Liberal media outlets side with minority victims (perhaps to a fault), while Conservative outlets without fail (with. out. fail.) are already going to side with the white guy (double bonus if he's got a gun!). These are the rules. People on one side are gonna be slandered as having white guilt, those on the other are called racists. And when everyone's a racist, nobody's a racist and everyone's a winner and the ratings (or page views, take your pick) pile right on up. None of these diametrically opposed viewpoints actually addresses why people are inclined to still be racist in 2016, or discuss how the harmful vestiges of slavery, Jim Crow and Lowry's Seasoning Salt (#StayWoke) actually contribute to the helpless situations people in certain communities have to deal with daily manifest themselves, but whatever. Post that racial hot take and watch the numbers pile up.
I couldn't help but think about how much this "run a race story, any race story" phenomenon has become so commonplace in American media when I saw this story in today's Post.
Etan Thomas, a former NBA player who is also a poet, author and activist, was involved in what he said was an ugly racial incident while he was looking for a seat on a crowded train recently.I had the pleasure of meeting Thomas a couple of times when he played for the Wizards. He's a thoughtful, incredibly well spoken guy whose intellect separates him from the stereotypical dumb jock NBA player.[1] On the other hand, as someone who's had the pleasure of meeting Thomas a couple of times I can tell you that the man is absolutely gigantic. I mean, seriously, he literally looks like a giant. The dude's feet are the size of cinder blocks. He looks like a cartoon sized version of a real person.
A white woman on the train took issue with having Thomas, a 6-foot-10 center who spent most of his career with the Washington Wizards and played college ball at Syracuse, sit next to her, though Thomas said she had no problem with a white man who made the same request moments later. Thomas told the story on Facebook:
“I ask this lady if I could sit next to her (very politely and I soften my voice as to not frighten her) and she says someone is sitting here,” he wrote. “So I go to the next seat. Now, less than 2 mins later a man (who happens to be white) asks if he can sit there and she says why sure let me move my stuff.”
Thomas, 38, decided to confront the woman.
“I ask ummmmm did you just not want ME to sit next to you? Were you scared? Not comfortable with a Black Man sitting next to you? And she says lol smh don’t pull the race card stuff with me I dated a Black guy in college.”
At that point, the man sitting next to the woman offered to get up, but Thomas had other ideas. He was taking a photo of her alongside the extremely uncomfortable-looking white man.
“I said no need I’mma just take this pic and make a Facebook post about it. So then she says did you just take a pic of me? Well I’m going to tell the conductor that you’re over here illegally taking pics of ppl without their consent.
If he was asking to sit in the open seat on my Acela to Penn Station I'd comply because I'd love to hear him tell some off the record stories about the Wizards, and also because he's big enough to kick my ass if I said no. But mostly the former. That said, would he be one uncomfortable assed trip with a 6-10 265 pound man sitting next to me? Prolly? Is it entirely possible that the unnamed white woman in this story is a Heat fan and/or just didn't want to endure the discomfort of sitting next to a man-giant for the next 4 hours? Possibly. We'll never know because she hasn't spoken about this incident (yet).[2]
I don't discount that the woman might have been racist and simply not wanted to sit next to a black man because [insert random inexcusable excuse here]. I've has plenty such incidents of microaggressions where I've been denied a seat at a bar (!), or a preferred table at lunch, or a seat on a train by someone who didn't look like me, only to see someone else who also didn't look like me get that privilege moments later. Hell, I had a woman clutch her purse when she sat next to me on a plane and that was just a few months ago. This is the daily racism that some people just don't get. When this sorta shit happens over the course of 30-40 some years on a semi-regular basis it makes you paranoid, bitter, and yeah, it almost conditions you to expect sh*t to pop off and might even cloud your consciousness to the point that you see things that aren't even there. Having people explicitly tell you that there's no way in the world you coulda possibly seen what you might have possibly seen just makes it even worse.
That's what racism looks like in 2016. And yeah, you're right to call people on their sh*t as Thomas did. You could argue whether or not putting this woman's face online was the right move (I wouldn't have done it personally) but you still need to call people out. Challenge them.
That's the only way things get better.
Question: Was Etan Thomas imagining racism here, or does this sorta thing happen everyday?
[1] I'll just conveniently ignore the fact that Thomas, a very educated man who's written books and poetry is writing on a 4th grade level here. What's that all about, homie?
[2] The ole' "I banged a black guy in college, I can't possibly be racist!" line is the new "Some of my best friends are black". Very classy, ma'am.
