Scoop Jackson vs. Whitlock (round 6)

I don't want a thing from you. You joined in on the thread to further make yourself the issue, and I thought offering my opinion was fair game. Look man, believe it or not, I enjoy you--on this board and in your column, which I read, particularly when it pertains to football. I think you are a good writer. I think I'd probably even like you and find shit to get along with you about if we were having a beer.

Truth be told also, I know Scoop, but more from his Slam days... and I don't think much of his work. I have no idea why he is suddenly a national voice of any sort, given his past work. Obviously someone disagreed with my assessment, and I don't begrudge the guy his moment in the sun--even if I am not going to read him very often. I even feel a little bad critiquing him that much on an anonymous message board--and I feel I've held back quite a bit.

All of that said, if you have a problem with his point of view and the ideas he expresses, I personally think there are better ways to address it than by making up an ill-defined term like bojangling to slap on him, which on the face of it conjures an image of a suberservient black man tap dancing with a cup while white people laugh at him. Because instead of people talking about the things you just pointed out that you take issue with, they are talking about you, and your propensity to point fingers at people and call them bojanglers. I'm sure you see this--"bojangling" has become the issue; not what Scoop writes about. I suspect, subconsciously or not, that was actually the intended effect--to make yourself the issue.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. You're not going to change, and I'm not going to see your behavior differently, without better reasons.