Re: [Marxism] the phantasm of the thug black athlete

[Craig Brozefsky <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Octob1917@xxxxxxx writes:

> how is it divorced from reality? and how devoid of any marxist
> analysis, when it points out the consequences, socially, of the role
> of the black athlete in today's society?

The "role of black athletes" as you attempt to analyze it, is what is
presented to you by a media which picks and chooses the images of
these people they want you to see.  A similiar thing occurs with Hip
Hop.  It is a phantasm.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/60/60_guest_kobe.html

They are demonized or deified.

The NBA handed out incredibly harsh penalties unlike those you get in
any other sport, including baseball which has regular brawls nowadays.
The NBA Players Association is one of the most succesful unions with
an average member salary of 4 million dollars a year and they are
currently in negotiations with owners over a renewal of their
Collective Bargaining Agreement which will expire Jun 30th?  The
owners want caps on salaries and a reduction in the length of contract
guarantees.

Let us not forget the massive difference between 4 million dollars and
what most of us make, but that does not change the relation of the
players who offer their labor to the owners of the means of sports
spectacle production (T.V. contracts, stadium deals, tax breaks).

As to the relation of this phantasm of the thug black athlete to the
military prison industrial complex, it is a tentative link by way of
media or cultural critique of role models.  In comparison to the
effects of racial segregation of labor, it is a dry fart.

If we want to talk about basketball players as role models, let's look
at the entire process of training and selecting players from High
School holiday tournament with college scouts, thru college and the
gauntlet of recruiters and sports agents looking for their next big
discovery, and the few select which make the transition from college
to pro ball, a level below which it is all but impossible to make a
living from playing.

Making the transition from H.S. to college with a scholarship is one
way, straight to pro is another with even more ravenous vultures
waiting.  And if they wanna be succesful, pure athletic talent is just
a start.  It's not like some thug-to-be is born with an incredible
vertical jump and the world opens up before him.

They survive this and have the audacity to dress "thuggish" and make
some fat cash and now they are a deceiver of their black brothers and
sisters.

Can one even know what is and isn't a sign of black power if they
write off Hip Hop and its iconography as retrograde?  No.

--
Sincerely, Craig Brozefsky <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Kontact -- http://www.red-bean.com/kontact/wiki.cgi

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