Whitlock hits it out of the park

Whitlock promised fireworks for Thursday morning. Not seeing that. Instead, his column on diversity in journalism is typically well-reasoned and balanced.
I'm impressed by his $5/hour story. I thought I had it bad with my microwave hot dogs and living at the Y.
Great work, Jason.

The core of his message:

Lapchick’s study has set off the predictable amount of simple-minded analysis that raw numbers often produce. Scoop Jackson, a black columnist at America’s best and most influential online sports section (ESPN.com), filed a rant so juvenile and flawed on this topic that I nearly broke down in tears after reading it. His “column” perfectly exposed the problem within my industry and the sports industry when it comes to diversification.

There are no easy solutions when it comes to diversity, and the villains in America’s struggle to diversify the sports world are nowhere near as obvious as the media would have you believe.

It cannot all be pinned on white racism. No way. And unless we, African Americans, move away from explaining and defining these topics totally through the prism of white racism, things will not change. Not because of white backlash. Because we will continue to fail to prepare our youth for the opportunities that are out there to be snapped up.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/15078079.htm

 

Whitlock has the guts to say what Bill Rhoden NEVER will.

 

I liked it, too. It moved around to a lot of different topics, but it was still effective. This was my favorite line:

"If you give jobs to just anybody, soon America’s newspapers will be filled with columns telling black kids they’d be better off pursuing a basketball career rather than a writing career."

He absolutely killed Scoop Jackson.

 

Really good, readable shit.

 

I'm wondering, Jason - has anyone at ESPN given you any crap for the double-barrelled attack on Scoop? I mean since you also write for the WWL.

 

I hope no one here seriously thinks Whitlock had even an ounce of trepidation there would be a backlash for his criticizing a no-talent lightweight like Scoop Jackson.

 

"Lightweight"? Have you seen how many people on here defend him to the death? He's "fresh." "Not afraid to try things." "Relates to the subjects."

For the record, I think he's an embarrassment.

 

A great read. You can tell Whitlock really cares about this subject, and put a lot of thought into it. Whitlock writes here - just like Wilbon and Leonard Pitts often do - what a lot of well-meaning white writers are thinking but are afraid to say. You can't dismiss institutional white racism, but in some cases the blame lies mostly elsewhere.

 

You don’t learn to coach in AAU. You learn how to peddle kids for money and jobs.

For some reason that line really grabbed me.

 

I am no Whitlock fan by any stretch of the imagination (I read the Star online almost every day, and I either skip JW's column or cringe and duck out of it a few grafs in), but this is a damn solid piece. Brilliantly stated, and more than a little gutsy in that he ripped a co-worker (albeit in a gig where he does see said co-worker every day, but you would figure the Vice Presidents of Synergy at the WWL would be displeased). Nicely done.

 

Well-written, not the usual JW rant about The Man keeping minorities down etc. But ...

Does anyone really believe for one minute that the readers of the KC Star sports section give a shit about any of this? As an op-ed piece, maybe. As a lead sports column. no fucking way.
For all the bullshit that goes on around here about serving the reader, this is self-serving insdie stuff that most readers couldn't care less about.