When ESPN buries the Ben Roethlisberger rape allegations for several days but files repeated updates in the instance of Shawne Merriman’s alleged battery of Tila Tequila, can we presume something’s not kosher in Bristol? Or should we go to the lengths of Sports On My Mind’s dwil who concludes that when it comes to the Worldwide Leader, “black athletes are rarely afforded the consideration of ethical treatment”?
The Big Subliminal will devote time from 6 a.m. to midnight to dissect the athlete’s every performance and find, or invent if they must, the warts in a Black athlete’s game or personality if the WWL gets a whiff of trouble surrounding an athlete with dark skin. They will talk with everyone from high school coaches and societal mentors to ex-female mating objects to unearth negative news about the athlete. They will go so far as to conduct televised “investigative” reports and interview unsavory members of society and hide their identities in shadows and alter their voices just to make sure a story is picked up by other sports news outlets. The story will be on the lips of every radio show host in the ESPN radio universe – and other than the odd ex-athlete here and there, or the odd Black ESPN television personality who also does radio, every ESPN radio show host is White.
The television network will air some token differing opinion about the Black athlete in question from its revolving door of about four Black writer at ESPN who appear so often on its network programming that many White people actually believe there are Black writers everywhere at ESPN, on the .com, and in the magazine. Anyone can surely understand why these White people would think such a thing. After all, to them we all look alike.
Every so often ESPN will flip the script on who does the defending and who does the criticizing of a Black athlete plucked out for microcosmic perusal. One day, when viewers least expect it, their primary morning leadoff hitter, Skip Bayless, will earn his $1.5 million salary by flipping roles in mind-bending fashion and lamely play designated White, “Black athlete defender”, while his designated morning Black talking head foil will rip into said athlete with all the vigor of the most virulent racist. After the segment, White viewers get their guilt stroked because one of them acted as the paternal, burdened White man who can intellectualize the Black man’s plight. At the same time they can become fully self-absorbed in their righteous anger toward that particular and all Black athletes because they can tell all their friends “even other Black people can see how wrong ˜that guy'” – Black athlete – is.”
And all is well with the world —- until the next reported incident of “wrong-doing” by yet another in the long litany of Black athletes who fail yet again to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and “fly right”by White standards, and rise above their “instincts.”
Freddie Coleman isn’t a white radio host. I realize he’s hardly the most prominent ESPN radio personality, but if you listen a lot on the weekends, he’s hard to escape. Dunno if Bayless really makes $1.5 million, but he’s clearly not spending it on clothes.