Acquiesce to Overdetermined Models of Masculinity?

I promise,
if I have a seed Imma guide him right...
Why you got these kids' minds,
thinkin' that they evil?
While the preacher's gettin' freaky,
you say honor God's people...
Is God just another cop?
Waiting to beat my ass, if i don't go pop?...
It's hard enough to live now,
in these times of greed...
You gotta find a way to make it out the game.
                                                                 - 2 Pac, Blast 4 Me

          I, like millions of Americans, use Facebook. And, on Father’s Day the outpouring of love and affection for the nation’s fathers was great to see. Some of us, unfortunately, have not experienced relationships with fathers, but we have been lucky enough to have male role models - sometimes supplied, sometimes sought out. I have been lucky enough to receive wisdom from the Julian and Les Bonds, the James Bufords, the Dr. Dwayne Smiths and a whole host of respectable male figures who populated the Black House on the campus of Stanford University. While I listened intently to what these men may have had to say – for they were and are examples of success in America – what I found astonishing was that these men would say one thing when gathered around black men in a backroom somewhere and, yet, have a totally different persona and demeanor in public, especially when around white people. In private, the men would seemingly empathize with the plights of the young men that they were charged with mentoring. And, while I – we – may have received some tools on how to perform accordingly in corporate settings, we received no guidance on how to be black men in America (or maybe we did). Instead, all we received was a “handbook of acquiescence.” Do not pay attention to the injustices that you may feel…black folk have always had it hard, why should it be different for you all…do not look at what others have done to you, fix your shortcomings. Black men are designed to acquiesce to the feelings of double consciousness (more like a multiplicity of consciousness in this postmodern world) that permeates our very souls in America. It is a terrible feeling.

            Perhaps, it is our fault – the young men of my generation – for investing too much trust, too much understanding, in these men who are seemingly like us. I know that I have become tremendously disillusioned with the journalist and TV personality Stephen A. Smith lately. As a member of Omega Psi Phi, Incorporated, Smith has really surprised me with the level of advocacy with which he espouses adherence to the handbook of acquiescence. As one who travels all around the United States expounding on black men, black manhood and black masculinity, I find it very heartbreaking that Smith does not use the platform earned and the voice developed to speak more publicly and openly and honestly about the plight and challenges of black men in America.

      Stephen A. Smith                                 Skip Bayless                                  Cari Champion

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           I watch ESPN’s First Take, starring Smith and Skip Bayless and hosted by Cari Champion, routinely. One of Smith’s favorite sayings is, “a fair is a place where they judge pigs.” I have interpreted Smith to be suggesting that life is not fair for anyone: so get over it. With particular reference to black men and racism that may exist in America, Smith has been noted as saying, 

Nobody wants to hear excuses… Nobody wants to hear, “They’re keeping me down.”  “No, you’re keeping yourself down”…  “Saying that is an excuse to accept mediocrity. You’re looking for people to blame instead of looking in the mirror.” (Bell)

          Ironically, Smith made this statement at the commencement ceremonies at Winston-Salem State University (why do these speakers always make these statements to the very people who have not made excuses and who have worked diligently and hard to attain their respective levels of success?). Then as a panelist on the CNN special, Black in America, Smith demonstrated not only his internalization  of the handbook of acquiescence, but also provided insight regarding why he, in particular, will not give an honest explication of racism and the trials and tribulations of black folk, and black men specifically, in America. When the moderator, Bob Evans , who happened to be the Deputy Editor of Essence magazine,  asked the question, to no one in particular, “Does the heighten racism [in Amerca] surprise you or disappoint you?”, the following transaction took place:

Ben Jealous: It was disappointing but not surprising.  Racism so infects our national discourse that we still think the majority of crack users in this country are Black.  White people are 65% of crack users.

Stephen A. Smith:  If I went on my radio show and said that, we’d have a problem.

Tricia Rose: Why?

Stephen A. Smith: I’m in 207 markets across the country and most of it is Middle America, which is a term for white America.  They don’t want to hear that.

Tricia Rose: How do you know?

Stephen A. Smith: Because the White folks who make the decisions, who show you the numbers, will point out that White America does not want to hear it.  It is like pulling teeth to get them to engage in a dialogue about race.

Stephen A. Smith: “You should have your own show on CNN!” [to Soledad O’Brien]

Sheryl Underwood: Tell me why?

Stephen A. Smith: If you give her that platform, what is the likelihood of her addressing the very issues we are discussing?  She is not going to hesitate. (Bell)

          After watching and hearing the program first hand, I had to seek out the show’s transcript so that I could be assured of understanding what I heard. It became evident that Smith does not only advise other black men to acquiesce to the social regularities of America, but he himself is also an adherent of the handbook of acquiescence. Here is a man heard in over 207 media markets in America and he is afraid to discuss issues that may be not only of importance to Smith as a journalist, commentator and writer, but to the health and security and understanding of black men in America collectively. And he once criticized Donovan McNabb for not speaking out on behave of black players while a member of the Philadelphia Eagles? I distinctly remember Smith making the following statement: “What I saw from Donovan is not something most black men relate to, because you want somebody with a voice to use it– not somebody with a voice to be quite like Donovan was…” (mofopolitics.com). Really? And do you, Mr. Smith, use your voice and platform in a manner to which most black men can relate? And how does Smith get to function as the arbiter of that to which most black men can relate, when he equivocates so consistently with regard to his ideas about what constitutes blackness? Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Smith has internalized America’s dominant ideological outlook regarding the understanding and representation of blackness, in general, and black men, specifically.

Smith on niggas, blackness, black men and human beings.

            There is no arguing against the fact that at times throughout their careers, both Kobe Bryant and LeBron James have been vilified as the worst types of black men in America. And, the argument could be made that both Bryant and James were, in part, to blame for providing the screens and landscapes onto which America could paint them as the big-lipped, dishonest ravishers of white female domesticity and sexuality that the men were to become. But the ease with which Smith displays his internalization and views and acquiescence to such a position is just awful; Smith has no problem referring to black men such as Bryant and James as niggas on the national airwaves of America for all to hear. He has found himself in hot water for using the n-word more than once on First Take. The first time he said it was in December 2011, referring to James as “this nigga” (Lee). More recently, during an airing of First Take on October 25th, 2012, Smith expressed his disbelief that Kobe Bryant would miss time with an injury by saying “nigga, please” (Petchesky). Now, we can debate whether Smith was referring to Bryant or just speaking to black men in general. But, he said it.

            December 12, 2012. In response to a statement made by journalist Rob Parker about the Washington Redskins’ quarterback Robert Griffith III – Parker said, “He’s kind of black, but he’s not really” - Smith stated:

First of all, let me say this: I’m uncomfortable with where we just went…RG3, the ethnicity or the color of his[white] fiancée is none of our business, it’s irrelevant, he can live his life in whatever way he chooses. The braids that he has in his hair, that’s his business, that’s his life, he can live his life. I don’t judge someone’s blackness based on those kinds of things. I just don’t do that. I’m not that kind of guy. (Smith)

          In this case, Smith alerts his audience to two strains of racial ideology working in his make-up, simultaneously. First, he espouses aspects of the post-Civil Rights ideology which suggest that we are all created equal and that we all should be able to live how we choose, regardless of America’s historical use of constitutive constraints regarding what should and should not be considered that which reflects blackness. Then he let us know that while he is not judging Griffith’s blackness based on the criteria laid out by Parker, he does judge blackness. Smith has criteria for blackness. Griffith, as his refusal to comment on his historical role as a black quarterback in the NFL indicates, is a human being and should be allowed to live as such. Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson: those are black guys.

            Enter the curious case of Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson. I could write an entire book on Johnson and the complicity of some black men regarding their sometimes damning representation in America. So, it is difficult to use him as an example of one judged a bit too harshly by Smith; yet, I will. For I believe that Smith’s criticism of Johnson reveals more about Smith than it does Johnson. But first, the case of Johnson.

            Johnson was released earlier this week after serving seven days of a thirty day jail sentence for probation violation. If you are unaware of how Johnson found himself in such a predicament, then please allow me a moment to recap events. Johnson met, seemingly feel in love with and then married VH1 reality-show star Evelyn Lozada, of Basketball Wives (funny, she was no one’s wife), after meeting the woman on Twitter and dating her on her reality-show. Their wedding also presented the opportunity for the couple to film another reality show, which was broadcasted to the world. Johnson, in the mist of this social media roller coaster, was moved from the New England Patriots to the Miami Dolphins, which happened to be featured on the HBO reality-show Hard Knocks. After assaulting his wife, either in response to her disgust that he may have been adulterous and may have practiced infidelity, or, in response to his disgust that Lozada allegedly had been the sex-kitten of Cash Money CEO Ronald “Slim” Williams, Johnson was publicly released from the Dolphins on television and was eventually sentenced to twelve months of supervised probation for the assault on Lozada – he head-butted her.

             Evelyn Lozada                                                             Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson

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          In the aftermath of such a public fall from grace, Johnson disappeared from reality television, social media and the pubic eye – emerging now and then on ESPN’s First Take. He was on an image rehabilitation mission attempting to demonstrate to both the NFL authorities and the state authorities that he was and is a solid citizen worthy of just one more stint in the NFL. Then he missed an appointment with his probation officer. Such an occurrence required an appearance before a judge to explain why he did not report to his probation officer, or risk having to serve out the remainder of his probation in an actual jail. While solidifying a plea agreement with Judge Kathleen McHugh, Johnson smacked his male judge on the buttocks – in good ole NFL fashion – which prompted the judge to throw out the plea agreement and then sentence Johnson to thirty days in jail. The whole saga led Stephen A. Smith to go on a racial and social diatribe.

            During the June 10th, 2013 airing of First Take, Smith went off on Johnson. He began by saying, “I cannot even put into words how disgusted I am…at this man right now” (First Take). He then proceeded to put into words his view of Johnson as an idiot. Here are the highlights of what Smith had to say:

Skip has been incredibly fair to this man [Johnson], this show [First Take] has been incredibly fair to this man, this network [ESPN] has been incredibly fair to this man, this COUNTRY has been incredibly fair to this man…Imma be very, very clear…I understand this is going to be controversial, but it needs to be said. You slap your attorney playfully in court…you are a BLACK man! In court!...the judge…Kathleen McHugh…I don’t know any men named Kathleen…You [Johnson] don’t have the common sense to know that you can’t be in court, playfully…what is wrong with him? I don’t understand it, I don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense to me…the HEIGHT of idiocy…I can’t believe he could be that idiotic! (First Take)

          There is a lot to unpack here. First, we begin to understand that Smith’s conception of fairness equivocates. He tells an audience of graduating university students that fairness does not exist (remember, a fair is where they judge pigs?); but, all associated with ESPN, including the United States of America, have been incredibly fair to Johnson. This country!? No more than twenty seconds later, Smith admonishes Johnson for not acting accordingly as a black man in a courtroom in America. Without saying it directly, Smith alludes to the generally accepted and understood notion that black men are treated differently by the American legal and criminal justice system in comparison with other Americans: read white Americans. He acknowledges that Judge McHugh is a female judge, but will not go near the fact that she is a white female judge. That, while Smith is espousing to be controversial, would be a bit too controversial. Middle America does not want to hear that. Or, perhaps his role is to only be controversial to black communities. He ends by imploring the audience to consider Johnson’s idiocy – for not acting as a black man should act in court – while the black female, Cari Champion, and the white patriarch, Skip Bayless, look on approvingly. It takes Smith’s good friend and peer, Jason Whitlock, to explain what is really taking place with Smith and his role on First Take, especially with regards to black communities.

            Whitlock writes, in an article entitled, “Memo to ESPN, Stephen A.: Enough BS,”

First Take…It baits Negroes to act like n---as.

That’s the job. For years, ESPN pitted a parade of attention-starved, mostly black stooges against Skip Bayless to legitimize and sanitize Skip’s over-the-top attacks on Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, LeBron James and all the other low-hanging black fruit Skip could reach from his debate chair. The parade of stooges failed to properly protect Bayless. You could still see he was an insecure, disingenuous version of Glenn Beck.

Enter Stephen A. Smith, desperate to re-emerge as a high-six-figures TV celebrity, desperate for his next hit from the TV crack pipe. Smith campaigned for the role of Skip’s beard.

Recognizing that its black viewers couldn’t resist Skip’s bait, ESPN doubled down, making Smith an equal partner in the show and re-imagining First Take as the black barbershop of sports talk. The rap-music bumpers, the black, eye-candy female host, the guest appearances by rappers and Smith are all an attempt to make Skip’s negro-baiting palatable, marketable and justifiable.

The show has been dumbed down and ghetto-ized. An environment has been created that entices Smith and others to bojangle and stoop to Bayless’ level of discourse. Terrell Suggs was celebrated for coming on the show and calling Bayless a “douchebag.”

Stephen A. Smith is the villain in this scenario. Smith has enormous broadcasting talent. Dancing for Bayless is beneath Smith. He also has the intellect to see how ESPN and Bayless are using him. Smith could be the Adam Schefter/Chris Mortensen of the NBA, a high-paid, invaluable information-and-insight guru. But taking on Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski is hard work. Dancing for Bayless is easy. Being half of ESPN’s hip hop, N-word-dropping sports show makes you more popular with celebrities. It’s fun.

Smith has fallen for the okeydoke.

I’m no fool. This is a horrendous look for black journalists. Where are the standards? How will we have any credibility the next time a white broadcaster says anything remotely racist if we sit quiet while Smith gets away with this?

Smith owes us an apology. (Whitlock)

FoxSports' Jason Whitlock

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          Whitlock’s sentiments, coupled with Smith’s adherence to the handbook of acquiescence (or better yet, reflecting Smith’s adherence to the handbook of acquiescence), led me to believe that he owes America, and black communities in America specifically, an apology. He runs around condemning, criticizing and demonizing black men in America, while purportedly working in the furtherance of black manhood and masculinity, only to publicly espouse a position reflective of anything but a purposeful and healthy black conception of black manhood and black masculinity. But, as the article entitled, “The Rise, Fall and Rise of Stephen A. Smith,” suggests, after giving “ESPN the impression [that he] wasn’t fully engaged in this [being the black guy that ESPN wanted], that[he] was always looking for greener pastures,”  Smith was fired from ESPN (Bunn). Smith says of the firing, “I [understood] ESPN’s position when they had given me the platform to showcase what I do best and yet everything they threw my way did not seem to satisfy my appetite” (Bunn). Perhaps Smith once had an appetite to speak more honestly about black athletes and the plight of the black male athlete in America. But after being let go by ESPN and having to find a way to make a living with FoxSports (they hoped he’d become the black Glenn Beck of sports) and the Tom Joyner Morning Show (I believe that Tom is a Q-dawg, I could be wrong though – black frats!), Smith repackaged himself and reappeared as the beard which gives legitimacy to Skip’s not so thoroughly disguised niggardly representations of black male athletes and entertainers. I mean these guys have had Lil’ Wayne – that historian of all things Emmett Till and that lover of the dark hued black woman (he does not like dark-skinned black women, Champion is not an attractive woman in Wayne’s eyes; he prefers the ambiguously racial African American woman) – on the show on numerous occasions. Along with 2 Chainz, Joe Budden, Wale, Nelly, LL Cool J and so on and so forth. If this is what it takes to be successful as a black man of letters in America…I, for one, refuse to acquiesce!


                                                                Works Cited

Bell, Harold. “Winston Salem State Graduates Bamboozled: Stephen A. Smith Talking Out of Both Sides of His Mouth.”

                        http://bmia.wordpress.com/tag/stephen-a-smith/

Bunn, Curtis. The Rise, Fall and Rise Of Stephen A. Smith

                        http://atlantablackstar.com/2012/12/03/the-rise-fall-and-rise-of-stephen-a-smith/

“ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith: “Most black men” can’t relate to Donovan McNabb.”


                         http://www.mofopolitics.com/2013/06/04/espns-stephen-a-smith-most-black-men-cant-                         relate-to-donovan-mcnabb/

First Take. ESPN. 10 June 1013. 

                          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-3b4cBKkLY

Lee, Amber. “The 20 Dumbest Things Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith Have Said.”

                          http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1566187-the-20-dumbest-things-skip-bayless-and-
                          steven-a-smith-have-said/page/14

Smith, Michael David. “ESPN commentator on RG3: “He’s kind of black, but he’s not really””

                          http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/13/espn-commentator-on-rg3-hes-kind-of-
                          black-but-hes-not-really/

Whitlock, Jason. “Memo to ESPN, Stephen A.: Enough BS.”

                         http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/espn-stephen-a-smith-n-word-race-racism-skip-
                         bayless-first-take-102612