I want to try something new this year. Once the season starts, I plan on doing shorter, weekly or bi-weekly dives into pieces of analysis that I strongly disagree with, and dissecting them for what they are worth.
I’ll start off with an easy one, as I don’t usually agree with Jason Whitlock. I’ll resist the temptation for him to be my subject each week. To me, he panders to right wing conservatives who will salivate over a video of a black man telling them what they want to hear. Whitlock’s main schtick is discrediting (shout goes out to Roland S. Martin for his calm, common sense arguments) “opponents” like Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James and other celebrities who are in position to stand up for the black community in America.
I do, however, see the value in staying informed on views that differ greatly from your own… even if just to know what you don’t believe in. Even if not to be controlled by the very leaders you’ve thrown your long-term support behind.
The New England Patriots just drafted a placekicker in the 2020 NFL Draft who doesn’t like the way he is being perceived and treated because of his appearance. The kicker here (pun fully intended) is that this guy is white!! Any people of color ever feel the way that he is describing? Surely not… His tattoo is representing a group names The Three Percenters, a right-wing militia group. Just own it fam, you thought it a good idea to have represented on your body up until this point in your life.
Now, my argument here is not even to to assert that we need to necessarily pressure this young man out of owning how he feels. Or maybe he truly didn’t know what his tattoo meant (🧐). What I am opposed to, is Whitlock’s incredibly asinine assertion (which I am hesitant to even link to) that he is being treated unfairly here, and that black people do things that they easily get away with. Don’t make me laugh, my guy.
Jason Whitlock says that “we have several players with gang affiliations. Many/ some of them are probably proud of their gang affiliations”. This sounds like a familiar refrain to me: blanket statements calling into question the character of a whole group of men. He then tries to draw a very rough explanation of how most New York rappers come from racial supremacist roots. Huh?! The logic is all very weak. If you hop in the comments (at your own peril), it is all the argument that some need to feel vindicated. Whitlock goes on to state that he feels a pressure to call Colin Kapernick’s efforts “the greatest thing in the world”. Hope that overwhelming pressure hasn’t been too much on you, buddy. So the kicker with the clear political tattoo is being singled out? Sounds to me like he is experiencing some of the instant judgement that every black person that has lived in America has had to endure… and you don’t like it.
Instead of diving even deeper on this rhetoric (which we could use a submarine to dive in on and unpack), let’s take a look at some of his other brilliant work. Whitlock regularly uses arguments and excuses that black people have heard all of their lives from those looking to degrade and look down on the black community as a whole. His whole ethos seems to be draped in telling our people to move on, assimilate, and make white society feel comfortable. Read the first line of this article on what Jason Whitlock believes about those who oppose his views. He asserts that they want to “overthrow everything and everything that we used to agree upon”. How melodramatic. Sounds an awful lot like Whitlock wants to go back to those days when certain ideals were unquestioned. Does he want to Make America Great Again?
I don’t always believe in the dichotomy of good vs. evil when it comes to political parties as a whole… but some things are pretty obvious. Jason Whitlock is a pesterer and a sellout. He sells because of these things. He gives far right America exactly what their itching ears want to hear.
Although Whitlock’s assertions that social media and pop culture in general are politically biased to the left have some weight as an exploration, it’s not coming from a genuine place. His warnings are not intended to reduce the effects of a far-left echo chamber and give a more wholistic and critically neutral point of view… they are to discredit the opposition and swing people to the right. This is a man that (embarrassingly) tried to body-shame Serena Williams.
In closing… Jason Whitlock: speak for yourself, and not on other men’s lives. And please don’t use your skin color to sellout and get ratings! We know that you want nothing more than to be accepted by those who you believe to hold power, but we are all done (tell ’em then, Charlamagne) with your efforts to make our voices even smaller. Your not-so-low-key insinuation that tatted black men are thugs is sad.
Oh, and don’t ever speak on Kobe. If he was still here, he would never ride witcha. Na na-na na na na na na. This is a Hail Mary in the stylings of 50 Cent; in the stylings of Tupac (IYKYK).
I don’t trust or respect almost any rhetoric that Jason Whitlock puts out into the world. This is just another reason why I will be awaiting the fall of the galactic empire. Karma comes back to you Pats… (that’s not a threat). Tom Vader finally left his master’s side to finally bring balance to the league. May the 4th be with us all!
