Dimwitted on Race

Jim Brown was one of the best football players of all time. After a very successful career in the NFL and a fairly successful second career in the movies, he has settled down in his old age as second tier “activist” specializing in race - not a first string hustler such as Sharpton or Jackson, but someone who can get his name in the papers from time to time. He made the news last week by criticizing Tiger Woods for not having the right kind of social consciousness, i.e. for not being a political activist in the manner of Jim Brown. Afterwards, various half- (and smaller fraction) wit sportswriters and talking heads from TV and radio weighed in on the issue of Woods’ alleged failings. One writer, fretting over the fact that Woods did not endorse Obama even though they are both half black, went so far as to worry that Tiger might have been for the Repubs in the last election. (He was able to comfort himself, though, with the hope that the silence had something to do with Woods’ endorsement deal with Buick.)

It is easy just to laugh this stuff off as the usual drivel of fools, but it is a mistake to do so. This sort of thing reveals a serious and deeply held racism in society and in the traditional media. Consider that almost no one would have thought of taking Jack Nicklaus or Larry Bird to task for not being involved in left wing politics. And today there seems to be little interest in the political philosophies or activities of Peyton Manning , Tom Brady, or any other famous white athlete . People are mainly interested in these men as sportsmen. What , if anything, they do as citizens in the political arena is generally considered to be their business and not of any particular interest to the public. Yet Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan are frequently attacked and judged wanting for not being activists and for lacking a sufficiently enlarged social conscience. The difference of course is that they are black men. The implied premises are that for black people race is the thing that matters most, that all proper black people must hold the appropriate and correct beliefs, and that a black person who chooses to believe and behave differently is at best wrong and at worst a race traitor.

These premises are of course very close to those of the bigots of the Klan. They too believe that, when it comes to black Americans, race is what matters most. They too have a set of opinions and actions in mind as the only correct and appropriate ones for black people. They too oppose the notion of a black person freely choosing his beliefs and path in life apart from the constraints of society’s prejudices or the requirements of group identification. The things that make them wrong are the same things that makes Brown and much of the left wrong. Every human being is a free individual. One’s race should not dictate one’s views, beliefs, habits, or proper place and activities in society. There are no intrinsic demands placed, requirements imposed, or virtues or vices bestowed upon a person because of his race. To believe otherwise is, well, to engage in some form of racism. Tiger Woods is no more required to share Jim Brown’s opinions and agenda than an American of English descent is to share Gordon Brown’s.