Bill Rhoden makes me puke

(continued from last post)​

I've (as have most on here) called out a number of writers and athletes on here, and the 'jealous' card has been deployed before. Please. I got in trouble on here the last time I tried to 'prove' I wasn't jealous of someone, so I'm not going down that road again. Suffice to say, let's try to stick to the facts about what the writer in question has or has not written, or has or has not said, and stay away from the ad hominem crap. I'm sick of that bullshit.

If Rhoden is your friend, cool. I'm sure he's a good guy. But the stuff he writes isn't on an objective par - and I'm talking about content-wise, not style-wise here - with what some other, more searching black columnists have written, e.g. Wiley. You don't have to like that, if it were my friend I wouldn't like it either, but that isn't the same as saying "RokSki said he's racist." Crap. He wrote what he wrote, he can own it. And I can analyze it for what it is, without having to come to the conclusion he's a racist.

henryhecht - You're flatlining. In one breath you say you can't judge black writers because you don't have their experience, but you're fully prepared to judge whether Malcolm X's conversion was 'political' or not? That's patently absurd, and goes against his own, first-person account. You know, like 'primary source' account. Sorry, my friend, I have to question the historical certitude of someone who thought sportschick - sportschick! - of all people was a Republican.

You seem to have more of a deterministic look at history than I do. I believe in the power of the individual to overcome his surroundings, to rise above and be more than the sum of his experiences. Of course context matters - nobody said it didn't - but does context = 'full explanation?' No, I don't think it does. I mean, if it does, you are 'doomed' to whatever your fate is based on the sum of your experiences to this point in your life. There are people who believe this idea, I'm not one of them. When I studied history in college, there was a lot of discussion about just this topic, in the form of questions like "Could Hitler have been anyone (from Post-WW1 Germany), or did he have to be Adolf Hiter for the Third Reich to come about?" I'd argue it had to be, specifically, Adolf Hitler. I imagine you would disagree. Fair enough.

William Rhoden is a grown man, and years removed from whatever hardship he may have endured in his youth. If he wanted his outlook to be different, it could and would be different. It isn't. You don't want to 'judge' any writer (although your free to judge people such as Malcolm X), I don't come from that angle. You write it, it gets judged. This isn't "I'm ok, you're ok" fantasy land; you are what you write.

I had a huge argument with others on this board about precisely this point. My background is not in writing - I'm a little late to the party, shall we say - but rather more of the in-your-face, you-fuck-up-you-will-hear-about-it-or-get-fired-immediately work environment. So the touchy-feely aspect of 'don't judge the writer' has absolutely zero currency in my book. That's for wimps, or ivory-tower types. I'm here in the real world. And in the real world, you own - you are - what you write. Rhoden writes what he writes, and that defines him. That's reality. I don't think there's any debate about what or how he writes, just the 'proper' interpretations of it. I'll leave the 'it's all relative, you can't understand' bunk to some college professor somewhere. Oh, and by the way, I'm not white, which, apparently, holds extra value to you in assessing a minority writer's work. So maybe I understand 'the pain' a little better than you do. Do you see how absurd that assertion is?

That's it for me for now. I've already spent too much time on this.

FB - I see what you're saying, I'm glad you read the apology. You might be correct in what you're saying about Rhoden's and Wiley's respective development, I'd have to go back over the material. If you are, my bad.

 

Wow Rokski - I wish I had your writing skills. Well said!

 

Thanks, Boom. Sun shines on a dog's ass blah, blah, blah. I just decide to when the sun hits my ass. : )

Appreciate it. Love the avatar. Who is that?

 

Again, if you don't like Bill's column. Don't read it. If he steps on your toes, perhaps you should look down to see if they are broken. Bill is a good guy and an easy target. Enough of the Rhoden bashing. It's old.

 

sorry roksi. malcolm was the head of a political movement - not a spiritual movement. he wasn't a religious leader. if he described his epiphany as "spiritual" - so what else is new. political leaders never admit to political impulses - it sounds too crass. they always couch their motives in something supposedly more pure. the muslims are all about empowerment on earth - not saving the soul in the afterlife. do you really believe malcolm was a religious leader? c'mon.

i never called sportschick a republican. she posted repeatedly that the two parties are the same in their misogyny. when i asserted that there are clear differences - the blue party tries to correct misogynistic policies while the red party panders to them - she blew her stack. just another hysterical woman.

hey tough guy, if you're so much in the real world why did you come late to the party and why aren't you a journalist? i've been a journalist all my life and i didn't come late to the party. i've stuck my nose into all of these issues, and had it bloodied a few times. where were you? you come on here and act like a journalist but you don't have the slightest idea of what it takes, and how sensitive and difficult it is to do well and do correctly. do you have any idea what bill rhoden experiences, writing for the world's most powerful newspaper? do you have any idea of the responsibility on his shoulders? of the millions of eyes on every word he writes? no, not the slightest. so go ahead - feel free to judge. you revealed a little too much about yourself - i have no problem judging you.

 

Oh my!

 

There is no way that this ends well.

 

I think it already has ended.

 

that was a joke. humor.

 

You think everything's ended.

 

So do we.

 

That fastball caught a little too much of the plate, didn't it?