by Malik Russell
In many popular U.S. sports, Blacks make the game but whites tell the story. Sportswriting remains rooted in the racial past. “There might not be a less diversified group of paunchy, balding, middle-aged white guys anywhere in America.” Not so long ago, whites were so determined to keep a lock on the sport of boxing, they rioted and terrorized Blacks rather than accept an African American champion, Jack Johnson.
White Sports Writers: Raising the Volume on Unforgivable Blackness Then and Now
by Malik Russell
“I turn down the volume when watching Venus and Serena Williams play tennis since it often sounds like commentary that belongs on the Animal Channel.”
What I love most about February is that I often forget its Black History Month. Much of television and media remains lily-white, except you start noticing a little more Black programming than before and then right about the time you start getting excited, February is over and television goes back to business as usual.
For some reason I decided to turn away from the NBA game on Sunday and tuned into PBS which was showing Ken Burns documentary on the first African American heavy weight boxing champion-Jack Johnson.
Released in 2005, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson is an amazing and artistic work, not simply for the power and boldness of Jack Johnson, a jet-black almost mythological figure born the son of formerly enslaved Africans, but also for the historical truths about the relationship between media and Blacks athletes.
The relentless negative portrayals of Johnson by the leading newspapers of his time -- some of whom are the leading newspapers of today -- mirrors in real and symbolic terms current media portrayal of Black athletes.
Correlations between Jack Johnson’s experience to that of modern Black athletes is something others noticed as well, including the documentarian Burns himself, revealed during a PBS interview with writer Shelley Gabert years ago.
“Jack Johnson's life is such a modern story and the drama is real, not manufactured," Burns maintains. “He was like a media superstar of today, with the big coats, the gold teeth, the 'bling-bling' and the entourage. There are also echoes of O.J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant," said Burns.
Burns would add that while, "we've matured and made extraordinary progress as a country and our films show that, but, as Jack Johnson reminds us, we're still bedeviled and troubled by race."
For me, the volume against our unforgiveable Blackness remains loud. Not so much in what is said compared to the way in which others are saying it. Without exception, I turn down the volume when watching Venus and Serena Williams play tennis since it often sounds like commentary that belongs on the Animal Channel.
“The relentless negative portrayals of Johnson by the leading newspapers of his time mirrors in real and symbolic terms current media portrayal of Black athletes.”
The ways in which Black athletes are myopically analyzed in a super-critical fashion while White athletes are glossed over with a digitally altered warm glow is alarming-yet always justified. It does not matter whether they are talking about how NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony may not be worth losing New York Knicks Italian role player Danilo Gallinari or why a quarterback at Missouri or Stanford is really a better person and talent than Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton. Regardless, the way they talk about us always comes across in a way that makes us sick and ashamed or inadequate. You ask yourself why am I feeling like I need to defend this athlete?
Getting back to Johnson – well just how bad, did the White media portray him? Mainly like animal-See photos below:
No doubt, blatantly racist portrayals of the Black athlete have been replaced with more subtle portrayals where a sportswriters dislike of an athlete’s playing style or skill, then becomes legitimate grounds to attack his or her morality, courage, integrity and intelligence in ways that White athletes are rarely if ever subject to.
Lebron James became the vilified face of the unworthy athlete for of all things-a press conference gone wrong. Cleveland Cavalier owner Dan Gilbert railed against LeBron for keeping him in the dark about the team he would choose as a free agent. While Gilbert literally cursed LeBron and called him a coward, he also saw his franchise’s value increased by about $100 million due to LeBron presence. I’m a little slow, but when I was growing up if someone increased your bottom line by $100 million, there’s only one thing you call him you call him and that’s partner. Now you have big-mouthed sportswriters downplaying the talents of probably the most-talented player of the modern-era. Since the “decision,” it’s been open season on LeBron in a way is unprecedented for an athlete of his magnitude.
Ironically, while sportswriters cried crocodile tears for Gilbert, in the past week when groups of NBA players were traded to numerous teams without their consent or awareness-some were told on the bus ride to the arena-there was no outcry from overwhelmingly White sports media.
During Jack Johnson’s time, media reflected the biases of the writers of that time and today media still represents the biases of the writers of this time. The difference is that in Johnson’s era there was nothing subtle about Whites beliefs that they were superior to Blacks both physically and intellectually or their constant voicing and justification of this idea in media.
The sportswriters of Johnson’s era knew that the symbolism of sports is of a much greater societal importance than simply entertainment. The victories of Johnson, and later those of Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali’s were utilized as socio-political and cultural currency by groups of oppressed Blacks as verifiable proof that we were not an inferior race. Are we that far away from Johnson’s time where this has this changed any?
When Jack Johnson destroyed the media’s resurrected White hope of that time – Jim Jeffries on a sweltering hot Fourth of July in Reno, Nevada in 1910-race riots initiated by angry Whites ensued after films showing his victory made their way back east.
“The symbolism of sports is of a much greater societal importance than simply entertainment.”
When the media couldn’t find a White Hope to defeat Johnson in the ring, they shifted gears to an attack on his character. This was an easier task than defeating him in the ring, as the media campaign vilified Johnson and erode his ability to make money outside of the ring.
Johnson didn't back down and continued living as ostentatiously as any heavy weight champion, before and after while cohabitating with White women publically at a time when Black men were lynched on pure assumption of sexual intent. There were several attempted death threats against Johnson and countless written threats against his life.
Congress would eventually ban the boxing films that were showed in theaters throughout the United States due in part to the empowering aspects of Johnson’s wins among Blacks and the violent White response of riots and blatant murder.
Black leaders would also join the chorus attacking Johnson as the relentless media attack actually led to Congress creating laws specifically to entrap him-the Mann Act. They convicted him of "transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes.” Like many Black men, Johnson fled the country, finally surrendering in 1920 and subsequently jailed for a year. Johnson would die in a car crash in 1948 unrepentant and unforgivably Black.
Today, Senator John McCain of all people leads a push to secure a pardon for Johnson a century later.
While Johnson’s legacy looms large in many ways for the current Black athlete, the use of media as a tool to attack Black athletes in both real and symbolic ways has dissipated but not by any means disappeared.
This January in listing the most hated athletes, Forbes magazine included NFL star Michael Vick, Tiger Woods, Manny Ramirez, Terrell Owens, Albert Haynesworth, and four Whites-two of which were owners, one an announcer and the other retired. Other lists usually include Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter of the Yankees, LeBron, Barry Bonds (retired) and a few others that the media have demonized.
The way in which Black athletes continue to be dissected like lavatory animals is no coincidence-and more than likely a verdict on the racism that we as a society have yet to eradicate despite adding color to the Whitehouse.
“Black men were lynched on pure assumption of sexual intent.”
Then again, maybe it’s not just all racism.
Maybe its personal biases exacerbated by a 24-hour sports coverage that has turned sports commentary and analysis into stuff that belongs more on the gossip page than the sports section or ESPN. C’mon, nobody discriminates due to race anymore, right?
According to a few well-positioned voices, media racism whether intentional or structural, remains a factor in the hatred thrust upon Black athletes.
Washington Post, sportswriter Norman Chad in his 2006 column “I’m in the White Business” discussed the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports study revelation that among the 305 newspapers it surveyed, there existed only four Black sports editors, which equaled to about 1.3 percent of sports editors.
“We're whiter than Newt Gingrich's Fourth of July barbecue. In particular, the sports editors themselves are distinctly men of non-color. In fact, there might not be a less diversified group of paunchy, balding, middle-aged white guys anywhere in America,” said Chad.
If nothing else our opinions travel with us-to our jobs and show in the words, we write and speak. Journalists know there is no true “objectivity” because our biases-good or bad-are an inherent part of whom we are and are as strong and distinct as the cologne we wear.
Sports are the closest thing this nation has to its often-claimed meritocracy. Maybe soon, sports writing will actually adopt the mantra of meritocracy instead of its unspoken new anti-affirmative action qualifications used by the new age “kindler and gentler” post-racists of “being a good fit,” in order to access the ‘good ole news boys club.’
Blacks can no longer be denied due to lack of education and qualifications, so employers had to create other reasons to explain why their offices are so alpine looking despite those taglines beneath employment listings telling Blacks they has a chance at getting hired-most often explained in “he wasn’t a good fit.”
Unfortunately, this quiet post-racist racism is not segregated solely to sports journalism, as I have spent years working in the policy arena, and let me say unequivocally it is pretty much the same scenario-White men discussing and analyzing issues disproportionately affecting Black people. You talk about the quiet racism at the risk of decreasing your chances of employment from around 1.3 percent to zero.
In a sense, sports remains one of the worst examples to measure overall diversity or progress since it tends to be ahead of American society most of the time. How else can you explain a major university with a 90 percent Black men’s basketball team and no Black women on the cheerleading, volleyball, soccer, tennis, or baseball teams.
ESPN sports writer Scoop Jackson puts things in a clearer perspective in his column the “1.3 Percent Doctrine.”
Jackson talks about his experiences speaking to young students and their reaction when he asks them how many players are in the NBA and to see if they can name the around 350 players. The students tend to do well and can name most of the NBA players-around 85 percent or so who are Black.
When he asks them to name 300 Black sportswriters, the room always goes eerily quiet.
Jackson notes “Past that, more silence.
“Then I make a point.
"Do you know why you can't name 300 black sportswriters?" I say to them. "Because 300 of us don't exist."
“The room becomes less quiet. Mumbling. Private conversations break out.
“Then I make the point: "Which means you all have a better chance to make it to the NBA than you do doing what I do for a living."
“I wish I wrote well enough to describe the looks on their faces. Every time,” says Jackson.
“How can you explain a major university with a 90 percent Black men’s basketball team and no Black women on the cheerleading, volleyball, soccer, tennis, or baseball teams.”
According to the Association of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) which does annual surveys of diversity in newsrooms, racial “minorities” compose about 13 percent of the total news workforce and 11 percent of supervisors. This is based on surveys from around 65 percent of the over 1400 print and online newspapers. Around 465 smaller publications report having no “minorities,” there and this number might easily reduced drastically if the other 35 percent of the newspapers that do not report their numbers begin doing so. In real numbers, ASNE reports that there is around 1084 Black men and 945 Black women among the 41,500 individuals working at daily newspapers.
Sadly, as pointed out by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the numbers are similarly dismal in television as well. In fact, “Out of 815 executive producers, assignment managers, managing editors, assistant news directors, news directors and general managers at the ABC, CBS, Cox, FOX, Gannett, Hearst Argyle, Media General, Meredith, NBC and Tribune stations 713 (87.9%) are White, 64 (7.8%) are African American, 24 (3%) are Hispanic/Latino, 13 (1.6%) are Asian and only 1 is Native American. The management teams at 82 of the stations are all White,” reported NABJ.
I can say that of late, I have seen more former Black basketball players as announcers for NBA games, but overall the numbers are still mediocre. Maybe there is hope for the future generation of writers. Maybe things are a changing’ or maybe, like most of us middle aged writers-they’ll come home from a day of dealing with our post-racist society, pop open a beer and turn on the game…and oh yeah, I almost forgot-turn down the volume.
Malik Russell can be contacted at [email protected].