larry johnson Archive

It’s almost 2010 and calling other people racist has never been more popular. It’s almost as if “concerned citizens” are competing to see who can be the most outraged the most often. Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune decided to show off her elite level of intellectualism by writing a piece that’s indirectly critical members of the Chicago Blackhawks for their Halloween costumes.

Keller wrote a thought-provoking superficial piece about Adam Burish and Patrick “Punched A Cabbie In The Face” Kane who dressed up as Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen for Halloween (above via No Spain No Gain). These guys might be racists! Nevermind the fact that they wear jerseys every other night with a cartoon Native American man on the chest. That’s different, right? She must be up on her current events because she also dropped mentions of Bob Griese’s “taco comment” about Juan Pablo Montoya, Drew Gooden’s alleged homophobic slur, and Larry Johnson’s f-bomb incident. Keller attempts to use these incidents, culminating in Burish and Kane dressed as black men, to make you ponder the prevalence society’s biases towards race, ethnicity, and sexuality. By posing the question, Keller puts Burish and Kane into an guilty-until-proven-innocent position.

Keller deftly dances around actually calling them racist and attempts to frame the incident as just “controversial.” It’s actually an incredible oversimplification to lump Halloween costumes in with on-air comments and homophobic slurs. The piece is devoid of any context. At one point, she negates idea that we’ve advanced beyond certain racial and cultural stereotypes. She says that you may think we’re “past all that nasty stuff from the bad old days” — but apparently we’re wrong. Keller’s failed thought experiment take a nasty turn towards written masturbation in this passage:

But the controversies are also a sign of society’s robust health. We debate these words and behaviors — are they heinous and unforgivable or just dumb and obtuse? — because we don’t really know just how to feel about them. And sports is both mirror and lamp. The mirror shows us where we are; the lamp leads us up and out.

This isn’t a gray area; this is over-analysis. Perhaps she should consider writing another culture piece questioning children for dressing up like homeless people, ninjas, and Spartans. And I wish those kids would stop being insensitive to robots as well. Clearly, there’s a distinction between adopting the appearance of an actual person versus representing a stereotype. Would it be OK if I made my lips purple for an Alex Rodriguez costume? But racist if I had a spray tan? Similarly, is it racist for a black person to lighten their skin to resemble Barack Obama since he’s person of mixed race? What about when Deron Williams wears “whiteface” to appear as Cal Ripken Jr. (below via 1053TheFAN)? My only problem with D-Will’s costume is that it’s f*cking scary. The point that Keller misses is that racism isn’t simply a matter of appearance. Pigeonholing the issue this way is a disservice to anybody who actually has helped fight real discrimination.

The offensive nature of “blackface” is rooted in its representation of a racist archetype. Clearly, the Blackhawks players were dressed and made up as real people rather than a stereotype manifested through exaggerated appearance. Other than the color of their skin, there’s nothing stereotypical or embellished about their appearance as black men. It could be argued that their skin tone is as relevant as the jersey or fake tattoos. In Julia Keller’s small world, would the Rodman wig be fair game while the Pippen wig is potentially racist? I know — my head is about to explode thinking about that too.

Obsessing over skin tone is a hilarious contradiction for people that would like to crusade against racism. That simply highlights our physical differences as if they actually divide us. They don’t. The issues with racism in descending order of importance are: hate, intolerance, and then stereotypes. Dressing up as a person who happens to be of another race, while somewhat distasteful, does not necessarily make you guilty of any aspect of racism. On the other hand, carelessly labeling other people as racist dilutes the gravity of true hate.