Pushin' on them keys like a minor chord...

"I want this guy on my team because he is black and
will therefore give me more points... He's a good kid."

- Berube on Paterno and Race: An old professor of mine Michael Berube had some things to say about Joe Pa and his race-related remarks. The gist of it is this:

“For the life of me I can’t see what in the world is wrong with [Joe Pa’s remarks] about ‘the black athlete.’ For that matter, I don’t see anything wrong with Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry remarking on the fact that a lot of fast football players are black….[To] say that black athletes have ‘changed the whole tempo of the game’ and “have just done a great job as athletes and as people in turning the game around,” as JoePa did, is not merely to say the obvious; it’s to say the obvious in the form of a compliment. It’s a little like saying that professional basketball is a different sport now than when George Mikan dominated the court, and that it’s a good thing too.”

This is basically the argument that both bliz and ellen were making in my comments section below. I posted the following in response to Berube in his comments section:

Was what [Joe-Pa] said really that “innocuous”?

I think it’s pretty important to understand the context within which Paterno said what he said. According to ESPN.com, he was responding to a question about the increase in scoring in the Big Ten this season. Isn’t a bit irresponsible to suggest that scoring in the Big Ten is up because there’s more black kids in the conference?
First of all, is this even true? Are there more black kids in the conference? Or, are there more black kids in the skill positions? I don’t know, but isn’t it just a bit irresponsible to just sort’ve haphazardly link race to scoring in such an essentialist manner, when surely there are several other reasons for why scoring might be up besides race?

I take no real issue in Joe Pa complimenting black athletes for their athleticism, I agree that the Air-Force coach was probably just clumsy with his prose, and I don’t mean to imply that Joe Pa is some closeted-racist or anything, but I just find the context of his statements to be much more important than what he actually said.

Re-reading what I wrote in my initial blog post, I certainly don’t seem to be focusing on the context of the remark as much as I am here or in the comments section that followed my post, so I hope I’ve cleared that up by now. Berube’s response—which I suppose I can take as some sort of validaition—was the following:

emil, hmmm. You have a point there.

- Geek Rap: This schitt is straight-up corny. It’s amazing how stupid “geeks” can be.

- Robot Made From Human Brain Cells: Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

- Vinsanity: “Vince Carter just took the imaginary ladder.” Dude dunking on ‘Zo like it’s nothin’. Sick.

- Flea Blog: Flea (yes, Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers) has some very freedarko things to say about the dress-code on his NBA.com blog: so, about this dress code… who cares? i don't care if they wear suits and ties, go naked or wear clown suits, i wanna see 'em on the court hoopin it up like the geniuses they are…why should i be worried about david stern's power trip? i love basketball, not fashion… david stern could never rob the league of it's black culture…and i don't care whether a bunch of right wing red staters love the nba or not…allen iverson is already a great role model no matter what her wears
he is a great artist…nobody ever held picasso's personal life up for judgment when it came to his art…they just studied it and appreciated it.” Good stuff. Come to think of it, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he's not too into the dress-code. Dude wears a sock on his thang.

- Jesus Juice: I’m thirsty… for the Lord!

-e