Black Thanksgiving: Say What?
So NBA all Star weekend is Black Thanksgiving, or least it is according to David Aldridge in an article he wrote for CNN. Well, thanks for letting me know. You see, I was busy celebrating Thanksgiving with the rest of America, I missed the turkey and dressing I apparently am supposed to be having in March.
I took offense to this article. Many of the statements made in the article had me cussing at my desk. Had the article been written by a white columnist, I'm sure it would have never made its way onto CNN's homepage. The author was black, and because of that, it seems like he was given a pass to freely use the N-word (metaphorically) to describe people he obviously doesn't know, or perhaps he was just being allowed to do some shuffling and jiving to appease a larger audience. Just say, "Yassuh, boss" and get it over with.
I'm sure that there is a subset of folks who wait, with bated breath, for NBA ALL Star weekend. Like he said in the article, they covet the hard to get tickets and skulk around hoping to meet the men they hold at near demi-god status. There is also an even bigger group of black people who have no idea when NBA ALL Star weekend even is, or even though they are basketball fans, for them, the real season ends when the playoffs are over.
According to the author of the article, "black people are royalty in black America." This may be true for a group of people who view their only chance of "making it" as coming from a possible (and near impossible to land) stint in the NBA, but for the rest of us, basketball fans or not, the people who play this sport are really just tall guys who get paid well for doing something they are good at, but that's it. We are happy that these men are being rewarded for something they do well, and may even watch a game or two (or in my case, may have had season tickets a few times), but there is no worshipping happening. In fact, we don't even consider these people role models for our children. Our role models are the honest, hardworking men and women among us who chose a goal, get educated and stay on a path to something that makes them an upstanding citizen contributing to their communities and the wider community as a whole. SO, my friend the lawyer, engineer, artist, marketing professional, film producer, father, brother, THOSE are the role models. (I don't say demi-god because that is a WHOLE other argument. Men are but men. There is only one God.)
Yes, I agree with the author when he said that basketball is a culture, but it is most certainly NOT Black Culture. People like a party, and there are lots of them surrounding All Star Weekend, for sure. Party, yes, if that is your thing. But give thanks? There is no Thanksgiving about it. That is still an AMERICAN holiday that takes place in November. Originally, it was about surviving a winter in lean times for people in a strange world (hmm, is there a metaphor there?) but Thanksgiving has grown to mean spending quality time with your loved ones and being thankful for those that mean the most to you. Oh, and now its also about FOOTBALL. One last thing, check your history books, Mr. Aldridge. Black people weren't even there.
I took offense to this article. Many of the statements made in the article had me cussing at my desk. Had the article been written by a white columnist, I'm sure it would have never made its way onto CNN's homepage. The author was black, and because of that, it seems like he was given a pass to freely use the N-word (metaphorically) to describe people he obviously doesn't know, or perhaps he was just being allowed to do some shuffling and jiving to appease a larger audience. Just say, "Yassuh, boss" and get it over with.
I'm sure that there is a subset of folks who wait, with bated breath, for NBA ALL Star weekend. Like he said in the article, they covet the hard to get tickets and skulk around hoping to meet the men they hold at near demi-god status. There is also an even bigger group of black people who have no idea when NBA ALL Star weekend even is, or even though they are basketball fans, for them, the real season ends when the playoffs are over.
According to the author of the article, "black people are royalty in black America." This may be true for a group of people who view their only chance of "making it" as coming from a possible (and near impossible to land) stint in the NBA, but for the rest of us, basketball fans or not, the people who play this sport are really just tall guys who get paid well for doing something they are good at, but that's it. We are happy that these men are being rewarded for something they do well, and may even watch a game or two (or in my case, may have had season tickets a few times), but there is no worshipping happening. In fact, we don't even consider these people role models for our children. Our role models are the honest, hardworking men and women among us who chose a goal, get educated and stay on a path to something that makes them an upstanding citizen contributing to their communities and the wider community as a whole. SO, my friend the lawyer, engineer, artist, marketing professional, film producer, father, brother, THOSE are the role models. (I don't say demi-god because that is a WHOLE other argument. Men are but men. There is only one God.)
Yes, I agree with the author when he said that basketball is a culture, but it is most certainly NOT Black Culture. People like a party, and there are lots of them surrounding All Star Weekend, for sure. Party, yes, if that is your thing. But give thanks? There is no Thanksgiving about it. That is still an AMERICAN holiday that takes place in November. Originally, it was about surviving a winter in lean times for people in a strange world (hmm, is there a metaphor there?) but Thanksgiving has grown to mean spending quality time with your loved ones and being thankful for those that mean the most to you. Oh, and now its also about FOOTBALL. One last thing, check your history books, Mr. Aldridge. Black people weren't even there.
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