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.”

Race, Sport and "Character Issues:" A Study in Hypocrisy

Race, Sport and “Character Issues: A Study in Hypocrisy

By: Matthew C. Stelly, Director

Uhuru Sasa Research Institute

Character issues. That’s what these sports pundits call someone who has made it into the professional ranks (or who has the potential to do so) who may have run afoul of the law or gotten into trouble some other way.

The current talk is of the New England Patriots, a team that is supposed to be the “model” of how to draft and recruit players of “high caliber.” Tight end Aaron Hernandez has been arrested for murder (and possible drug dealing). the starting cornerback, (Dennard) been arrested for a DUI in, of all places, hick-ass Lincoln, Nebraska (undoubtedly chasing some white woman ala Mike Rozier back in the day) and before that supposedly “assaulting a police officer.” As a black man, I know that this type of charge is usually a bullshit one, akin to “obstructing justice.” These are tags that these cops place on us after they try to manhandle one of us and end up getting their asses kicked. It may not even be physical; they might try to crack a joke or insult a brutha and he ends up sounding “uppity” and he gets handcuffed, a club upside the head (known as a “tune up”) and then charged as if HE was the one who INSULTED the cop.

Back to character issues. These white men who make decisions to pay all these money out to these bruthas to dunk, run touchdowns and hit home runs for them don’t give a shit about “character.” Broadcasters talk about how team after team passed on drafting Hernandez because they said he was “trouble” and that Bill Bellichek and the Patriots took a chance on him and picked him up in the fourth round of the draft. “They took a chance on him.” White men don’t “take chances” on black people and I’m going to explain why I say this.

Bellichek is not an idiot. If he heard that Hernandez was a thug, hung out with a gang or sold ‘erbs on campus, he had a decision to make: how much money can I make off this guy before he finally goes over the deep end and begins working toward kingpin status in the real world? Because believe me, they know it’s coming. So it’s not like they didn’t know. These men don’t give a shit about character. They knew Randy Moss liked to smoke dope but they bought him in anyway. Ayub Kalib pistol whipped some brother who was messing with his sister,, and he’s still on the team. I have more proof.

Look at Ron Artest, now known as Meta World Peace. This guy has bipolar issues, has charged into the stands when he played for Indiana (and rightfully so) to kick some white boys’ ass for calling him a nigger. The Lakers bought him in and he helped them to a championship. And it goes on and on.

Here’s my point.

Who is the white man to talk about someone having “character issues” after the kid has skipped through classes in college, screwed women with no sense of compunction, gotten passed through classes, had term papers done for him, and still never graduated? Even the ones that did graduate do so having committed the unethical actions I’ve outlined. I taught at the University of Nebraska and was a grad student who wrote term papers for the football team back in 1985-86 – so I KNOW what I’m talking about.

“Character issues” my ass. They’re being drafted and treated like slaves for what they can do with their bodies. There was a photo that used to circulate back in the days of enslavement of a white man standing next to a muscular black man in chains. The black man, however, had no head. The caption underneath the picture read, “the ideal slave.” This is the perfect way to describe these professional gladiators who you see with diamond earrings, multi million dollar homes and extravagant cars and lifestyles. “Character issues”? All this money and “stuff” is the reward for what they do on the field. If the white man were so concerned about character issues, why does he promote activities and philosophies that show a blatant lack of character.

You hear it in basketball: “rough him up,” “put your hands on him,” “if he comes to the basket, hack him” and so on. Promoting black on black atrocies. What about football? Remember the “bounty” that Sean Payton had for his players if they put an opposing player out of the game? Do you really think that this is the first time it happened? How about sliding into second base in baseball, spikes high in an attempt to “break up” the double play? When Jackie Robinson was playing they came in with spikes to try to hurt him. And even today, pitchers throw 90-mile an hour fastballs at batters on purpose. What about the “base brawls” that break out from time to time? And I won’t even talk about hockey because it is legitimized violence with the addition of sticks and flying pucks.

Character issues? How can you have bad character if you’re in a den of thieves? How can you have character issues when the people who own the stadiums and the team got their money through unethical means in the first place and who, at one point, agreed with the racial segregation that permeated this country. Wasn’t that the ultimate form of “bad character,” the act of legally separating human beings based on the color of their skin?

If you want to get philosophical and universalist about the issue, I’ll tell you this: everybody in America who is a part of this system has a character issue of some kind – mostly in the “lacking” department. How can you not? You work for a system that is hated the world over, that has instigated and participated in war after war, most of them against people of color, that denied women the right to vote in this, a so-called democracy for almost 200 years, enslaved an entire race of people based on a suggestion from a Catholic priest and, oh, let us not even deal with what those Catholic priests are doing to young boys or what Baptist ministers are doing to their congregations and the women of those congregations.

When it comes to women, they are no better. They have been forced to fend for themselves and the gender bias that they have been victims of for all these years has led to a deep-seated contempt for men. They may not say it, or even realize it, but this whole thing about “independence” has devolved from freedom to actualize themselves to “I don’t need no man.” The ranks of “bisexual relationships (no such thing) have increased, the rise in female headed households has led to more “dating” and “friends with benefits” and the myth that marriage is “the only way.” Women have become more about business and finances than about the bullshit that men have fed them all these years about “courtin’ and sparkin’.”

Character issues – or the lack of character? Look at the behaviors and attitudes of the children. I had never heard a kid tell his mother to “fuck herself” or “get the hell away from me” until I started having white friends when I was in elementary school. White kids have always been fucked up – they were the original juvenile delinquents. They were the ones who became beatniks and, clad in black leather coats, would have “rumbles” with other white boys and of course, it they could catch one of us alone, beat the shit out of us. Their mobocracy mentality is inherited from the lynch mob mentality of their ancestors.

What is the basis of these “character issues” that black athletes have imposed on them but nobody else seems to believe in or practice? In America, “the man with the gold makes the rules.” And this is way it has always been. Education was open only to wealthy white males at the outset, and public access was open only to white folks. This is the mentality that continues to exist in this country. You can’t say “no niggers allowed” legally, but you can create a situation by creating scenarios where black people and others cannot afford to get into a social setting, live in a particular area or for that matter, even attend certain meetings at the job because it’s only open to “upper management” which, in most cases, excludes people of color (the niggerologist jobs like Affirmative Action officer, Diversity Specialist and Minority Affairs Director aren’t even tied to the organization chart, let alone considered “upper management”).

“Character issues,” you say? These white men who recruit and “draft” these black men to play ball for them could care less about character. They are more concerned about police records and whether or not you’re “on paper,” as they say. If you’re a thug, but you have a minor arrest record, then that’s okay. There are guys being drafted who did the crime but were able to plead out to a reduced charge. Remember Lawrence Phillips the running back from the University of Nebraska? That muthafucka climbed up the side of a white girls apartment building and then sexually assaulted her. Tom Osborne, the coach, continued to defend him. He nevertheless got drafted, went to the professional ranks and continued fucking up. He was traded a couple of times and then faded away in relative obscurity.

But those making the decisions saw him on television playing for Nebraska and were under the assumption that if you play for Tom Osborne, then you might be able to be “rehabilitated.” But what they didn’t know is that Osborne was out of the loop and brothers were running through downtown Lincoln doing what they wanted to do, including bar fights, sexual assaults and even break ins. Osborne didn’t do shit, except take the problem and arrange for them to get in the pro draft and pass the problem on to somebody else.

Character issues? The white man’s “win at all costs” is at the basis of all of these pro sports and the gamblers in Las Vegas and Atlantic City benefit from this. The stadiums generate money, ticket sales generate money, the bruthas don’t get any of the money from those posters that whitey sells. Where is the character of these people? Where is Nike’s character? How about Adidas and Converse? They spend tens of millions on commercials marketing to young people, implying that the shoe will make them better athletes. Is that ethical?

A corrupt system that taps into America’s lust for violence is at the core of professional sports. The college level is like a “farm club” where the black athlete supposedly “learns” about the game and prepares to get paid. Of course, he gets paid in college too, but the coaches, athletic directors and others lie and keep the money on the downlow. And yet they are responsible for letting the people at the next level (professional ranks) know whether or not the kid is “of good character” or not.

Voltaire De Cleyre, poet and essayist from way back in the day, is quoted as having said, “To me any dependence, any thing which destroys the complete selfhood of the individual, is in the line of slavery.” In my view, to talk of and/or speak out about, “character issues” when it comes to professional athletes, the back room rules of any athletic event or league, or when it comes to college athletes, is like speaking out against prostitution while you buy booty from hos downtown. ”

The Trayvon Tragedy: A Socio-Historical Explanation

Matthew C. Stelly, Director
Uhuru Sasa Research Institute

Shock? Dismay? Surprise? For what? The recent decision that ground George Zimmerman “not guilty” in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin is not new or nerve-shattering; it is an extension of the same sick shit that this country has been laying at the door of black people since the 1700s. As the song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” asks, “when will we ever learn?”

Let me break this collective idiocy down for you so you won’t waste valuable paper, energy and conversation exposing your abysmal ignorance in the future.

When you act “surprised” at the verdict, such surprise implies that this system is capable of accepting any decision that has to do with black people. When jive-ass O.J. Simpson got acquitted, American whites weren’t satisfied. They kept hounding him and exploiting his love for them (the same love you obviously have) until they got monetary damages and painted a picture of him as “the nigga that got away with it.” In the long run, this system was able to overturn that decision and end up with a, “see, we told you he wasn’t any good” verdict that ultimately drove Simpson crazy and even had black people hating him

When you act “dismayed” at the verdict, it implies that this system has the capacity to act “fairly.” Where’s your proof? The Innocence Project, which has set free scores of black men who were “wrongly arrested” for tens of years in many cases, shows that if they say that a black man did it, then that’s all they need. Eyewitness studies clearly show that it’s not reliable and yet this system has accepted it and locked men up. Over 70% of all inmates are either black or Latino, and that includes states like Idaho, Wyoming, Vermont and Utah. Doesn’t that send you a message about the criminal justice system? Doesn’t that send you a message about the penal system?

When you act “shocked” at the verdict, it shows an abysmal ignorance of the duality of what “right and wrong” means in this country. I’m not arguing any case for Trayvon by any means. I’m arguing a case for the fact that we expected those outside of our race to understand that what happened to Trayvon is happening to black kids all over this nation. They are gunned down by cops, imprisoned by the penal system, mentally abused by their teachers, seduced by their ministers, and taught that they are “Americans” by their parents. These facts then, pave the reason why the Trayvon’s are so weak and gullible. They think they are just like any other teenager; they think that they can don hoodies and walk the streets with impunity like white boys do. Whose fault is that. YOURS.

The facts of the case don’t reflect a single instance that involves Zimmerman and Trayvon. They are a reflection and reinforcement of what has been happening to black males since the beginning of this country. This case is a reflection of that famous Dred Scott case, remember? Chief Justice Taney made it clear: “A black man has no rights a white man is bound to respect.” Now if this case doesn’t prove that verdict to be alive and well, then what does?

When our kids see you waving the flag and believing in a system that has you segregated or believing that progress means looking for a white man to adopt you (find a job), then they accept it. And when it doesn’t work and then you label them as “lazy,” disobedient” or “criminal,” then what do they have left to believe in other than each other. And since, as a group, they’re totally clueless, that means that you have created your own Trayvon. And you can see the product in their actions: sagging pants, hoodies in the summer, cutoffs that come down to their ankles. A short while ago it was visors worn backward, sucking on teething rings, and wearing their pants backwards, remember? “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”

And here’ something you might want to think about: the world is watching. When these people start whining about “why do they (they meaning people of color the world over) hate us so much?” you can look squarely at decisions like this and the long history of murders and lynchings of Latinos, Native Americans and Black people. Our kids may not learn it in school any more (with the demise of black studies), but those kids in other countries sure know about it. And when those atrocities are added to what this country has done to OTHER nations in the name of “democracy” and “freedom,” then is it any wonder that this nation is losing ground faster than George Jefferson in a race with Usain Bolt?

Why do we whine and sometimes even riot when we are being done a favor? Trayvon was a victim of racism, and when decisions are made that uphold racism, that’s a direct sign of what those people think of us. When Simi Valley made the decision about Rodney King, they were telling us how they felt about black people. When your Congress wants to cut pre-school programs and raise student loan interest rates, that’s a way of them telling us how they feel about young people in general. But the fact has been, and still remains, that when white folks have a cold, black folks have pneumonia. Whatever happens to them (inflicted by their own), happens more negatively to us.

We know all this is true. And we just can’t seem to see that in every possible way, we are being shown that we are hated. But we turn our energies and angers on everybody else because we’re afraid to confront our former slavemaster. We blame the Latinos for “taking our jobs.” Our jobs? Nigga, those weren’t “your” jobs; they were the white man’s jobs – he was just frontin’ your black ass off and making you more dependent on him with a new house payment, a car note and bunch of other debts that tightens the noose around your neck. We blame the Asians for coming into “our community” when it’s not our community. All the Asian is doing is the same thing that Jews did decades ago: take our obsession with conspicuous consumption and sell it back to us: urban gear, pedicures, fake fingernails and eyelashes, Indian hair that I would say 8 out of 10 sistahs either wear or crave, and so on. Can you blame them if they can sell us something and then laugh at us all the way to the bank?

America is sinking fast, and that’s why you see all these “mergers” and all that “outsourcing.” There’s a movie called “Elysium” coming out that shows what I’ve long been saying: they’re about to leave this planet to “the nigrahs” while they go out in space and build a paradise out there. They’re going to repeat what they did to Africa and the Native American and if there is life out there, it will soon be murdered off, captured and studies, placed in a zoo or made into a pet. You just mark my words.

Bruthas and sistahs, there are still too many “firsts” for us. We’ve been here over 400 years and y’all are still having orgasms about the “first president” of this, or the “first athlete to do that.” Movies like “42” and “Great White Hope” has us looking backwards and glorifying bruthas and sistahs who were “first in THEIR system.” And the more we canonize those so-called “accomplishments,” the more we tend to organize the potential for having our OWN system. And without our own system, we rely on the non-existent morals of people in other systems; hence, the Trayvon Martin decision and all those that preceded it.

Trayvon will be missed, but there are millions of Trayvon’s out there. What they need to do is get up off their knees and stop doing war dances on dance floors and take it to the field where it belongs. It is true, as the Last Poets once said, that “The revolution will not be televised.” But guess what? Your collective stupidity and cowardice, belief in goblins and goons in space, talk about “going to hell” when hell is right here, and expecting mercy from the merciless sure will be. And it will be playing on every single network. And you can take that to the bank.

The blood bank.

Check out my blog, mcstellyspeaks.blogspot and read my other “ahead of my time” essays. And for those of you who still feel hopeless, do what you do best: pray.