Bonds, the HR chase & the race issue

cold busted... nice work by selena roberts and by you for busting me....

 

No, but whites, except Tony Soprano & Pat Buchanan, don't use the achievement of other whites to validate themselves or take special pleasure in the accomplishments of others because they are white. The white OJ, Robert Blake, wasn't treated as the conquoring hero in the white community like OJ was when he was acquited.

Though there are plenty of whites who get a sense of Schadenfreude from the perils of blacks, this works both ways. Just look at Snoop A. Smith and his treatment of Dirk Nowitski, or the minimizing of the accomplishemnts of Steve Nash by some sports commentators who are black.

Bonds plays a game, he's an entertainer. I don't have to like him or even repsect him, he's unimportant. He and all professional athletes exist to act as a distraction from the usual banalities and hardships of life. For this they all get compensated extraordinarily well. No one is under any moral obligation to care about him or his accomplishments. When Bonds breaks the record, factually he will have hit more total homeruns than anyone else who played baseball in the United States. Good For Him. But Fuck Him None The Less for being the epitome of a spoiled child who grew up to be a self indulged adult who has the grace and temperment of crack head.

 

Hey, it only took you five responses to get to the part of what Greenberg said. Ok. Fair enough. I see your point there, now that you actually bothered to explain what part of Greenberg's response bothered you. You were too busy being snarky to offer up a real response, but thanks for finally deciding to get around to it.

Thing is, and maybe this is my own racial bias, I think Greenberg was questioning whether any average current fan of baseball gets what Aaron went through. I took it as talking about the people of his own generation (and mine) who are too young to really get what Aaron went through unless they really get into the history of the game. And to him, that might be why they would take Bonds' side as just "another black guy being persecuted" rather than see him taking away from Aaron.

To me, all the talk about the crap that Bonds has been through in pursuit of Aaron's record does show a lack of respect for what Aaron suffered on his way to passing Ruth. Greenberg seems to think the same thing. Throw in the very strong suspicions that Bonds illegally enhanced his performance, and there is plenty of reason to be rooting against him breaking Aaron's record.

I took Greensberg's statement to say that anybody siding with Bonds due to race might be doing so out of a lack of historical perspective. Now that you mention it, I can see how it would be taken another way. I still think you have it wrong, but I can definitely see your point of view.

 

Revisionist history. Neither fans (outside SF) nor the media from which fans got their portrayal were ever ready to love Barry. "He's not nice to us" or "I don't like his dangling earring" or "He's arrogant" or "I don't like the way he admires his home runs" were just never really sufficient reasons not to like him, unless of course you're Jeff Novitzky. People didn't have a good excuse to hate on him until the steroid rumors, which simply provided an opening for a lot of people who have wanted to bury him for a very long time. White America likes its blacks to be of the non-threatening variety. Right or wrong, Bonds decided a long time ago that he wasn't going to do what it takes to be popular in a white culture. Barry was never going to be just happy to be here.

 

Sure ...

What I was getting at was that if this poll is to be believed, Black America seems willing to give Bonds a pass. The association to which I was referring is the implicit forgiveness, which I'm not seeing for McGwire and Giambi from whites. If Landis is getting that sort of figurative pass, I don't think it has anything to do with the color of his skin so much as the perceived French media vendetta.

 

Thanks. That's what I was trying to say, but you did a better job of it.

 

Yes, only Jason the Wise understands discrimination. Surely not anyone named Greenberg.

 

larry bird and his fans were unavailable for comment. gerry cooney and rocky balboa did not return phone calls.

yeah, it's funny how people react to 300 years of being told you can't accomplish anything. you damn right we take pride in the accomplishments of tony dungy, tiger woods and others.

 

Another suburban myth. I can't think of a single African-American player who doesn't know who Jackie Robinson was and I've yet to see any African-American player quoted as such.

 

People don't need an excuse to hate him, it's merely the charcter that he plays on TV. He is a the bad guy in Pro Wrestling. He's Superstar Billy Graham. How many people wanted to go all Lee Harvey Oswald on Pete Rose every time he slammed the ball to the ground to end an inning when he played 1b of the Phillies in the 1980 World Series. Did they hate the prick cause he's white? No, they hated him to because he is an asshole.

Barry Bonds is the greatest breakthrough in race relations in America since Colin Powell declared himself a republican. Bonds should be hailed because we finally can hate a back man, without concern to his melanin count, because we hate the man.

 

Jason Whitlock - WHO ARE YOU?

Didn't you write: "Given an opportunity to put himself, his family and his people in a positive light, De La Hoya took full advantage. Given an opportunity to make himself, his family and his people look foolish, Mayweather took full advantage."

Now you are going to come on SportsJournalists.com and defend racial stereotypes?

YOU ARE A TRUE BOJANGLER!!!