Do You Want To Be Like Jason?

BS, (Ballscribe, that is) you are so right. I am sitting across the desk (or on the other end of the phone) from these people. But it's not just the kids right out of school. I am seeing from people in their 20's and even some in their 30's.

Me: Why do you want to work here?

Them:
1. My shop is laying off.
2. My girlfriend lives here.
3. I want to live where it's warm.

Me: WTF?

 

well shit spaceman, if it's warm but not too warm, and i can take a vacation in six months, PM me. ... i make girlfriends wherever i land, btw.

 

Good luck with that.

It's too bad you all feel some journalists are beyond criticism. I just happen to believe someone who writes for ESPN and makes six figures (to the left of the decimal point) should have a better grasp of basic English skills.

 

So what's this thread about?

YT's getting pissed because some black kid don't want to be like them?

or

Some dumb kid not listening-up at the seminar and wanting to be like "a field Negro with House Negro aspirations?"


YAWN!

 

I've stood up for some of the things you wrote in other threads, but this is flat-out lame. This column was bad. This is a journalism board. It's going to get ripped. No one has slammed the kid for being black, they've slammed him for writing a bad column.

And I'm sure you'll be a lurker, until you have something you've written that you want to promote.

 

And, yet, it's the baby-boomer helicopter parents who encourage this mentality, if not set the example by their own behavior.

Love how the older generation is shocked/saddened/pissed that we don't already know what we've never been exposed to. Yeah, that's realistic. :

 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

While people I usually can't stand have made some excellent points on this thread, I think there has been nothing wrong with discussion of this kid's column.

And part of me hopes he has found this thread. Sure, it's going to sting like fuck. For a while. But he should ignore the personal comments and reflect on the professional ones. So that he can learn. So that he can do better the next time.

The next time had better not come sitting in a columnist's chair or a major metro chair. If he wants to get to those places, it should come while sitting at a Podunk Press chair, if that's what it takes to get where he eventually wants to be.

I understand the challenges facing minority journalists - I am one. There are a lot of sports departments in this county that don't have a woman on staff, or only have a token woman but not enough proportional to the staff size, or have never had a woman in a management position.

It's scary to look at the staff of a prospective employer and not see anyone you think you can relate to. Or to know you're expected to be the token (woman, black, Jew, etc.). In some cases, where word gets out that an SE doesn't like hiring minority candidates (our job threads have been good about singling out places like that), what should be an opportunity is tarnished from the start.

To say every journalist has the same opportunity without regard to race, gender, etc. is naive. It's also the perspective of someone who doesn't fit into one of those categories.

 

One thing that bothers me about that statement is the underlying assumption that all of us white guys ``look/sound/think alike.'' I'll contend that a white man raised on a farm in Nebraska won't ``look/sound/think'' like a Jewish guy from Brooklyn or the son of an auto worker in Detroit or a rich kid in New England or a Baptist from south Alabama.

We don't all look alike and we weren't all sent to the same private school to learn how to think like a white male.

 

She is not beyond criticism. PUHLEEZ! Jemele has taken more than her fair share of criticism on here -- but either for the content of her columns or for a particular stance she might have taken on here. Again, when you are engaging in this type of communication exchange, pointing out petty syntax errors is lame and pointless. Take a look at some of the errors that happen in text messages or IMs. People type their "Quick Replies" well -- rather quickly. I know there is a spell check option on here, but when you're rolling along in your reply, how many of you actually use it, and if so, are you planning on your post being published on A1 or something?

Come on, get real.

(Editor's note: Andy Kent actually did use spell check before hitting the "Post" button on this one just to cover his arse) ;D

 

Let's face it, posters like RAMBO or indiansnetwork get ripped new ones every time they visit one of these boards and let loose with a rambling and largely incoherent stream of thought. And rightly so. But you're telling me Ms. Hill's faults are off limits because people have perhaps unfairly criticized her in the past? That's too bad.

I'm well aware this is only a message board but there's a big difference between a syntax error and a confusion between "inherent" and "inherit." It goes beyond carelessness. It's laziness. It reminds me of people who still haven't learned to differentiate between homonyms like "whose" and "who's." In my not-so-humble opinion, mistakes like that are unacceptable for a professional writer, especially one with a high profile and a salary to match.

Am I envious? Jealous? Yep. I won't deny it. I've always prided myself on good spelling, punctuation, grammar and sentence structure - even in text messages and IMs - only to realize these skills are rarely if ever valued by readers, colleagues, supervisors or society as a whole. They'll certainly never help me land a gig with ESPN. I guess I wasted too much time learning and not enough time developing a schtick. My bad.

 

I'd rather have a raw speller with great ideas than a dictionary genius who can't think. But if your copy comes in that raw when you're rushed -- whether on a message board or on deadline -- boy, it's awful tough to get through, as a reader, editor, audience. Those great ideas get lost in a hurry.

 

These and Bruhman's comments reminded me of the comical view of whiteness as admission into a secret world of favors spoofed by Eddie Murphy in that 80s SNL bit (

). Jemele, I wouldn't presume to know what its like to grow up black, and you should be wary of assumptions on life as a disadvantaged white. Because growing up poor and white is no picnic either, and in some respects can be even harder than poor and black.

If nothing else, the disadvantaged black kids at least have a substantial base of guilt-ridden sympathizers, a network of organizations devoted specifically to their plight, and we are all now educated on its underlying historical injustices. More importantly, society provides a practical helping hand through an array of special programs and scholarships available only to them, more relaxed admission standards at most universities, and often preferential hiring policies and practices.

The disadvantaged white kids enjoy far fewer options in the way of "helping hand" measures provided by society, and far fewer expressing sympathy or trying to excuse their plight. But they do get to learn that they come from "trailer trash" and endure plenty of contempt and ridicule (oddly enough, often from the same progressive folk who have nothing but compassion for the minority underclass). An implicit perception exists that they are somehow more deserving of the lot they were born into than equally situated kids of a different race, which is bullshit.

And the suggestions that this is fair because they enjoy "inherent skin privilege" and membership in the "dominant decision making group" are nothing but absurd rhetoric, the type picked up from some detached-from-the-real-world Sociology prof or Sharpton/Jackson type looking for a cheap and easy way to rationalize the obvious inequity of programs unavailable to the poor kids who're forced to check the wrong race box on the application form.