Jemele on Larry Johnson

[bigpern23]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/061204&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos2

I've only read a few of columns in the past (and only one on Page 2) and haven't been much of a fan, but she nailed this column about Larry Johnson.

 

[Oz]

This thread will not end well.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Her best work so far...

 

[BTExpress]

I routinely get e-mails from readers who are disgusted because they feel the race card is played too much and inappropriately. (By the way, can someone put the phrase "race card" in a cryogenic chamber and never thaw it?)

Memo to Jemele: Just as soon as you put the phrase "throwing someone under the bus" into that same cryogenic chamber along with the term "race card", which, by the way, you decided to use when you could have just as easily said, "I routinely get e-mails from readers who are disgusted because they feel race is a subject that is used too often and sometimes inappropriately."

 

[fmrsped]

Her best work so far...

See, now I don't know if you actually think it's her best work so far, or if you're back to last week's schtick of antagonizing all the Jemele backers around here.

Clarification?

 

[Ace]

I thought it was a good, strong column.

By the way, if I were a coach and a player said the following to me ...

"We like to go out. We like to have fun, but then you have to worry about the guy around the corner with the gun. You've got to worry about this girl on the block. You've got to worry about your parents, your homeboys taking advantage of you. So many things you have to worry about being a young, black athlete.

... I would say, "Hey, I got your back. If that is your problem, we are gonna give you an 8 p.m. curfew and guard the door to your room to make sure you aren't tempted to get shot, hassled by baby mamas or mistreated by mooching friends."

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Her best work so far...

See, now I don't know if you actually think it's her best work so far, or if you're back to last week's schtick of antagonizing all the Jemele backers around here.

Clarification?

I thought it was her best work so far... I'll save the sarcasm and the antagonizing for the days when she deserves it... I'm sure that will come soon...

But that was a very good column...

 

[GFav44]

Many of the athletes like Larry Johnson who comes from two parent homes that lives in the suburbs want that "street cred" because of other players who do not come from a one parent home and had to struggle. I do not think Larry Johnson has to worry too many guys around the corner with guns. If he does, he needs to reevaluate where he goes and who he hangs out with.

 

[outofplace]

I thought it was a good, strong column.

By the way, if I were a coach and a player said the following to me ...

"We like to go out. We like to have fun, but then you have to worry about the guy around the corner with the gun. You've got to worry about this girl on the block. You've got to worry about your parents, your homeboys taking advantage of you. So many things you have to worry about being a young, black athlete.

... I would say, "Hey, I got your back. If that is your problem, we are gonna give you an 8 p.m. curfew and guard the door to your room to make sure you aren't tempted to get shot, hassled by baby mamas or mistreated by mooching friends."

And no young, white athlete ever has to worry about the girl on the block, his parents or friends trying to take advantage of him.

 

[Ace]

I thought it was a good, strong column.

By the way, if I were a coach and a player said the following to me ...

"We like to go out. We like to have fun, but then you have to worry about the guy around the corner with the gun. You've got to worry about this girl on the block. You've got to worry about your parents, your homeboys taking advantage of you. So many things you have to worry about being a young, black athlete.

... I would say, "Hey, I got your back. If that is your problem, we are gonna give you an 8 p.m. curfew and guard the door to your room to make sure you aren't tempted to get shot, hassled by baby mamas or mistreated by mooching friends."

And no young, white athlete ever has to worry about the girl on the block, his parents or friends trying to take advantage of him.

No kidding. You should see some of the hussies at my country club. And I almost got killed by a flying 5-iron the other day.

 

[Alma]

Hill engages in the same kind of identity politics (faulty, no less) that Larry Johnson does when she calls him "more Will Smith than Tupac."

Hill also doesn't make a distinction between black men and women, but she ought to. From the very beginning of slavery, through its sordid history, through Jim Crow and even today, white America has sought to exploit the black woman and repress the black man. The exploitation is no less sinister but it does afford black women relationships and limited social acceptance never afforded to black men. When Hill talks about her relationship with her boss, it's not the same as a black man talking about it, and just about every crucial piece of African-American literature will highlight that distinction. It was also a hallmark of the Moynihan Report put out in the 60s.

Mind you, I'm not finding something to criticize here because I don't like this columnist. I'm saying that her thesis - Larry Johnson is immature because he's never really had that bad and his comments are a justification for black men to be bums - is an easy "be an adult" perspective that ignores very real feelings -feelings that, I'd bet, were heightened by **** Vermeil, who has a sort of creepy verbal and physical exuberance.

And Vermeil made some comments - the diaper one in particular - that suggested it was more than having Priest Holmes.

 

[Almost_Famous]

I liked it better last week. When it was written here.

http://sports.aol.com/whitlock/nfl/_a/favre-throwing-away-great-reputation/20061130093709990001

(whoops, bad link - see #6)

 

[bigpern23]

I thought it was a good, strong column.

By the way, if I were a coach and a player said the following to me ...

"We like to go out. We like to have fun, but then you have to worry about the guy around the corner with the gun. You've got to worry about this girl on the block. You've got to worry about your parents, your homeboys taking advantage of you. So many things you have to worry about being a young, black athlete.

... I would say, "Hey, I got your back. If that is your problem, we are gonna give you an 8 p.m. curfew and guard the door to your room to make sure you aren't tempted to get shot, hassled by baby mamas or mistreated by mooching friends."

And no young, white athlete ever has to worry about the girl on the block, his parents or friends trying to take advantage of him.

No kidding. You should see some of the hussies at my country club. And I almost got killed by a flying 5-iron the other day.

Mmmmm ... country club hussies ....

 

[Lester Bangs]

<i>Johnson admitted that under Vermeil, he fell asleep in meetings and was unmotivated. The last thing other young, black men need to hear is that it's OK to be unprofessional if you don't like your boss and he doesn't come from circumstances that mirror your own. That's crap. My boss isn't a young, black woman from Detroit, and I work with him just fine. It's called being an adult -- something Johnson is still learning how to be.</i>

Tremendous work, here. Johnson's "studio gangster" act is an insult to anybody who ever had hard times growing up -- black, brown, white et al.

 

[D-3 Fan]

Studio Gangster. [/SportsJournalists.com term of the year]

She was solid in pointing out examples of how black coaches and black players doesn't necessarily equate to a harmonious relationship. From Bobby Williams, to Denny Green dealing with Daunte, Moss, and Cris Carter.

Now, we have found a term that we can place on Chris Webber.

 

[BigRed]

I thought it was a good column.
That said, I saw something on ESPN2 that scared the crap out of me last week.
Passed by "Quite Frankly" with Screamin' A Smith, and he was introducing his panelists for the day.
"To my left, Jemele Hill of ESPN.com. To my right, columnist Rob Parker of the Detroit News...."
I turned the channel before he could get to the third panelist. I don't think my thumb has ever moved so fast in my 28-plus years on this Earth....

 

[D-3 Fan]

I thought it was a good, strong column.

By the way, if I were a coach and a player said the following to me ...

"We like to go out. We like to have fun, but then you have to worry about the guy around the corner with the gun. You've got to worry about this girl on the block. You've got to worry about your parents, your homeboys taking advantage of you. So many things you have to worry about being a young, black athlete.

... I would say, "Hey, I got your back. If that is your problem, we are gonna give you an 8 p.m. curfew and guard the door to your room to make sure you aren't tempted to get shot, hassled by baby mamas or mistreated by mooching friends."

And no young, white athlete ever has to worry about the girl on the block, his parents or friends trying to take advantage of him.

He just have to worry about the trailer trash bimbo across the tracks and his gravy-training parents who wants to live through him and his successes.


Alma, you made some valid and worthy comments. The only thing is that she was focused on the sports story at hand. I don't think ESPN is interested in having her write about the historical context of African-Americans and the well-documented conditions they have gone through. They want entertainment, not a history lesson.

But we already knew that about the WWL!

BigRed, was it that bad to see? No one wonder why her pic isn't on Page 2 yet. Just wondering....

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

I point out for the record that the easiest way for a black columnist to get applause from the board is to criticize a black athlete. (See, "Whitlock, Jason.") This column isn't any better -- or worse -- than her previous work, but, suddently, she "gets it."

 

[MCEchan36]

Wow, I was very impressed by Ms. Hill. I actually feel a little ashamed of having LJ on my fantasy team (PS - Larry, thanks for coming up big this week against Cleveland. I didn't want that first-round bye in fantasy playoffs anyway).

 

[zeke12]

That's a good column.