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.