a predictable and absurd exit on the road to a society driven by identity politics
J. Whyatt Mondesire, the president of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP and publisher of a newspaper for blacks called the Philadelphia sunday Sun, slammed Philadelphia Eagles QB Donovan McNabb in an editorial, the full text of which is here.
You’ll ask, “So what?” I will answer that it is a predictable and absurd stop on the road to an identity-politics driven society, wherein individuals have political power only as part of a group with control over the language and characteristics of definition, and that membership in the group is determined by “authenticity” based on these definitions.
Mr. Mondesire:
…However, this week I felt compelled to offer some personal thoughts about your horrific on-field performances this season because at their core, there is a lie you have tried to use to hide the fact that in reality you actually are not that good. In essence Donny, you are mediocre at best. And trying to disguise that fact behind some concocted reasoning that African American quarterbacks who can scramble and who can run the ball are somehow lesser field generals than one who can summon up dead-on passes at a whim, is more insulting off the field than on.
Your athleticism and unpredictability to sometimes run with the ball earlier in your career not only confused defenses, it also thrilled Eagles fans. At last, said many of us, now we have a multifaceted offensive threat whose talents threaten to not just dominate the NFC East Division, but maybe the whole NFL for several years. We were elated. We were in awe.
We celebrated the boss’s giving you that huge lifetime salary deal which meant we’d have you around until it was time for you to join the other retired stars in television’s broadcast booth…
And the thrust of the piece:
…So, for you to continue to deny we fans (as well as yourself) one of the strongest elements of your game by claiming that “everybody expects black quarterbacks to scramble” not only amounts to a breach of faith but also belittles the real struggles of black athletes who’ve had to overcome real racial stereotypcasting in addition to downright segregation…
According to Mr. Mondesire, Donovan McNabb has ceded some of his “black identity” by preferring to pass rather than run, and claiming as reason for that preference that “everybody expects black quarterbacks to scramble.”
There’s just one problem: Donovan McNabb has never claimed any such thing. A Google search for mcnabb +”everybody expects black quarterbacks to scramble” turns up only the article I’ve linked above. In fact, I am hard pressed to come up with an example not connected to this article where Donovan McNabb has talked about race at all.
I first saw McNabb in the 1997 Fiesta Bowl, when he was playing quarterback at Syracuse against my Kansas State Wildcats. (The Wildcats won, 35-17.) It was apparent from following college football that year that McNabb would last a long time in the NFL. He was bigger and stronger than most quarterbacks, and tough to boot.
He was drafted the following spring by the Philadelphia Eagles, where he was booed mercilessly by Eagles fans. (Philadelphia, second probably only to Boston, has some of the most hateful sports fans in America. Were I a professional athlete, I doubt I’d want to be drafted by or traded to one of these teams.) They struggled with McNabb at the helm at first; but the Eagles went on to appear in four straight NFC hampionship games, winning last year’s before going on to lose to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. On the road to one of those games, McNabb torched the Arizona Cardinals for four touchdown passes on a broken ankle, winning a game that put the Eagles in the division lead by one game with six to play. He is one of the NFL’s “poster boys”; he appears on the cover of the latest in a series of best-selling video games, Madden NFL 2006, and he is the NFL’s chief pitchman for no less an American icon than Campbell’s Soup.
Therefore, if there were someone in a racial minority less in need than McNabb of a group identity to gain influence over a community, one would be hard-pressed to find it. He represents the best the NFL has to offer: he is classy, he doesn’t run from criticism, and he is a tough opponent on the field. If there is anyone in popular culture who transcends race while providing an individual role model, certainly Donovan McNabb qualifies.
Therein lies the problem of identity politics — one can conduct oneself publicly in an impeccable manner and achieve personal success beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, but only at the cost of one’s identity. For when one transcends that identity, which is the very thing that those who push identity politics claim to want, one is summarily drummed out of the Group by the self-appointed keepers of that identity.
Whether McNabb was a better player as a runner rather than a passing quarterback is a matter for debate, but it’s hardly the issue here. It is Mr. Mondesire that has shamelessly played the race card.
For their parts, both the president of the national NAACP and McNabb himself have had their say. First, McNabb:
“Especially being the same color I am,” McNabb told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Obviously if it’s someone else who is not African American, it’s racism. But when someone of the same race talks about you because you’re selling out because you’re not running the ball, it goes back to: What are we really talking about here?
“If you talk about my play, that’s one thing. When you talk about my race, now we’ve got problems. If you’re trying to make a name off my name, again, I hope your closet is clean because something is going to come out about you … I always thought the NAACP supported African Americans and didn’t talk bad about them. Now you learn a little bit more.”
Indeed you do, Donovan. Now, the comments of Mr. Bruce Gordon, president of the NAACP:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The chief executive officer of the NAACP criticized the president of its Philadelphia branch Thursday for racially charged comments made about Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.
Bruce Gordon, who heads the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, issued a statement calling McNabb “a great quarterback, an excellent role model and a class act” and said he intended to apologize for denigrating remarks made by Philadelphia chapter president J. Whyatt Mondesire.
“The NAACP has many civil rights issues that require our attention,” Gordon said. “Criticizing Donovan McNabb is not one of them.”
Indeed, Mr. Gordon.
UPDATE: Tangentially related is this piece on how these ideas seem to go hand-in-hand with “progressivism” at Beautiful Atrocities (man, Percifield is on fire).
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