By Wayne Lord: How can people deduce that Jack Johnson’s pardon is a racial and useless? The first few responses to Brock Kaiser’s article prove that what was written is dead on! This is no different than men commenting on childbirth. Until a man can actually have a baby and endure it like a woman, we have no right to tell them what the pain is really like.
There is an old joke about an elephant who asked a rabbit: does shit stick to your fur? The rabbit responded: No, this is the best quality fur of all animals. To which the elephant then calmly picked him up and wiped his ass with the rabbit.
What does this have to do with the topic? For years the US has wiped its ass with certain, less developed countries. Could it be just a coincidence that they are mainly or all non white countries or is ther an ulterior motive, e.g. strategic location or oil etc?
I have read and seen many changes in the US but despite the very positive changes, the fact still remains, it is still a country that was built on the backs of visible minorities and uneducated poor white immigrants.
A review of boxing back in the late 1800’s and most of the 1900’s show that visible minorities and those early poor whites e.g. Irish and Jews, kept boxing alive and popular back then.
Many minorities are doing well today in business or other sports. For example blacks are in other US sports. Hispanics still box a lot but they are more into baseball and other US sport too. Both do not face the same barriers that Johnson and other fighters had years ago, but except for the Leonards and Delahoyas they still are not as easily accepted as a white fighter.
What about Jews and Irish guys who used to fight? As visible whites, they have been able to immerse themselves fairly seamlessly in American culture. If they walk down the street today no one knows their cultural history or how they people had to undergo hell. new Jews and Irish are quickly accepted by the established ones here.
By this I mean a new Irish immigrant can get off the boat, e.g. Duddy and be quickly accepted as an American. A Black or a Hispanic could be here for generations but is still seen as a foreigner.
The US has come a long way in race relations but it still needs to do a lot more so that people of all backgrounds can feel more at home. CNN in a recent survey stated that whites have much easier time being hired than anyone else and men easier than women. If you are a white man should you be upset/feel guilty by this or scoff it off as sour grapes? If you are a minority does it make you angry or more determined to right it? In a real world we would unite to ensure that everyone is treated fairly immediately.
The CNN report does not automatically mean that it is racist practice. People tend to feel more at ease and trust people they know, i.e. their own. Chinese hire Chinese, blacks hire blacks, Hispanics hire Hispanics etc. I get that and as Kaiser says in his article, people will cheer for their own. This is so natural in boxing.
Certain fighters I already named, cross over this racial cheering due to that special appeal. But like OJ, the moment something happens that appeal suddenly is no more and they are Hispanic or black. Ben Johnson won a gold medal in 88 for Canada but after he was caught and convicted for steroids, he was a Jamaican immigrant. It was an embarrassment not just for him and the sport but more for the way he was hung out to dry when for years, the Eastern European countries were guilty of doping. Many got caught too!
Look, before people start saying I am anti US, I am on record that I would prefer to live in the US over 99% of most countries. Generally speaking people want to live there because if they keep their noses clean, be willing to STFU, work very hard and stay out of trouble, they will accept you and give you a fair chance.
Americans are probably not happy about the past and hate to be reminded. Besides, the younger folk are more educated an open minded and carry the hope of a better US. It is the older folks who still use the stereotypical and derogatory expressions when referring to minorities.
In U.S. major sports an old boys mentality used to exist. Old minded, primitive thinking owners and executives used to hire fire and rehire the same old retreads like musical chairs. After much clamor, a few minorities got hired but as soon as they made a mistake they were fired and never got a 2nd chance.
Sports tend to be the leaders when it comes to social change and acceptance. Maybe because it is seen as not real or amusement, but society tends to slowly follow. And we see that there are more minorities in all areas of sports now.
I do not think I am brave because I am speaking out about inequities in society. The people who did that years ago in different countries around the world, including the US, were brave. They risked being beaten, tortured and/or killed just for speaking out or taking resistive action. But they persisted and made this a better world. If no one speaks out then there will never be change.
I get really angry when people who have never faced adversity in their lives deny those people who lived it. The Holocaust happened, there was slavery in the US and the natives were here first and got a very bad deal. I get just as angry when people abuse the race card too. It does more harm than good. Open-minded people and hardworking minorities get equally frustrated over this.
Of course I will get criticized for this article and that I am so one-sided against some culture. I see this like reffing a game. No matter what you do both sides will say you favored the other. However, that is better than having one side make such an accusation though.
According to the Bible, there was only one famous man on this earth and mankind killed him. There have been other great men who altered the shape of man’s thinking and help to improve how we understand different cultures. And yes, we killed them too. Death and torture can’t be that bad if they were subjected to it.
So I ask, what can people do to me that has not already been done to people way greater and more influential than me?
Maybe years from now people will be sorry for how Pacman has been unfairly vilified. Until then, Pacman, keep on doing what you can in the ring and leave the balance to history. Time and history go hand in hand and history has a way or mollifying intents, actions and deeds. Just look at Johnson’s pardon!
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