Thursday, February 28, 2013

Race and jiu jitsu, part one.

Just some food for thought on the last day of Black History Month... I will be following up on this in the future!

7 comments:

Felicia said...

Let me preface this by saying I'm a karateka who watches MMA, boxing and BJJ competitions - and even I see/hear exactly what he's talking about. It's subtle, but there none the less.

Years ago, sportscasting great Howard Cosell called an African-American (wait - I think we were still Black then) a monkey during Monday Night Football. His exact quote was "Look at that money go!" I was just a little girl, but I remember it like it was yesterday - because I got chills. He said it was just a "harmless choice of words" sometime later (he didn't apologize, understand), but brown folks knew exactly what it meant. Subtle - and something you probably wouldn't even pick up if you hadn't heard folks who look like you being compared to animals before - but there. I really can't explain it any better than that.

And BTW "race-baiting" is not what this is. This is speaking about a situation. If Chris Rock or DL Hughley would have said the same during a comedy set prefaced with a "Did you ever notice...?" 90% of the audience probably would have laughed. I might have, too...

He's right - it happens. You just have to listen for it. And even if YOU don't believe it happens, that doesn't mean that it doesn't or make it any less true.

Anonymous said...

Chris Rock and DL Hughley say racially inappropriate things all the time. Its not funny by them and its not funny by this guy.

Was he doing this tongue in cheek? Well I for one am not laughing.

Im not interested in hearing what he or any other clown has to say. Next.

Anonymous said...

This is stupid.

Please visit this link:
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Overeem-Blasts-Through-Rogers-Calls-Out-Fedor-24517

Where you will see Jacare as having described as having a "workmanlike" performance. Jacare is arguably the most athletic BJJ fighters of all time and yet here he is being described as workmanlike.

Here is another link in which Phil Davis is described as workmanlike.

Go ahead. live in your victimhood. America has raised people up out of poverty despite race, religion or creed more than anywhere else.

The world isn't perfect and pointing out that the world isn't perfect is an exercise in stating the obvious and wasting your breath.

By the way it's called Google. Before you make statements with words such as "always" and "never", use it. Unless you don't actually care about the truth

Anonymous said...

Felicia,

You might want to educate yourself. Howard Cosell publicly in a sports-cast compared a WHITE PERSON to a monkey before he ever did a black person.

See the video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A90Km_PzAsA

See more here: http://howardcosell-littlemonkeycomment.blogspot.com/2011/03/look-at-that-little-monkey-run.html

Again, it's called Google and it is useful.

Georgette said...

People, if you can't be polite, I promise I will delete your comment. Not saying people have been rude so far, but they're treading on the line. Consider yourselves warned.

Felicia said...

Funny how most of the comments designed to sting were written by Team Anonymous. Hmmm...

Just so you know, I'm a journalist myself (I even teach it to college students), so trust me, there are other sources besides Mr. Google. I don't care if Howard Cosell called White players monkeys before or after the incident I remember seeing that Monday night so long ago, it's an awful thing to call ANYone. Do you get that he did not apologize because he thought it was cool? That was my point.

Again, you don't have to believe what this video is describing as truth (because you don't see it that way), but it doesn't make it false. I'm telling you, I hear it - and other racist, sexist and discriminatory language - a lot. Really, whether it is meant as a put-down or not is kind of irrelevant; it's how it is perceived that matters. Use this very video as a case in point.

I do not know the person in this video personally (never saw him before Georgette's previous blog post), but I'm sure he wasn't intending to offend anyone, yet he did - as evident by the comments above. To me, all he did was talk about what he sees and ask for your feedback, but it's been called "stupid" several times and he's been referred to as a race baiter. I don't happen to see it that way, but I respect that others do. All I'm asking is that you repect his perception as valid, too - without the innuendo (that I, too am somehow too stupid to research, for example), that's it.

Really, is that too much to ask?

Georgette said...

Felicia, I happen to agree with you-- and I love how gently you put it, too. Thanks for your contributions. Keep coming back please! :)