some food for thought for those who condemn Ron Artest

[mark414]

one of my local columnists (Milwaukee) had this to say in his column today concerning the brawl, specifically Ron Artest:

"It's 2004, not 1947. Today's young African-American men don't want any part of turning the other cheek or accepting "disrespect" from a predominantly white fan base, mainly because these are largely young men from the inner cities of America where your self-respect or "heart" can be a perishable quality that's hard to get back once it's lost.

Some of them are also the children of single mothers with no men in their lives to show them the true meaning of being a man. As recent visitor Bill Cosby told a Milwaukee audience, much of the violence found in these young men is the result of the hole in their souls that has never been filled.

They're not allowed to tell anyone they are hurting, so instead, they turn their anger outward, often with disastrous results."


if you read his entire column, you'll notice that he talks about how Jackie Robinson, despite his temper, NEVER reacted to the multitude of shit he received, and he doesn't excuse Artest's behavior. rather he just makes some points for people to think about. he's a great writer and i'm lucky enough to have him as a teacher for a class i'm taking next semester.

read the rest of it here:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/nov04/277725.asp

EDIT: this is not meant as a thread for debate or argument. DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER, THESE AREN'T MY WORDS.

[karlrschneider]

1. Er, who is Ron Artest?

:eyes:

[mark414]

3. have you been under a rock?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1928540

[karlrschneider]

12. Oh, okay, the basketball thing. I prefer watching paint dry...

:eyes:

[Beam Me Up]

14. OH! You do that too!!

I watch paint dry all the time. I'm an artist, a painter, and I spend a lot of time looking at paint in various states. I'm particularly impressed when it starts separating as it runs down the painting surface, making interesting crackles and fractal like patterns as it goes. I also like to see paint pool on the floor where its dripped off the painting. Some of my best work ends up on the floor. I enjoy playing with paint and discovering what it will do in its different consistencies. How stiff it is when it comes out of the tube and how liquid it can get when thinned down, how it can be opaque or transparent depending on the medium and the pigment. I also enjoy working with different kinds of paint--I use industrial paints, house paints, interior latex, spray paint. I've spent a lot of time just messing around with this stuff for over a half a century. Of course none of my paintings "look like" anything except crazy messes, but, to me, that is the whole point. I admire painters who can make a painting "look like" something in the visual world (form in space and all that) but I find employing the techniques to make it happen utterly boring. I'd much rather find out what the paint wants to do as a more or less direct expression of my energy in the moment. So, yeah, I end up just LOOKING at paint. Fascinating stuff. I had no idea anyone else liked watching it dry, too.

[LTR]

4. Read all about it

http://news.google.com/news?q=Ron%20Artest&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&safe=off&sa=N&tab=wn

[LoZoccolo]

7. Or watch the videos...

http://www.basketbrawl.us

[Buzz Clik]

2. Cool.

I like that analysis much better than the knuckledragger's explanation of genetic predisposition.

[lonewolf0507]

5. I am a black male and I detest Ron Artest

He is a dirty player who should have been banned from the league a long time ago. Don't give me this crap about the white fan base and all the other mombo jumbo that you non blacks are telling us how we feel. This is total crap. Everyone wants to put color into everything. Accept this man for who he is a good basketball player with a crappy attitude. You people can shove this crap about being poor and all the other feel sorry for me bullshit. I grew in the projects of Washington DC and I do not walk around with a chip on my shoulders. We strong black men are sick and tired of people telling us how we should live our lives and make decisions for us.

[mark414]

9. don't shoot the messenger

the guy who wrote that is black, i just thought it was interesting

for what it's worth, a (black) friend of mine was the one who brought it to my attention today, that passage specifically, because she really liked what the writer had to say, and said she wished more white people condeming him would read this, if only to take in a different perspective. and there's a lot of white people in here, so i figured why not.

and on edit: if you read the rest of the column you'll see that he's not excusing artest's behavior at all

[LoZoccolo]

6. Any professional athlete who can't take getting hit with a plastic cup...

:nopity:

Plus...why isn't he in jail right now? Does this mean I can go out to Auburn Hills and just slug someone in the face? Cool!

[BOSSHOG]

8. Didn't the disrespect for Ron Artest start with

Ben Wallace under the basket after the ballgame was "for all intents and purposes, over.?" So who was hurting and had to turn their anger outward, Wallace or Artest? If Ron has lost his self respect then I guess he does not need his multi million dollar contract or the "white fan base." I'm a white guy who grew up poor in North Philly in the 60's who got his ass whipped because he was white. I'm a flaming liberal but I guess I should now go out and whip someone's ass. Yeah, thats the ticket.

[JHBowden]

10. The guy needs anger management

Why race matters here is beyond me.

[jdj]

11. I think the fans need to stop being asses.

I'm not saying what he did was right.

And he is an exception.

There are many black basketball players who play fine who come from various backgrounds who don't go into the stands, many of whom may have had adversity in their backgrounds.

How does one explain John McEnroe? lack of a father?

I'm just getting really tired of the fatherless thing, as it totally discounts the poverty and neighborhoods due to racism these kids grow up in. It lets american society off the hook completely and blames the black male, which is kind of the motive, I feel.

[mark414]

15. eugene kane's words, not mine

just put it out there for people to read

[DenverDem]

13. One of my heroes is Charlie Sifford, just entered Golf's Hall of Fame.

Charlie was the first black man to get a PGA tournament card. Nobody cared what he was doing at the time. No civil rights activists stood up for him, he was out there all alone on the golf course with the same lack of a barrier between him and the "fans". The first tournament he played in was the Greater Greensboro Open in North Carolina, in 1961. Charlie was a great player and actually led after the first round. There were no hotels who would give him a room in Greensboro so he stayed in the house of a local black doctor. That night someone called at the house for him and Charlie took the call. A white racist told him that they didn't allow n*****s to play golf in Greensboro and if he showed up the next day he would be killed. He told the guy, "I tee off at one o'clock, I'll see you there." There were no black people who were brave enough to walk around with him so Charlie had to tee off with a gang of racist hooligans screaming in his back swing and they followed him all the way around the front nine, screaming epithets every time Charlie swung. Finally, an embarrassed PGA official walked along with Charlie in between him and the rabid crowd. After sixteen holes of this, the tournament finally got some police out there to haul the psycho bastards off. On the sixteenth hole, a par five, Charlie went for it in two shots but pulled it to the left of the green, into the crowd. When he got to his ball, it was covered with beer cans. He calmly took his wedge and blasted the pile, moving the ball toward the green. Charlie never took a golf club to any of the racist idiots, he was too smart for that and he knew the responsibility to his whole race that he held.
Charlie put up with shit like that for years until he finally won the Hartford open at age 47 and the LA Open at age 49. He never retorted to a fan's nasty slur, never went into the crowd.

Charlie Sifford is a MAN. Even Jackie Robinson had security men and chicken wire separating him from his tormentors and a team around him to protect him. Charlie had nothing and no one protecting him and he took the shit stoically like no human should or conceivably could. Ron Artest hasn't seen anything like Charlie endured, and Ron is paid absurdly well while Charlie made less in his entire career than Artest makes in one game. Artess is a self consumed, immature PUNK. He is not fit to tie the laces of Charlie Sifford's golf shoes.

I respect Charlie Sifford infinitely. Artest deserves every penalty he receives and absolutely no respect.