Wife: He seems like a nice guy.
Me: Yea, you can tell he's a good kid.
We were talking about Pacers center Roy Hibbert. He was letting the world know that he is an intense and passionate human being during an on court interview immediately following game 6 while simultaneously keeping what can be described as a "kid next door" demeanor. This was definitely the gangly kid who throughout most of his junior high school and high school days was never mistaken for a wrong side of the tracks tough guy. That guy was probably his Pacers teammate David West. No, Roy probably excelled in certain sports and treated others cordially. He can even take the Defender of the Innocent and Trampled role in this high school portrait I had formulated without even knowing the guy.
Fast forward to Hibbert's 26th year on this planet and his post game remarks this past Saturday. Still, few people will tell you they despise Hibbert for what he said. Most of us are writing this off as what it is: a slip of the tongue by a young man that just won game 6 in the Eastern Conference Finals against the defending champion Miami Heat. It's safe to say that at that exact moment Hibbert was riding an emotional high none of us have ever experienced, a high above mountains we, as viewers and fans, have created. This is the reality of modern day Mount Olympus and the reconstruction of Gods and Goddesses as celebrities who are sometimes athletes. Unfortunately, we try our hand at creating myth and legend leaving out the part where supreme beings are flawed.
These flaws are essential to Greek myth. They give you insight as to how Gods operate, the reasons behind their actions, and the dangers of having so much power.What Hibbert said isn't worth $75k, it's worth an apology and not much else. Monetary fines serving as a deterrent from making anti-gay remarks will not help those opposed to homosexuality "see the light." A trip to your nearest bodega after school hours can assure you of this. The average male is not worried about being fined for saying "no homo" because David Stern does not translate into the real world in the form of the NYPD, or God, or the Buddha.
What we fail to see here is the suppression of Roy Hibbert's true personality in exchange for upholding the falsified image of the NBA. Here is a 26 year old millionaire athlete in the public eye who happens to listen to music you probably listen to. Expressions found in the dialects of non-white collar, non-standard American English speaking people travel from marginalized neighborhoods to recording studios to your ears. You may be familiar with the particular expression Hibbert used, you may not. That doesn't really matter. Understanding that this expression does not in any way mean that the person using it hates homosexuals does matter. "No homo" can be defined as an expression that deters listeners from misconstruing something the speaker stated as having homosexual implications. It's a shield in a world where verbal exchanges are like sparring sessions and where a certain definition of manhood is in place. This is a sad reality existing parallel to American popular culture. Male athletes are simply men defending and demonstrating their masculinity, they're doing this along with millions of other men on a daily basis. What are male sports in reality anyway, other than exhibitions of "masculine qualities" like strength, speed, stamina, etc.?
One of the worst parts about this is that Hibbert is not a "better person" after paying a fine if he still doesn't truly understand what is wrong with what he said. All is well behind the mirage of the white picket fence and the car in the driveway. At least it seems that way. It also seems that punishment is still preferred over education on sensitive subjects many people do not know are sensitive subjects in the first place.
Roy Hibbert, along with a large portion of Americans, should be sat down in an undisclosed location where they are taught about things like tolerance and equality. The fact that Fat Camps exist and Tolerance Camps don't demonstrates how backwards this entire system of intolerance-punishment actually is. Yes, discrimination and intolerance are negative. Understanding why this is so is much more important than understanding it simply is. If we fail to educate it is our fault because we allow the societal discharge of intolerance to become recyclable. Today it's Hibbert's comments, yesterday it was Sergio Garcia, and tomorrow it will be some other Olympian who doesn't really know what the problem is and will simply learn to avoid using certain words.
- Alex Moran
No comments:
Post a Comment