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!!!