s with names like “cougar” and “MILF” all wrapped in a neat little marketing bow to suggest “empowerment”. Favor Hamilton is already receiving the benefit of individual examination based on race, because some have opined whether her “crime” will bring more awareness to depression and postpartum issues-in other words when you’re a certain kind of American “pie” your issues can be “flipped” into the next sparkly new PC cause. When you’re black you struggle with cultural stereotypes 300 years old, with no spin available to sanitize what the hell you just did. If you listen to her, she isn’t speaking like a spokesperson, she sounds like most people in the hood who rail on "snitches getting stiches"-unapologetic is an understatement. She can afford to be, while Gabby Douglass has to smile and bite her lip as others gripe about her hair and nose, you see the price is much higher for her to become America’s sweetheart than it is was for Favor Hamilton back in 1997. The Wisconsin Potato Growers and "Rock and Roll Marathon" can take their miniscule little checks and integrity away but they will be quickly replaced by more edgy, trendy Corporations willing to take a chance on the blonde bombshells “infamy”. If Hamilton Favors were black we’d be reading jokes about her last name being “Favor” and despite working for a high end “agency” the cultural images of pimps would be dusted off and re introduced to the Twitter generation. If she were black she wouldn’t be afforded the class that most of her clientele are afforded, especially if it were public knowledge that these men were “willing to go bankrupt” for what “Lil Kim” likes to call the “Ill Na Na”. As of this writing, ESPN hasn’t gone near the topic while comparatively Marion Jones was raked over the coals for wanting to win at any cost-like any other red blood American. Language is important, and Favors –Hamilton is allowed to control it with words like “illicit midlife diversion” but if she were black the words would be “Federal, criminal prostitution” and “failure to report income”. We’d even be informed on just how many years a Sista would be facing but hell all I know you can still bounce a quarter off the woman’s ass and nothing more. Remember, this is a media climate whereby serial scumbag Don Imus called Collegiate Athletes “Nappy Headed Ho’s” because they didn’t look like Mrs. Favors Hamilton so you can imagine what Imus would say if he knew the lady hoopsters were turning tricks?.

 

She told you she’s not a victim, but the media will make her one to keep from saying things about her that they’d gladly serve up in relation to a minority. Maybe she missed the exhibitionism (and admiration) the little track uniforms afforded her in her prime, maybe she still has issues surrounding her brothers passing- both of which I personally have empathy for. But I don’t think the general public has any empathy for the supporting factors that lead a lot of black women into the Sex Trade even though the factors are often WAY direr-and they aren’t in the same Tax Bracket as Suzy Sunshine. Black women in the worst areas of this country aren’t filled with Athletes invincibility or the confidence of someone supported by major Corporations like Nike and Disney. They don’t feel “untouchable” because they are often the most vulnerable, selling themselves on the streets for survival purposes not “diversion”. If they could somehow get out of their situations they’d gladly go on speaking tours and be grateful for the money Suzy Sunshine received as a “Motivation” to many. A lot of them are drug addicted, something that is less glamorous than being a bored MILF and far less forgiven by the mainstream public- because no one gives a shit when a poor person has to sell themselves sexually. They don’t have “Hobbyist” nor Clients willing to pay to keep them from getting in trouble, they have Tricks who are actually scumbags unlike the silly braggart who outed Suzy Sunshine. Tricks don’t do survey’s when they’re done, and some of them are capable of killing a prostitute. The bottom line is Suzy Favor Hamilton would already be in jail if she were black, because the website who outed her would have allowed the police to set her up for a sting- Marion Barry style. So before this story evaporates to dust just know this; men who can pay 600$ an hour for “ass” won’t let this chick spend a day in jail (she didn’t out them) and they know just who to call; and she won’t have to even thank them…they’ll consider it a “Favor”.

 

Floyd Mayweather vs Carlos Baldomir 1/3

International Boxing Hall of Fame 2013 Inductees

ESPN's Parker Apologizes, But the Barbershop Style is here to Stay

Have you looked at ESPN lately? Is there a certain “tone” that appears to be in replication more frequently in their debate oriented programming? Is one debate show in particular swallowing the Network despite the grumblings of more “dignified” journalists working at the network, and more importantly will it subsided anytime soon? First Take is fastly becoming the Goliath within the Goliath, the Hot TV show that is making the go to sports outlet the place to be for many of us the first thing in the morning. Even Sports Center is taking a backseat to the show, instead of the highlights of the game many of you want to see what Bayless and Smith think of the game. The show is directly responsible for making ESPN a cultural phenomenon that attracts a list Rappers as well as Regis Philbin for the same reasons and that is hard to do. We’ve all been riveted for the last couple of years to the Frazier Ali synergy of Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith but it is the bombastic tone and tenor of Smith that makes the show a staple for African American sports fans. What is the appeal of a voice that can often get too loud, too obnoxious and too overbearing at times? The appeal is the cultural link to the haven of all black sports debate, the Barbershop. We love Stephan A because as African Americans we all have a friend like him, loud, opinionated and filled with low-metric “facts” that often don’t matter. He’s that homeboy that will bombard you with statistics and a little bit of trash talk to keep the crowd alive while everybody is sitting around waiting for their turn in the top barber’s chair. It’s a familiar tone and style, part preacher; part Muhammad Ali,-part Rucker Park and when you mix it with the relentless Skip Bayless you have TV magic. All of this success is to the chagrin of those who kneel at the altar of the Sports Cathedral.

 Newsflash: Fans never felt close to the Academic, “Fuddy Duddy” shows where journalists tried to outsmart the room when talking about something that isn’t (and shouldn’t) be viewed on par with world events….Sports.

ESPN is in the business of entertainment because the truth is Sports is something that was designed to keep us from pondering much more serious matters like the Federal Reserve-and it works. The African American style of Sports debate is provocative at times but is often a tongue and cheek entertaining way to elicit response. Let the media outlets who are getting reduced to irrelevance by ESPN strive to “enlighten”, hell ESPN can beat them at that too. Stephen A. Smith’s overreaction to Skip Bayless’s “Tebow” love is all barbershop shtick, evoking Muhammad Ali’s cat and mouse game with Howard Cosell in the heyday of their verbal rivalry. If you examine the debate format shows African American personalities appear to have brought a more freeform style to the shows that make them more entertaining while manifesting a basic truth about sports, regular folks don’t debate it, we argue about it. ESPN despite being the only ballgame in town is more hip than it’s ever been without alienating a core audience of guys who see the change but aren’t averse to it. But, with that Barbershop style there are gray areas and pitfalls that force us to re-examine how far the network may be willing to go in embracing that kind of style. This reminds me of when Hip Hop went mainstream and corporate, the masters of industry knew the influence was strong in the suburbs but they still had to frame it in a way with respects to the fact that Mom still had the checkbook. Last week Rob Parker was suspended indefinitely for making disparaging remarks about RG3, questioning whether the Skins QB was a “cornball brotha” or “down for the cause”. I’m not even sure where the complaints came from, but I’m sure they came from a powerful place because I was satisfied when Stephen A. checked him on it in real time and i wouldn’t have been offended if the “Hollis Howler” called him an idiot. The Biggest Network known to man (owned by Disney) is a Corporate Animal beholden to Political correctness. But the Black Barbershop is the most politically incorrect place in the world so tread lightly.

We do talk about interracial marriage, and we do question how certain successful brotha’s behave within the Celebrity they have achieved-and we do cast generalized BS character assessments often to an Apollo Amateur Night Response. Unfortunately we are just a bunch of guys waiting for a haircut and Rob Parker is on TV; he may have thought he was slipping one under the “PC Police” but once he mentioned “Real Brotha’s” in the Barbershop this goose in the loud suit was cooked. The game called “the dozens” is another way we communicate in the Barbershop, we take shots and if your thin skinned or take yourself too serious (like advertisers) you shouldn’t be trafficking in that cultural environment. The major sports leagues traffic in predominantly black area’s and trust me Robert Griffith is no stranger to African American Barbershop “chatter” despite rocking the braids and being a Military brat. He’s the face of a major sports franchise, so I’m sure he’s just as oblivious to black criticism as Tiger Woods is which is Parkers point and Griffith’s luxury to ignore his BS. Athletes love the show and respond to it directly more than any sports show on TV, and this would have to be something that the so called “more dignified” Sports Shows ENVY. Jay Busbee over at Yahoo Sports may call Skip Bayless’s branding Chris Bosh “Bosh Spice” sports manure, but black folks call it shit talking, and Bosh came on the show to handle it. ESPN can’t plug every leak in a genre they’ve clearly invested in without robbing it of the authenticity that makes it entertaining-in fact nobody at the network even found it necessary to edit out the idiocy on the second airing-because it worked. ESPN is responsible for giving us smart, dignified African American Sports Journalists like the late Ralph Wiley but we aren’t (and shouldn’t be) bound to the Sidney Poitier model of presentation because our passion (even when displaced) is a part of the noise that makes Barbershops great.

 

Unfortunately when you venture into what one would call a more organic form of dialogue one can risk rankling the many partnerships and sponsors that don’t take kindly to how Black folks “signify”. TV One can have shows centered around Black Men being (As Parker put it) “Down for the Cause” and presenting us as politically monolithic because of the partnerships they have and their audience. ESPN is dealing with a larger slice of the population who may not find the Barbershop so funny when brotha’s venture into the kind of territory we often venture into. So, if Rob Parker wants to speak more frankly about sports in a style that is consistent with what we really are “used to” my suggestion is a cut in pay and a call to BET or TV One. But he should be wary that like everyone else nobody can step to ESPN when it comes to viewership and influence, just ask Dan Patrick who entered Witness Protection once he left the Network. If he and a group of African American Sports Journalist aren’t willing to bravely take that Barbershop style to a new network and challenge the “Big Boys” then Parker should bite his tongue. And deal with the realization that he just may be the “Cornball Brotha” he hinted at RG3 being.

Newsflash: Parker Apologizes to Network and Griffith.

Next, FOX News will sic the Irish Bloodhound on him and force him to admit he’s a deplorable racist worthy of deportation. This segment will come after they accuse Obama of somehow being involved with Parker; I mean he does have to tighten up his fade every other week right?.

50 Cent Deserves to Comment on Mayweathers Finances

It is ironic that we arrive at this impasse in boxing sensationalism by discussing a man who calls himself “Money” and a man known as “50 Cent”. For maturity purposes only we at the Loaded Gloves will refer to the near 40 year olds as Curtis Jackson and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Obviously their rift is becoming a modern soap opera filled with Rap Radio stations, social media and innuendo involving a booty model. The High Road was detoured from the minute these two made their rift public, so now all that is left is for us to be able to discern what is real and what isn’t. For my money both men are good for Boxing, Floyd in the immediate economy and Curtis in the long-term. I believe Curtis Jackson despite having come from a culture where he has been involved in violent senseless BEEF is genuinely hurt by Floyd’s “changing his mind” about going into the Boxing Business together. I also believe that Floyd felt put upon by some of the executive moves made by Curtis while he was incarcerated and may not have communicated himself clearly, especially when flunkies started to muddy the water. Whatever happened I think it’s important to point out some of the troublesome and hypocritical aspects associated with Mr. Mayweathers “branding” and how any intelligent person can see through his current position of restraint. I will proceed however with sensitivity for the Mayweather Family as now Roger (as well as Floyd Sr.) struggle with health issues.

You can’t define the parameters of a game, play it with impunity and then hint at foul play when the game catches up to you. Floyd Mayweather chose the moniker “Money” and with that brand decided that flaunting his wealth like a Rapper was good for business, and it was, the Boxing business. Curtis Jackson may have had something to do with this approach but now that they are estranged Mr. Jackson is now quick to point out the ultimate failure of that approach when it came to “out of the ring” income. In his Power 106 interview he sounded like the mogul he is, I think the term was “Brand Extension”. I knew this years ago, that Q Rating is why Manny Pacquiao is chasing Wild Rabbits and Nike will get behind his effort to beat Juan Manuel Marquez once and for all in 2013-and not the greatest fighter (Floyd) of this generation. Curtis Jackson also pointed out the “spend, fight, spend model” and the lack of business management in Floyds career-something deeply offensive coming from a friend because it has more validity than if it came from the random “Broke Motherfuckers” Floyd taunts in interviews. Recently at a charity event Floyd hinted at Mr. Jacksons comments being out of bounds stating that it was somehow inappropriate to comment on “another man’s pockets” and I totally agree-unless it’s Floyds pockets we’re talking about.

And here is a reminder of why it is Totally Appropriate for Mr. Jackson to comment on Mr. Mayweathers financial situation.

For one Floyd Mayweather has become the most quoted active Boxer in history when it comes to the inner workings of his finances and how much control he has in his career. For starters Mr. Jackson pointed out what any rational person already knew that Mr. Mayweather is unofficially a Golden Boy fighter-something he’s been railing against for years. Mayweather took every possible opportunity to tell us GBP works for him, and he probably does pay them a flat rate to promote his events but they have the exclusive rights to do so above any other firm. I never understood how it was worthy of spin, who wouldn’t want to be the number one draw for the number one Promoter in Boxing? A company that made Floyd the highest paid athlete in 2012? It was appropriate for Jackson to comment on the arrangement because Mr. Mayweather led him to believe he was independent of GBP, why else would Mr. Jackson call Oscar De La Hoya “girl” (on Twitter) when he believed he and his friend were moving on without GBP?. When Richard Schaeffer says “Mayweather Promotions” what he really means is “we call Al who calls Leonard, who calls Floyd”. It is also appropriate for Mr. Jackson to comment on Floyds finances because he spent a reported 2 million to get Fighters out of contracts to begin a new venture (with Floyd) but could not secure investment from his friend who he probably has seen waste that kind of money on frivolous pursuits. Mr. Jackson was under the impression that Floyd was interested in making an investment in his post boxing career so he overlooked the realization that Mayweather Promotions didn’t even have a corporate seal. Remember, Floyd Mayweather pioneered talk about PPV Buys, income, and disclosure about the purse disparity he enjoys, he injected this into the Boxing pre fight dialogue –he created the “New Normal”. As Boxing fans we always knew Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya were rich, but we didn’t care nor did they talk about “how” rich; Leonard didn’t brag about buying Hagler off to give him a big ring and 12 Rounds. Had he done so in 1987 it would have damaged his brand, now he throws it in as an obscure fact when discussing his history.


Floyd Mayweather is unfortunately in no moral position to call for civility from Mr. Jackson because Rappers aren’t Civil; if you start Beefing with one of them money will come up. Mr. Mayweather also made a habit out of commenting on the state of Manny Pacquiao’s financial affairs; he even utilized a propaganda website to gossip about loans Arum made to the Filipino star. It was never good enough that he enjoyed all of the natural advantages (and in my opinion) would have beaten Pacquiao, in true Hip Hop fashion he had to call his rival broke. He talked about Oscar De La Hoya as if Oscar WON their 2007 fight; bitter vitriol aimed at a man that he knew win or lose had more money than him-but nobody could read between the lines. Even in defeat Mr. Mayweather points out that Pacquiao rise was “off of my back” as if he didn’t cherry pick every opponent that could draw a crowd, why else fight Arturo Gatti in Atlantic City? Mr. Mayweather also made it a point to talk explicitly about Shane Mosley’s alimony arrangement poking fun at Jin Mosley taking “all of Shane’s money”. Curtis Jackson cares about Mr. Mayweather, only a friend would be wary of a Harvard Educated Business Manager allowing a client to travel with duffel bags of cash. Mr. Mayweather is also good at Tweeting Betting slips…when he wins as if trying to affirm that he’s smarter than you think he is. If Arnold Rothstein were alive today he’d tell the Welterweight never bet on anything that isn’t already in the bag (like the 1919 World Series) in other words Floyd should stick to betting on himself in fights. So you see this is all legal and above board, Curtis Jackson has every right to comment on his friends “pockets” because that’s’ all, his friend ever talked about-his and everyone else’s. If Floyd were smart he’d drop the Money Moniker all together because it opens you up for situations you can never anticipate nor handle appropriately if you aren’t “from” Money. 

How many legitimate businessmen do you know spend millions to go into a joint venture only to have their partner back out with no ramifications?.Would Donald Trump bite his tongue if Mark Cuban backed out on a well publicised joint deal? or would he bite back to protect his reputaion as a serious business man?.

 

You Decide.