obviously i'll have something to say about this...

Which pretty clearly indicates that you think at least Mr. Wojo has it in for you. Does he?

 

That's interesting stuff. I wish somewhere the whole event could be shown.

Thanks for talking about that.

 

Another piece on the event

http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_7315.shtml

by Add Seymour Jr.

ATLANTA

Negative images of law-breaking Black athletes stem from societal
issues, not something inherent to the athletes, according to a star-
studded panel on the Black athlete at Morehouse College Monday.

“We have not stood up and taken ownership of ourselves,” said
National Football League Hall of Fame running back, actor and
activist Jim Brown. “We have a Willie Lynch concept. Whose
responsibility is it to change that? It’s ours.”

Brown was part of an A-list group on a panel about the Black athlete,
a forum put together by filmmaker and Morehouse graduate Spike Lee.
The panel included Rutgers University women’s basketball coach C.
Vivian Stringer, Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning, and Kansas City
Star and AOL Black Voices sports columnist Jason Whitlock.

The panel discussion, held Monday evening before a standing room
crowd of more than 300 students and sports luminaries, was part of
the school’s introduction of long-time sports journalist Ron Thomas
as head of Morehouse’s new sports journalism program — a program
Thomas said will intensely focus on research, writing and
interviewing techniques with the goal of increasing the number of
minority sports journalists.

“All of those ingredients will prepare Morehouse students to go into
the newsroom, and be able to go into any department in the
newsroom,” Thomas says. “Many believe that increasing the number
of Black sports writers, particularly those covering sports like
football and basketball where Blacks athletes are in the majority,
will help increase the understanding of those players and more
positively affect how they are depicted.”

Several years ago, Lee and the late author Ralph Wiley conceived the
idea for a sports journalism program as a way of increasing Black
representation among the nation’s sports writers.

“It always amazed me when Ralph would tell me he’d be one of the
only brothers in the press box,” Lee said. “It’s taken awhile.
But we felt tonight would be a good way to kick off the program.”

The kickoff turned out to be a spicy, nearly three-hour conversation
about media’s depictions of Black athletes, and what responsibility
each of the parties bears in shaping those perceptions, among other
things.

Washington Wizards center Etan Thomas said the media too often
focuses on the negative, while Atlanta Falcons tight end Alge
Crumpler said some athletes get too comfortable and put themselves in
a situation where they are in the negative spotlight.

The most highly charged 15 minutes of the forum came when Stringer
questioned Whitlock about a column he wrote in the wake of former
talk radio host Don Imus’ labeling of Rutgers players as “nappy
headed ‘hos.”

In his April 11 column, Whitlock labeled Stringer an opportunist for
holding a “nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly
disguised as a news conference” and questioned the motives of civil
rights icons Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who led calls for Imus’s
firing.

The Imus flap presented “an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and
Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their
agenda$,” Whitlock wrote.

Monday at Morehouse, Stringer’s anger at Whitlock’s column was on
full display.

“I’m amazed,” she said. “I just want to understand your
mindset. I want to understand people like you.

“I’ll be doggoned if I sit back and let that man speak of them as
he did,” Stringer said. “The truth of the matter is [Jackson and
Sharpton] were the only people who spoke up. I didn’t care if they
fired Imus or not. But I know this — I was going to defend those
young ladies.”

“I stand by everything I wrote,” Whitlock responded to groans from
the audience. “I thought this was handled inappropriately.”

Whitlock said his point was that Black people needed to focus on
themselves instead of people like Imus.

“We have to deal with us and not get so caught up with them,” he
said.

Other highlights of the discussion included Claire Smith’s
prediction that baseball superstar Barry Bonds, who’s been dogged by
allegations that he’s used performance-enhancing drugs, will make
Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame. “If his name is on the
ballot, he will have my vote because he was a hall of famer before”
the steroid allegations, said Smith, one of the few Black women
baseball Hall of Fame voters.

--Add Seymour Jr.

 

nope. i don't believe he has it in for me. i think he wrote a cheap, easy column because he's incapable of seeing the big picture on this particular topic. he can only write what he has the tools to write. we're not talking about a great columnist. we're talking about a high-end college reporter who is trying to become a general columnist. i'm not trying to insult the guy or say anything controversial. he is what he is -- mediocre as a columnist.

 

Yeah, I meant to mention that before. If you don't know Stringer, no, you don't have a good handle on women's college basketball. She is a household name in that venue.

 

I appreciate the candor. Thanks.

 

Me, too. Now brief us on the prison visit.

 

If I were Wojo, I would take that as an insult, I'm pretty sure.

There's obviously a lot of backstory there.

And obviously, I'm going to read your column on this. So you've done your job yet again.

I never faulted you for that. Just said that your way of business isn't for me.

 

write-brained, it was a previously scheduled speaking engagement. i was speaking to inmates who were graduating from a program inside the prison. it was some sort of life-skills management course that teaches the inmates to take responsibility for their actions and begin the process of learning how to live properly on the outside world.

 

a lot of backstory? what does that mean?

 

Well, Jason, I'm going to assume that you wouldn't take the boots to someone like that unless they had wronged you in a previous life -- unless you're just stomping on him because you were stung by this particular column. I would understand that, but I'd also be disappointed by it.

Either way, it reads pretty harsh. Mediocre is a strong word.