Rhoden: The dragnet only hauls in the top black athletes.

Rhoden has played the race card one time too many to really give this column serious consideration.

Just the 4 or 5 columns that Rhoden wrote about what a great guy Michael Vick was is enough to negate this column.

When Whitlock writes about matters of race you can take it seriously because he has always stuck a balance in his positions.

 

But compared to what, Twoback? To say that in these instances the media were too severe implies a comparison to other cases in which they weren't. Like a lot of folks on this thread I guess I'm still not sure what those cases are.

I'm not saying I disagree with Mr. Rhoden's fundamental premise regarding institutional racism in sports and in the press, but in this piece particularly some good might have come from other examples involving athletes of like stature of other races.

But Bonds, sadly, is a singularity. He is a man standing alone at the top of America's most beloved game. And the routine comparison, McGwire, was never that. Should Bonds not be scrutinized because McGwire began the Steroids Era rather than ending it?

 

The comparison to Bonds is Pete Rose and in no way did the media or MLB go light on him. The penalities against Pete Rose were severe and rightfully so. The penalities to Bonds should be as severe.

 

QED.

Add:

Although the comparative problem is then that Rose violated a rule that's been posted in every major league clubhouse since 1920. You can still make an argument, and many do, that MLB hadn't clearly and forcefully banned and condemned steroid use by the time its influence became routine in the league. This is just one of the things that makes the steroid issue more complicated.

Back to Rhoden's point: Is his beef with the press? Or is his real assertion that government agencies and law enforcement target minorities more frequently and with more vigor than they do whites? That would have been a stronger central argument for a piece of this kind. I think.

2nd writethru:

OK. So I went back and reread the piece. I had completely forgotten its arguments since this morning - which isn't a good sign for Mr. Rhoden, or for me. Mr. Rhoden's premise does, in fact, seem to center generally on the notion that law enforcement dotes on high-profile cases involving African-American athletes of stature. But he doesn't get much traction on why, other than the quote from the one fella he spoke to - an attorney with a vested interest in the outcome of one of the cases. Otherwise, there's no reporting in the piece at all. To the point that the three athletes mentioned - Bonds, Vick, Jones - had all arrived at the very top of their sports, were in fact the national face of those sports in at least two of those cases, he speaks not at all.

That two of those cases involve cheating in the sports themselves is not mentioned.

I grant, and always have, that the Vick case is something of an aberration. When was the last time the Feds cracked down on dogfighting not involving a superstar athlete?

 

If his argument is with the media than Rhoden should go back and study up on Ted Williams. One of the greatest players ever and a war hero to boot and the Boston media was relentless in villifying him.

 

The Boston media has always loathed war heroes.

 

Why doesn't Rhoden just say it honestly and openly, he expects black men who commit crimes or break the rules to get a free pass and those who write about these people are just jealous white men trying to take a paycheck away from a black man.

Rhoden's work is hurting the black community because those of my friends who are black agree with men like Jackson, Sharpton and Willie.... it is about changing the free pass mentality brainwashed by their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.

It should no longer be about what the white men did to me in the 60's while rising up against the clenched fist of hatred.

My friends ask for leadership who ask men to treat their mothers, sisters, and girlfriends/wives with respect and love. Women to close their legs and stop having sex without protection, out of marriage, and stop having large families.

It is about working hard, earning a honest living, being an asset to your neighborhood, community, and society.

The so-called leaders of this generation are a disgrace to the black community and the people at CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, and FOX are afraid to close the broadcast to these wasteful leaders in fear the mis-informed will boycott their broadcasts.

Who will rise above the sludge and make Rhoden, Jackson, and Sharpton go away.

 

No one in America.

That's just another reason why we're going down. With FREEDOM, comes RESPONSIBILITY.

 

Donaghy.

 

That's right, generalizations only work for the pale-faced.

Are you Le Batard?

 

Holy Christ.... if Manning had been lynching dogs, it would have been EXPONENTIALLY WORSE.

 

To be fair to Rhoden, he is giving Isaiah Thomas a pass, maybe they agree about the bitches?