The Johnny Manziel Issue: Personal and Political Perspectives

By: Matthew C. Stelly

          As an award-winning writer, I am first and foremost a thinker. I have been able to meet a great many people who most of you would regard as being “famous,” and as such, it is up to me to report on what I’ve seen, heard and discovered. Most of you are fans and idols of professional and college athletes and this is your choice. But since I’ve been on these campuses and have met a great many of these athletes (and wrote term papers for a number of them at the University of Nebraska and University of Iowa), I should share what I know so you can get up off your knees and see these people for what they are.

The claim that Johnny Manziel is worth all this hue and cry over his signing autographs and getting paid (or not) is a waste of time, energy and news space. But as usual, I take the situation and make it something that readers of this blog and young black people can learn something from. We learn about money, about corruption and racial bias in college sports and the NCAA, and we also learn a lot about Christians and how they think in the real world.

          Let the teaching begin.

Selling Autographs

          Selling autographs? This kid has been made into a hero by the sports machine. I’ve heard it said that he’s “the most exciting player in football, college and pro ranks” (Skip Bayliss). I’ve heard other statements about how he’s re-defined the game and to tell you, I haven’t seen it. At the writing of this blog I am in this hellhole called Dallas, Texas (more on that later) and I hear this crap day in and day out. Manziel is able to sell autographs because the sports machine here manufactures the status of its athletes, college and professional. Manziel is going to get DOGGED when and if he gets to the pros just like Nebraska’s quartebacks Eric Crouch and Scott Frost.

          Manziel claims he didn’t sell the autographs or never accepted money for them. Somebody did, and he was the one who signed the autums. Conclusion: guilt by association. The NCAA, in all of its stupidity and greed (old white men making decisions for young black and white men to follow) suspended Manziel, not for one game, but for ONE HALF. Amateurs are not supposed to accept favors and money they claim. When Dez Bryant had dinner with Deon Sanders (more on that later), he was suspended for TEN games. When Terrell Pryor sold his own football jersey to a booster for a funky thousands dollars, he got suspended for five games. Cam Newton’s daddy was fishing around for a college for his kid to go to and was selling the rights for $180,000. Suspended for one game although Cam claims he didn’t know. He did, however, end up going to Auburn. You do the math.

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money

          Everybody’s getting paid off the backs of college athletes. And even some pros are in on it. For the most part, any African-American professional athlete that white folks adore and put the spotlight on, you can bet he’s a sellout on some level. This is true of Robert Griffin III (see my essay on “Rob Parker and RG III” elsewhere on this blog), Jose Cruz, Marcellus Wiley, to name but a few.

          Another one is so-called “Neon Deon Sanders.” Fronting as if he’s some kind of pastor or preacher, he answers his phone with “bless you” and talks about God when the conversation is over. But when I went to his home I saw someone bogged down in materialism. IT’s his money and his right. But he sits in this chair with “PT” emblazoned on the back, in red letters, and talks down to people as if they were his servants.

          I wrote three grants for Sanders and his so-called “Prime Time Academy,” some substandard school that he opened claiming he offered a computer to every child. But it was all about football, and from the outset, he sold both schools (one in Fort Worth, one in Dallas) to Under Armour Apparel. Sanders never paid me for the grants, but when I told his flunky R.L. Williams that I would sue, Williams called everybody but me screaming and crying like a scatter brained old bitch shouting, “He can’t sue me! He don’t even have an office!” What he doesn’t know is that when you are a genius with a track record and skill set like me, you don’t need an office: the necessary tools go with you wherever you go.

          One more thing. I told you how Dez Bryant got suspended when he had dinner with Sanders. Sanders knew that was possible and he knew what he was doing. He “counsels” these young people and gives them tips on how to kiss ass, but he’s not very sharp. He skins and grins for TV cameras and his wife, who he is divorcing, told the Dallas media that he was a “minstrel.” She ain’t never lied. Watch his telecasts and you’ll see a true bootlicker in action. I was only charging him $1,500 for the grants and his lackey… I mean “pastor,” Omar Jahwar, came back empty handed. They are, for the most part, two of a kind (more on that later).

These So-Called Christians

          Christians are giving religion a bad name on all fronts. I don’t subscribe to its tenets although I do believe that you can believe in a Supreme Being without being a Christian. The arrogance, bias and built in gender- and racial bias should make any clear thinking person want to stay home on Sundays. But that’s for you to deal with.

          Here’s my point: these people claiming to be Christians are all part of this controversy surrounding Manziel. The ones making the token decision, the coaches, the players and the people in the stand. To a man (and woman) they will all claim that they are Christians. This fact, in itself, should give you a good indication of what Christianity is all about. And it’s simple: do what you want to do during the week, but as long as that money keeps going into the collection plate, and you say enough “hail Mary’s” or repent, or confess or whatever the chore is, you will be given and can then move on to continue screwing up for another weak – all in the name of “de Lawd.”

          Back to “Pastor” Deon Sanders. He and people like Terrell Owens sit in these black mega-churches (one church allows Michael Irvin to sit on the stage) and then donate huge sums in their pretense that they are religious people. Scam artists, all. This is done all over the Lone Star State which thinks it’s a country in itself, so most of you don’t hear about this crap. The white man protects them because these guys do their bidding. Irvin was a crack head and a state patrolman pulled him over and a crack pipe rolled from under his seat. The cop believed Irvin when he told him that he was holding onto it for someone who was trying to kick the habit. If the guy is trying to quit, why are you holding his tools

          Christian apologists are talking about these guys as if they are the Disciples. What do they have to do with Manziel? There are more Manziel’s out there, being shaped and polish by guys of the Sanders/Irvin ilk. Posing as “role models,” these guys can barely SPELL role model, none of them with a degree. Sanders’ so-called “pastor” Omar Jahwar owes me more than $10,000 for grants I wrote when I was Operations Manager for his church, Faith Memorial, a bastion of immorality in and of itself. More on this in future articles.

Manziel’s Family Has Oil Money!

          Manziel is a bad person from the inside-out. He is no poor ghetto kid selling autographs so his parents can buy a garbage can of beans and rice so they can feed their kids for a month. He’s doesn’t have holes in the bottom of his shoes or go hungry at night after a long study session (of course there is no study session). He’s got money and thinks he’s “big shit.” He didn’t need any money for signing those autographs because, supposedly, he’s a top draft choice for the professional football decision makers. So if he didn’t need the money and he signed them, knowing he wasn’t supposed to, then what else can you call him besides an “asshole”?

          This is the mentality of far too many of these athletes, college and pro. Most of them don’t have a college degree: “I’ll come back and get it later.” Yeah, sure you will; you’re going to get dressed, get in your Corvette and drive to campus so you won’t be late for your basket-weaving class? Bullshit! When you make the pros you’re too tired, too busy and too rich to even think about college classes. Hell, most students are going to these classes so they can get what you’ve got!

          They all know it and that’s why they act the way they do – black AND white. It’s the same money-oriented mentality that motivates MOST Christian ministers (I’ll deal with this in a later column).

          And finally, if the people reading this blog think I’ve slandered anyone in it and, if you’ve got the GUTS, try to sue me and watch what I do. All the stuff I know about Sanders, Jahwar and those athletes I wrote term papers for, will be made even MORE public. Now, as the old folks say: if you feel froggish – LEAP!

Elitism and Democracy: “Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed”

By: Matthew C. Stelly

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter

---Winston Churchill

       As a doctoral student back in 1984, I enrolled in and “aced” a class called, “Political Sociology.” It was fascinating, as was the instructor, Dr. Jack Siegman. He knew of my intense interest in politics and directed me to some outside readings. One of those was a book called Political Parties by Robert Michels. Although it was released in 1911, this guy was talking about another part of the world but knew a lot about democracy and, in my book, exposed it for what it was.

       Michels came up with this concept called, “The Iron Law of Oligarchy.” As you may or may not know, an oligarchy is basically a “rule by a few.” Not only did he say that fascism was inevitable, but check this out as you watch the morning news shows and the spin taking place: Michels made it clear that the official goal of representative democracy (like the one this country claims to have) is getting rid of elite rule (which this country DOES have) is impossible and that democracy is a FAÇADE that justifies the rule of those in power and get this: “elite rule is therefore inevitable.”

         Progressive thinking people can see this is the cases. We saw it back in the 1960s when we grew up realizing that the military-industrial complex was in charge of everything, that the tri-lateral alliance between the United States, Europe and South Africa was dominating the lives of people of color. We had access to books that showed what imperialism was and black book stores exposed us to such works as How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, The Choice, Revolutionary Notes, If They Come in the Morning, and so many, many more. We knew then – those of us who are now in our mid-to late 50s – that what was being taught in the schools about “equality” and all that was a façade. And years later sitting in that seminar classroom dominating my fellow graduate students, it had come full circle and the façade did not only include lies about equality but even bigger ones about “change is coming” and a belief, under Reagan at the time, that this society had the capacity to “get better.”

        Let’s stop kidding ourselves: Michels was right.

        We are learning what it’s like to live in societies that we used to thumb our noses at. We learn in school about the totalitarian regimes, the dictatorships, the leadership by coup, and so on. We use terms like “Third World,” “those people,” “underdeveloped nations” and revel in our materialism (while overlooking our blatant lack of morals). And here it is, staring at us every day, and the only thing that keeps this country’s people from turning on each other are the bars, taverns, sports venues, television programs, movies and leisure outlets like strip joints, Vegas and Atlantic City. And the biggest therapeutic catharsis of all, let us not forget, the almighty church.

         Look at all these people who claim to be Christians who are destroying this nation. Some will point that them and say, “oh they’re not Christians” but who, themselves, are doing dirt. I haven’t heard a Christian yet who talks about revolution that is taking place in this country. Oh they’ll point up to the sky and quote Scripture from a book (while taking money via the collection plate), but they never look at the “devil” that this entire system has become. Only people in other countries, it appears, can see it. And yet they break their necks to come over here when a scholarship or a visa will allow and join in on the oppression by keeping quiet and speaking against those who expose what Robert Michels, 102 years ago, pointed out.

         Steroids in sports, the use of the so-called “n” word, women receiving far less pay for doing the same job as men, invasion of privacy and data mining, global warming (the result of corporate greed), politicians exposing themselves on the internet, outsourcing of jobs, people killing other people after getting behind the wheel drunk as skunks, -- all of these are SYMPTOMS of what is endemic to this country. Look how it got started, spurred on by elite decision making -- and what they did to the Natives; then it was us working from “can’t see in the morning until can’t see at night;” then the Latinos got chased down to Mexico. Then the Asians were “allowed” to come here and work on the railroad and endure harassment and death.
         Remember the words of Michels: democracy is a FAÇADE that justifies the rule of those in power and that “elite rule is therefore inevitable.” Just because they sprinkle a few black people into a movie doesn’t mean its an accurate depiction of our history. You can bring forth all the butlers and “help” that you want to, but if they told the REAL truth, films would be getting made about Nat Turner, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Harriet Tubman, Robert F. Williams, and remakes of “The Spook Who Sat By the Door,” “The McMasters” and so on. See the difference? 

          In the view of the image makers (also flunkies for the elite), we “shuffled” our way to where we are today. And that’s the image they want our kids to take with them.

Elite rule is inevitable and I would add that it is “essential.” Obama ain’t calling no shots, man! On his watch more black men have been assassinated than under any other president. That ain’t no brutha making this move: it’s the elite that had to get rid of Qaddafi, Hussein, and who knows how many others after the U.S. infiltrates and instigates in Syria, Egypt and so on. It’s the same thing they did to the Panthers, the Weathermen, the Brown Beret, and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) back in the 1960s.    
         Study, people, study!

        When they came up with “One Out of Many” (E Pluribus Unum) and put it on your money, it was a message from the elite. One out of many has a lot of meanings no matter what they say. If the words to “The National Anthem” and “America the Beautiful” don’t jibe with reality, then that’s a dupe being employed by the elites, one that filters down to the corporate and political flunkies to be implemented.

     At this very minute the Democrats and the Republicans, the liberals and the conservatives, are at each other’s throats. They’re not arguing about how to treat blacks and Latinos – they’re arguing about how many should be SPARED! If you don’t believe it, look at the prison system. But my point is that these groups are just the puppets, the cultural marionettes at the end of the strings. The people that are pulling them are invisible to our eyes. But they’re cruel and won’t mind taking a bunch of their own with them. Remember you comfortable folks out there, the words of the late John Lennon: “living is easy with eyes closed.” 

Paula Deen, Riley Cooper and the World of Reality: Apologize for What?

By: Matthew C. Stelly

       I am a black man, and in political circles I would be considered a nationalist, somebody who believes in his people but more importantly, in fighting for the progress of my people. We do so much that is counter productive, so calling out our so-called “leaders” is one way to launch us in a new direction – forward! But this racial slur crap is beginning to irk me, and I view the black reactions to it and the shallow white reactions to it, as being both naïve and non-productive.

       Paula Deen caught hell for stating what she thought about black people, plain and simple. She admitted using the word “nigger” (the concept of calling it the ‘n’ word is stupid – it’s like the Christian who thinks about a curse word or lusts in his mind over some large breasts but because he doesn’t say anything out loud in either case makes it less of a sin or no sin at all). The word is “nigger.” Say it and then study its history. When you do it will indict white people and it will show you what they think of us. Why are both sides trying to hide these facts?

       So what if she used it? That says more about the black people in the vicinity of the word than it does about her. If she said it and then survived an ass kicking, that is to her credit. The black people who heard it didn’t say anything so that’s all there is to it. Almost every cracker in this country has used that word, but they lie and claim they don’t. They say, “blacks call each other ‘nigger’ all the time.” Yeah right. Jews call each other “hymie’ all the time too, but look what they did at Jesse Jackson back in 1984 when he used the word ‘hymie town.’ There are some things that groups stick together on. Jews stick together and don’t allow it. Black people allow anything.

       What did Riley Cooper do? He was at a Kenny Chesney concert (a racial statement in and of itself since most people know Chesney can’t stand black people), pointed into the camera and said, “I will jump that fence and fight every nigger here.” Black people went bonkers. His white handlers, agents and teammates distanced themselves – in public. But how could they be upset at what Riley said when, for the past 400 years, white people have been “fighting niggers” to the point of policy formulation and acceptance?

First of all, Cooper would have gotten his ass kicked, but on the other hand, he also knew that there weren’t that many “niggers at a Kenny Chesney concert to begin with. So he picked his spots. 

       Secondly, so what if he said it? You’ve got white men on the record doing far worse: voting on anti-black policies, stripping down black rights when it comes to voting, pretending to be the black man’s pal the way Bill Clinton did while putting more black people in prison than any other president, and so on. And you all are upset because a peckerwood uses the word “nigger”?

       Here’s what you ought to be upset about: when white teachers at all levels tell students in their classrooms that our ancestors were “slaves.” That is what ought to piss you off. Slaves? If that were true we would have NEVER gotten out of “enslavement” where we were, for the most part, prisoners of war and captives. We fought and battled and the white man was scared shitless. They only promote the part where we’re saying “yes boss, no boss” because that is the image that they want our kids to memorize. They don’t talk about the 1,500 “unrecorded” rebellions, the glass in the milk, the work boycotts, the escape attempts and the outright murders of slavemasters. 

       Larue Nedd (2012) in his book, Why We Shouldn’t Call Our Foreparents Slaves documents the severity of the term, the harm its done and why we should be insulted by its use.

        What Deen and Cooper did was strip the front of the “liberal” mentality of all of its pomp and impious ceremony. Maulana Karenga (1967) wisely wrote a long time ago that, “A racist is like a dog. You can teach him to stand on his hind legs (be liberal) but eventually he falls back down to all fours.” That’s what you’re witnessing, but there’s one more warning I want to share to you neophytes who truly believe that “things is getting’ bettah, massah.”

        The term “racial slur” is a smokescreen. The real racial slurs are terms like these: Dean of Minority Affairs, Director of Black Studies, Vice-Provost for Diversity, Equal Opportunity Commission, Minority scholarship and so on. You know why? Because they are designed to make it appear as if white folks really care about these things when, in reality, they don’t. Were it not for us burning their buildings in the 1960s, none of this shit would exist! They didn’t do it based on any sense of morality or awareness: they did it so that they could do what they did by “accepting” the myth of integration: feed black folks air sandwiches about the same history and humanity that they stripped us of 200 years ago.

         The insult is how black people with some semblance of intelligence can be marched out to address “racial issues.” Just look at “Meet the Press,” “Fox Morning,” and other talk shows. That shows you that they only see you in racial terms. Watch “Jeopardy” when white geniuses know every thing about European culture no far how far back, but when the category is “African Americans” all they know is George Washington Carver, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry. That’s because their world is clouded with their view of racial reality. And to them, we’re expendable because all the shoes have been shined and all the cotton’s been picked. Their view of us is what they see on “Jerry Springer,” “Jeremy Kyle,” “Maury Povich” and “Steve Wilkos.” In brief, we are the sociopolitical version of “comic relief.”

       Can’t you see that?

       Malcolm X once asked, “Why should we be grateful when a man takes a knife HALFWAY out of our backs?” This so-called concern about “racial slurs” is bullshit. It’s not what people say it’s what they do. You’re still powerless in a nation where power is valued above all else. You’re still segregated and you still have the worst housing, streets and lights. You still have to beg for jobs. Your kids are still being mis-educated and pushed out of schools. And the biggest issue you can think of is being called a “nigger” by a race of people who know that their days are numbered?

        Finally, history repeats itself. In the 1960s when we were tearing down the country looking for liberation we never found (because we were expecting it from someone who didn’t have the moral capacity to deal with the issue), they would march our Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, James Brown, and others to tell us to “stop the violence”! The only time in American history when we announced our existence and it got any respect (albeit only for a few years) was when we used violence. Don’t take my word for it: cops would start it and we would finish it. 

        Now they march out Michael Vick to say, “I-ba believe-ba in-ba Riley-ba Cooper-ba and-ba I’be accept-ba his-ba apology-ba.”

       Why Mike, why? The same people that ordered him and paid him to take up for Cooper are the same ones that paid off King, Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph, Joseph Lowery, Ralph Abernathy and the rest of "the Big Six" who "take over" the movement and take attention off the Black Power movement. Read a history book.

       Mike Vick should know better. They treated him like a “nigga” when they put his black ass in the pen, remember? Where was the white sympathy then? White folks did to him what Riley Cooper threatened to do to 'niggers' in the audience! Kicked his ass! 

       I wrote a major essay about 20 years ago called, “Who Loves Ya, Baby?” and in it, I showed where white folks love their pets more than they care about black people; how PetSmart had a larger budget than the Urban League; how when we were living in shacks, the dog and the cat were sitting next to the fireplace inside the big house; how they trained some of their dogs (known as “white dogs”) to hate our guts as well and that’s who they “sicced” on us during the civil rights marches (mostly German Shephards).

      In sum, poor Riley Cooper and Paula Deen did what they believed in, and then because money hung in the balance, they were forced to tell a lie and claim that they were sorry about having told the truth as they see it! IF somebody hates me, I want them to tell me and express it, not pretend to be my pal so that they can get closer to me and do real damage. Black folks: it’s all coming out in the wash and you now see what is real!

At this point all I can say in response to such collective stupidity is: nigga, please!!!

Kick-in-the-Ass Awards Recipient I: Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers

By: Matthew C. Stelly

I hereby launch the “Stelly Kick-in-the-Ass-Awards,” which will be given out to the individual who, either on his own or who allows another individual, to make an ass out of him and in doing so, add yet another insult to the rapidly growing list of insults that are being heaped upon the heads of black folk. This first winner will provide an excellent example of the kind of sheepish behavior that black people put up with just to make money, get on television, get a part in a movie, land a job, or whatever the motive might be.

The first winner of the “Stelly Kick-in-the-Ass Award” is none other than Carolina Panther quarterback Cam Newton. He is one of my favorite NFL players and I like his arrogance and his style at quarterback. But as is the case in too many situations, when these athletes and divas come up against a white person, they automatically become stupid, desperate or dumbfounded. And in the name of “makin’ some money,” they allow these white people to put words in their mouths and manipulate their actions so that what they do makes the race look even more pitiful than it already is.

      Let’s look at the commercial, in its entirety (courtesy of my own viewing and an incredible website called lybio.net) and you will see what I mean.

It’s a commercial about a little white boy, who analysts naturally think is “so cute and adorable,” talking with Cam Newton about his (the white boy‘s) aspirations to play quarterback in the NFL one day. It’s ingratiating the serious of question and assumptions this white boy takes this nigga through. The commercial actually subtly perpetuates several stereotypes while at the same time implying that a black adult has to answer to and is on the same intellectual level, as a 8 or 9 year white boy. I will share the dialogue of the entire commercial and my analyses will appear afterwards. Here we go:

[Kid]

Hey Cam thanks a lot for coming to my school today.

[Cameron Jerrell Newton (born May 11, 1989)]
No problem mate.

[Kid]
I promise to exercise and eat right.

[Cam Newton]
Don’t forget 60 minutes of Play a day, right?

[Kid]
And I’ll grow up to be big and strong like you.

[Cam Newton]
Absolutely.

[Kid]
And play in the NFL?

[Cam Newton]
Yes, sir.

[Kid]
And be drafted #1

[Cam Newton] Source: LYBIO.net
Maybe?

[Kid]
And become the starting quarterback of the Panthers.

[Cam Newton]
Ok

[Kid]
You can be my back up?

[Cam Newton]
Excuse me?

[Kid]
And make Panthers fans forget about you.

[Cam Newton]
What?

[Kid]
And become your moms favorite player?

[Cam Newton]
Whoa!

[Kid] Source: LYBIO.net
I’m just loosening my arm.

GET ACTIVE. DREAM BIG.

Why respect a professional athlete who took time out of his schedule to visit your school? So just call him “Cam” rather than addressing him as “Mr. Newton.” Grown people who allow this to take place need their asses kicked as well. These kids are precocious, presumptive and disrespectful enough without ASSUMING that they’re on a first-name basis with any adult, especially one who is as accomplished as Cam Newton. Maybe he did it because he’s familiar with the Dred Scott decision of 1857: “A black man has no rights that a white man is bound to respect.” Or, evidently, a white boy, either.

So he thanks Newton who replies, “no problem mate.” Mate? What’s wrong with this nigga? Is he from Australia some place? That kid is not his mate by any definition of the word. Why does he have to define a kid that he doesn’t even know and use a term of “camaraderie” in that description. Maybe that’s why the kid doesn’t respect him: he (Newton) doesn’t command any respect. Just the fact that he’s conversing with this tyke in the first place is a waste of his time and gives a white kid – already the most spoiled child on earth – a boost in the self-worth department.

So the kid tells Cam that he promises to exercise and eat right – as if he’s doing Cam a favor. That’s good for him, but then Cam adds, “Don’t forget 60 minutes of play a day, right?” And that should be the end of it. But now comes the bullshit, the assumptions and a dialogue that, in my view, echoes back to the days when a black man couldn’t look a white man – or child – directly in the eye. Your grandparents will tell you about it.

The kid, listening to what Newton says about things that will make him (the kid) a healthier person, asks him that if he does those things will be “grow up to be big and strong like you.” Newton lies and says, “absolutely.” No, he won’t. He will grow up to be big if mother or father are big, or if he keeps eating that genetically engineered bullshit that these farmers are putting on American tables. There is no guarantee that he’ll be big and strong “like Newton.”

And furthermore, it depends on where he lives. If he lives in a place where he has to stay inside and off the streets for fear of gangs, where there are roaches and vermin all over the place infecting the environment, or where he spends all his time playing video games, and where there are no decent supermarkets to get quality food, then the fact is that he can exercise all he wants and “eat right,” but what he eats that is “right” (based on his culture) and the exercise he gets (strong thumbs from playing “Call of Duty black Ops II,” “Hitman,” “God of War,” “Dead Space 3”) will be determined by where he lives, his quality of life. Newton doesn’t know this kid or where he’s from. He’s therefore in no position to guarantee this kid a good quality of life.

The kid, believing that he’ll follow Cam’s advice and become big and strong, leaps next to seeking a guarantee that he’ll play I the NFL. Again, Cam lies and says “Yes, sir.” Why “sir”? This is a punk ass kid who should be calling HIM sir, not the other way around. Who wrote this shit? First he lies to the kid by promising he’ll play in the NFL if he exercises and eats right. Let me tell you something: there are thousands of grown men who grew up with a silver spoon in their mouth and had access to every health item and activity as a child, and grew up thinking they’d play in the NFL. That is, until they came up against some bruthas in high school and college. Oh yeah, they were the shit when their competition was suburban athletes. But when they started getting dunked on, out ran and in this case, “out tackled” by us, it was bye-bye scholarship and hello, summer leagues!

The kid doesn’t just want to play pro ball, though. He asks if he’ll be drafted number one because you see, by now, he has placed himself on Cam’s level. Cam has treated this kid as an equal and therefore this young ‘un has the right to think that he and cam are cohorts. The kid asks if he could be drafted number one because Cam was. Cam answers, “Maybe?” as if he (Newton) is afraid to tell this kid the truth. What’s wrong? Does he think this kid will kick his ass? Why not just tell him, “Well, if you do make the pros, which I doubt, you’ll be lucky to even get drafted, let alone drafted number one.” That statement, and nothing less, would be the truth and would be the motivation for this kid to work even harder.

So after degrading himself and elevating this kid to the level of pure bullshit dreaming, the kids asks if he could become the starting quarterback of the Panthers, which is, of course, Cam’s job. He wants to be Cam Newton, just like these steroid popping, performance enhancing drug taking crackers like Jim Romanowski did when he said that he took drugs so that he “could keep up with the niggers.” A South Carolina lineman named Tommy Chalkin told Sports Illustrated in `1988 that white boys were the ones using steroids so that they could “Even things out.” They have to compete against us – so how can Cam make any guarantees to this white kid?

But that’s not good enough. Not only does this punk ass kid want to have Cam’s job, he uses a “throw the dog a bone” approach by adding that he (Cam) “can be my backup,” posing it as a question. Cam is now insulted and asks, “excuse me?” But this kid has lost it by now. He has no respect for Newton, his position or the hard work he put in to get to where he’s gotten. He asks this grown man if he can “Make Panther fans forget about you.”

That wouldn’t be hard. These white fans forget about the black people that built the clubs that they now inherit. They forget about the Jefferson Street Joe Gilliams, the Marlin Briscoe’s, the Air McNairs, the Randall Cunninghams and the Warren Moons. After offering Newton a backup position and adding that the fans might forget about what Cam has done to put the lackluster Panthers on the map, Cam stands there looking like a complete asshole while the kid asks if he can “become your moms favorite player”?

In typical bitch-like fashion, these black men have an attachment to their mothers that sometimes borders on the weird. Cam is no exception, but were this an adult, I am sure that Cam would be dishing out an ass-whipping. Instead, this young child gives HIM one – verbally speaking, that is. Why would a white child want to be a black woman’s favorite player? The answer is clear: he wouldn’t. So the remark was made and intended to be insulting because the kid knows that Cam and his mother are close.

And it is only then, when the white boy talks about his “mama,” that Cam says, “Whoa!” as if to say, “don’t go there.” The commercial’s theme is “dream big,” and this kid is doing just that: at the expense of dashing Cam’s dreams.

Because Newton allowed himself to be made an ass out of so that he could get paid, and is willing to show the world that a white boy can out-talk, out-think and actually “confront” a full grown black man, he is the recipient of the first “Stelly-Kick-in-the-Ass” award.

Never fear. When it comes to black celebrities, athletes and entertainers, Newton is the rule, not the exception. Stay tuned.

The Power of Definition: Brains, Brawn and Beauty

By: Matthew C. Stelly

          A great man, Dr. Wade Nobles, once wrote that, “Power is the ability to define reality and to have other people respond to your definition as if it were their own. Let’s take a very brief look at the subjects of brains, brawn and beauty and see how incredibly pervasive and effective the power of definition truly is.

BRAINS

         Check out “Meet the Press” sometimes. This is one of those Sunday morning “news programs” that features the best minds of the other side and then, on occasion, they’ll bring in somebody of color. In most cases, the person is razor sharp (Donna Brazille, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Massachusetts govern Deval Patrick), but most of the time their intelligence is controlled by the “definers” based on the subject. In far too many cases they are relegated to dealing with the “negro issues” even though they have superior intelligence and credentials to the other hosts.

            Every now and then they’ll bring on Eugene Robinson or Clarence Page, two great black writers but who have serious stuttering problems. No stuttering white man is ever bought on the show. Why do you think this is? Television is about time and you’ve got a few seconds to make your point. To a stutterer, this seems like a lifetime and, in most cases, they make it appear like one for the listener as well. Just telling it like it is.

It’s clear that Barack Obama is the most intelligent man to serve as President (don’t judge him by his decisions – he’s just following the white man’s orders and trying not to make him angry). 

            But who do they keep lauding? Bill Clinton. Ronald Reagan. George W. Bush. A cockhound who couldn’t keep his zipper up, an old man who had people making decisions for him, and an idiot/bumbler (the same could be said of Gerald, the man who pardoned Nixon and could hardly take a step without tripping over something).

            The power of definition is alive and well in these few instances. And that’s what we get. While they promote a universalist mentality on all subjects, bullshit stations like BET and TV One are showing pitiful programs, celebrity bullshit, and very little else. I think these stations know what time it is: they’re just trying to get ratings by catering to “we wants to applaud about somethin’” black folks who think that just because something claims to be black, that this means that it’s relevant to our people.

BRAWN

          For instance, in professional football they are admiring and paying homage to Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Dallas Cowboy signal caller Tony Romo. In the former case I heard it recently stated that Rodgers was “the most physically gifted quarterback in the league. Romo continues to be lauded for his elusive ability in the pocket, eluding oncoming defensive players and both players get credit for being able to run around and still throw the ball down the field and hit their target. 

          To this day Fran “The Man” Tarkington, former Minnesota Vikings quarterback is known for running all over the place, gaining yards with his feet and his legs. He might have caught hell back then in the 1960s when he was in his prime but to today there are still film clips being shown of him running, sometimes for what seemed like minutes, before talking off downtfield or throwing a pass.

          When it’s black quarterbacks it’s “he’s got happy feet.” These announcers, who have the power of definition, don’t give credit to these bruthas who, first of all, had to have a great sense of resilience to even make it to the pro ranks and play that position. The first thing these white folks want to do is turn the black college quarterback into a wide receiver. But going all the way back to Marlon Briscoe and Jefferson Street Joe Gilliam, black quarterbacks were fun to watch because of their elusive ability. We can cite the likes of Randall Cunningham, Steve “Air” McNair, and today’s Michael Vick, Robert Griffin, and Josh Freeman of Tampa Bay as signal callers who can take off down the field.

         What have I heard? “You can’t win a Super Bowl with a running quarterback.” “They’ve got to learn to stand in that pocket and deliver the ball.” The men who bought excitement to the game by combining “scrambling” and nevertheless getting their team into the end zone are usually presented as having something “wrong” with their quarterbacking skills. People like Rodgers and Romo – in no way more physically gifted than Freeman, Cam Newton or Frisco’s Colin Kaepernick – are propped up, the later quarterback (Romo) having one only ONE playoff game in eight years but who is the highest paid quarterback in the entire NFL.

BEAUTY

          As I’ve written elsewhere on “MC Stelly Speaks,” Gwyneth Paltrow was labeled “the most beautiful woman in the world” by People magazine for 2013. This is surely the power of definition. Honore De Balzac once wrote that, “Power is the capacity to distort information.” And in this case, although it’s only a bullshit magazine (not a scholarly journal, and even those are suspect) we can see clearly that somebody really believes this.

What could this “beauty” be based on? And remember, not the most beautiful woman in America, but in THE WORLD. How could that be when we people of color offer up Ananda Lewis, Halle Berry, Eva Longoria, Traci Bingham, Lucy Liu, Taraji P. Henson, Vivica A. Fox, Eva Mendez, Angela Bassett, and Selena Gomez? How about Native American beauties Jessica Biel, Megan Fox, and Salli Richardson? 

        The power to define takes a colorless white woman with boney legs, a flat ass, invisible breasts and elevates her to the level of sacred observance because of what? Blonde hair and blue eyes. As I’ve always said all a Caucasian female needs to make it big in America is blonde hair, blue eyes, a mini-skirt and some pumps. No real talent is necessary.

        You have to give it to these white folks. The more their numbers shrink the more they seem to ratchet up their power to define social, cultural and political reality. What they think and believe becomes the reality for the rest of the entire world. The late, great F. Scott Fitzgerald perhaps said it best: “Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.”

         And maybe we, as black folk, would be a little better off if “our own standards” were on OUR mind.

Royalty, Race, Rancor ... and Reality

By: Matthew C. Stelly

           It’s all about race, y’all. When those other folks are running things, there is always some kind of racial hierarchy, and even if it’s a caste or class system, skin color nevertheless plays a role in the rankings. Check it out for yourself: white folks, for some reason, feel like they have to take how they claim to feel about themselves and then FORCE it on the rest of the world. And this is a key lesson in race relations that few of you will grasp, white or black. It ain’t no accident, it ain’t “just a few bad apples” and it ain’t “gettin’ better with the passage of time.”

          Simplistically put, “it is what it is.”

           That’s my answer to the thousands of people who have checked out my blog and their asinine question, “why do you always write about race”? I give them two reasons: (1) because I feel like it and (2) because you ain’t got the guts. If we can’t deal with the obvious reality (one that goes way beyond Trayvon Martin getting killed), then we’re always going to be in this rut. We protest and pray in public and the white man cracks up as we give him the power to believe that our fate lies in HIS hands. Instead of “taking” the justice we want, we pray that it will happen.

         And, in acting like the “elites” they are (mentally if not financially), these people in power continue to screw the American public under the guise of “Congress” and nobody does anything. Then, after they’ve evicted people, arrested people, harassed people and segregated them, these “royals” have the nerve to have “Stand Your Ground” laws.

         Let’s look at the issues of royalty and race, and what’s taking place with America’s cousins across the sea, the ones that dominate the House of Windsor. And just look at what we find.

Get this: there is such a thing as a “royal baby.” Royal baby? As we used to say in the ‘hood, “Ain’t that a bitch?” Here we go again with another strain of white supremacy that’s based on a lineage that is oppressive, ethnocentric and arrogant. Is there a “royal puppy” running around the mansion? Are there “royal kitty cats”? Is the “royal garbage” picked up by trashmen who wear crowns? Who washes Kate’s “royal panties” and William’s “royal draws”? (both of which we’ve seen on television time and time again).

         And what makes this kid royalty? The answer is because he is “descended from royalty?” And what makes these white folks into royalty? It’s simple; it’s because they say so! I don’t quite understand all this House of Windsor stuff, but I know that the British Royal family can be connected not only by birth, but by marriage. What? So it’s not only about geneology, it’s about genetics: and one thing you can be on. Won’t be no Africans creeping into the family at any time soon. This is what I call “emotional eugenics”: their kids can hang out in Africa and learn “compassion” from people all over Asia and the Motherland, but there’s one caveat: No niggas!!

        I don’t really give a damn. I write this stuff to rebut the hundreds of times I hear about white folks “changing” and about how race relations are “getting better.” I look at things on the national and international stage and I don’t see it happening. Do you know that ABC pre-empted “General Hospital” so that it should show Kate carrying her child out of the front door of the British hospital? They usually reserve these pre-empts from politics, war or some major disaster. Of course, the concept of British Royalty, and from whence it came, is a combination of all three of these!
          There are  more people from England and Britain and Australia making money in Hollywood than there are black people born RIGHT HERE! Haven't you noticed? Watch "Jeopardy" sometimes: white geniuses know the exact date when King George took a crap, the middle name of some queen born a thousand years ago, the location of an obscure location anywhere in Europe and every important white holiday on earth. But let the question be about a black person from this country, and they go mum - almost every time the answer is "George Washington Carver!" is if he's the only black man that ever invented anything. 

         You think I’m making this up? The fact is I am observant and it seems like all the stuff that gets by you, flies over your head, is too complicated or that you just ignore, I inhale it. Did you see that? What the hell did he/she just say? They did WHAT to WHOM?  It's rough being a genius, especially one dedicated to a race of people who spend more time doing the hully-gully down church aisles and looking for a white man to adopt them than they do studying. 
         So the fact of the matter in the case of the House of Windsor is that I really don’t care who marries who. I’m just looking at all the problems in the world and how the entire week has been fixated on the so-called “Royal Family.” How did they get royal? Did they fight against people of color”? No. Just like the NBA white boys got “great” at a time when no blacks competed, that’s the way it is with these Brits, I guess. The British Constitution requires that the position of head of state be filled only by northern European Protestants. The British allow one family, the Windsors, the exclusive right to represent them.

          I wish our people would practice that. Instead, you had some of the Caribbean countries electing white Prime Ministers. You have people like Leopold Senghor, the so-called “father of Negritude,” marrying out of the race. And all over the world when you go to some international affair, in walk these men of color with some white woman on their arm. In this day and age if you’re black and you’re married to a black woman (aka the beautiful Michelle Obama), you’re viewed as some kind of freak or retard.

         Now, from my relevant rant, we come back full circle to Kate Middleton and Prince William. Another spoiled brat raised by nannies and Kate’s mother, surrounded by butlers, valets and maids. This sounds like the way it was during enslavement when black women raised white children while white parents took all the credit. Again, we come full circle and have to understand one thing: there is nothing wrong with being ethnocentric and loving what your race looks like and represents. But there’s two things; (1) tell the truth about it and (2) stop stealing from and then turning around the killing off and exploiting those who are not like you. This is a basic lesson in race relations.

         What is “royalty”? According to Webster’s Dictionary, it’s “a royal status or power,” “persons of royal lineage,” “an elite class” or “regal character or bearing.” The Official Website of the British Monarchy tells us, “The House of Windsor came into being inn 1917, when the name was adopted as the British Royal Family’s official name by a proclamation of King George V, replacing the historic name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. It remains the family name of the current Royal Family.”

         So then why all the rancor and rigamarole? White supremacy comes in many colors. You can show pictures of Princess Di holding all the babies you want to, or show tapes of Paul Mooney fawning all over her in his standup, and you can show Prince William and Harry in Africa until the cows come home. Heinrich Himmler, the flunky for Adolpf Hitler, led the movement to protect animals and it was Himmler who led the effort to ban the hunting of animals. According to one soruce, the current animal welfare laws in Germany are modified versions of the laws introduced by the Nazis.

           Great. But how to we remember the Nazis? We remember them because of all the Jewish people that they slaughtered. They gassed and otherwise murdered millions of them. So who gives a shit if they had compassion for Pixie the Poodle or George the German Shephard? They killed humans! They were killers. And this also applies to people who want to visit and pose with black kids (including adopting them), skin and grin at places all over Africa, make movies about black people as if they really cared, and even donate to so-called “black groups.” It remains as Malcolm X taught long ago: “Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research.”

         So folks, you take that royal baby and his mama and daddy, and then line them up beside the plethora of atrocities that Britain, to this day, afflicts on Black people and other persons of color. They discriminate against black people just like there cousins over here but with a major difference: their history is one where they accepted black people for the most part. But today it’s quite similar: racial profiling of young black males, black businesses in small number, and the same issues as here. However, black people can start talking and once those in power hear their accents, that is the only time they back off the assumption that these black people are “foreigners,” as they say.

         Promoting ethnocentrism by boasting about the birth of a child to two people who got where they are simply because they were white, seems to go a long way toward proving my point, does it not? Now, when Mandela DIES, there might be international attention, but while he rotted in prison – nada. We can’t expect oppressors to come clean and admit what they did. But at least be realistic and admit to some of what I’ve documented in this essay. You all know, just like I do, that there is nothing “royal” about the people who originated the enslavement of black people and, like the ones over here, claim, in Britney Spears-like fashion, “Ooops, I did it again.”

Workstitutes: Overview and Explanation

By: Matthew C. Stelly

Work and work/Those fingers to the bone/Can’t hardly wait ‘til it’s time/To go home.”

---From “Carwash” (Rose Royce, 1977)

Workstitutes. I created this word to define the role that black people have paid to American society during and since slavery. We all know what a prostitute is defined as: “One who solicits and accepts payment for sex acts,” or “One who sells one’s abilities, talents, or name for an unworthy purpose.” (The Free Dictionary, 2013).

Black people in America are the most comfortable workstitutes in the world. And the brainwashing has been so intense and successful, that most of us don’t even see it. And if you attempt to explain it, they will look at you as if you slapped their mama. Of course white folks are workstitutes as well. But there are exceptions to their “booty selling” status.

For one thing the pimps – you may know them as decision making leaders -- are also white, so naturally the street level workstitutes – corporate leaders, managers, supervisors, politicians and so on – are going to get a bigger break than the black workstitutes. Even the black workstitutes that occupy high-ranking positions and have high status jobs (“niggerologist” slots) are still worse off because of their skin color and cowardice. Afraid to even ADMIT that they are workstitutes, the “pimps” who cut the checks and dominate the decisions disrespect them. And that disrespect is recognized all over the world as people coming to America from other countries look at black people and ask, “Why you not doing bettah dan dat?” Some just come out and say it: “What wrong wit’ nigga in dis country?”

Workstitution is an American norm and is required for all “able bodied adults.” Now think back to the definition of prostitution for a minute: One who sells one’s abilities, talents, or name for an unworthy purpose.” What could be more unworthy than believing in a system that has shown for over 400 years, that it doesn’t believe in you? What could be more unworthy than selling one’s body and energy in exchange for money from one white man and then turning around and paying it out to another one? What could be more unworthy than believing that after being enslaved for 400 years, a process that included dehumanization, that you could be “freed” by the same people?

You need look no further than next door to hear cars cranking up early in the morning with black folks headed to work. Look at the public transportation: packed with bodies. Look at the day labor companies: packed with blacks and Latinos. Everybody wants to work so they can get money to pay into the system. I know: we all have to survive, and money is the key. I’m just describing what is taking place and who all is involved and who is in control. The more information and creativity, the lighter the yoke you’ll carry. The problem is that workstitution has become a GOAL that is sanctioned by schools, community leaders, your spouse and yo’ mama.

You’ve heard women describing their men based on where they work. You’ve heard them in the clubs; the first questions they ask is “where do you work?” You’ve seen men boasting when they get one of those “bottom bitch in the stable” jobs where they get to wear suits, tripping about how good they’ve got it? I liken this to those house negroes who used to get to wear hand me down suits and ties when they served “de massa” and then go back to the houses out back and boast about how good they had it.

Conservative curmudgeon Judge Judy Scheindlin leads the pack in ordering people to “get a job!” Black men are admonished to “find a job!” Movies, including the hilarious “Hollywood Shuffle” tell us that “there’s always work at the post office.” Even the Bible talks about a man is judged by his works. But at least in those days people worked for the village or the tribe they were a part of. Today, we work for an alien race and when we are ready to retire (from life), most of us don’t have a pot to piss in or anything to show that we were ever here on life. Oh, there is ONE thing: a headstone that deservingly reads, “long-time service to this system. May he rest in pieces.”

Nobody wants to create a job. We can learn something from the “renegade prostitutes.” They cut out the middle man (the pimp) and go to work for themselves. After all, it’s their body and skill set that is making the money: why give it to some third party who will (maybe) in turn, dole out a little chump change for you to spend? These prostitutes make the money and they keep it. And sure, they might end up paying back into the system, but just consider that overhead. At least they work on their own schedule and they have free time that could be used (I’m not saying that it is) to work in the community and make a difference.

Workstitutes can do the same thing. People have watched us and stolen from us and learned from us for centuries. Then they turn around and sell it back to us. We go to work for them and make them rich and then turn around and give it back. We have all the energy and talent and then we give it back to the same system that steals it, markets it, and takes credit for it. This, while telling the world, that we are worthless, deviant and lazy.

 Workstitutes. That’s what we are. I’ll write more in the future in what is sure to be titled, “Workstitutes II: Toward De-Pimpification.”