I’ve been trying to restrict my writing on the blog until I could clarify the research topics and religious discussions I want to address on my blog. I cannot resist, however, the need to say at least a few sentences about Donovan McNabb’s comments recently remarking that “African-American quarterbacks are under greater scrutiny” than other quarterbacks…
This man is a quarterback of a professional football club that is 0-2. Not only that, but he has lost the lion’s share of his starts in the last 3 seasons. Furthermore, he has been injured often over the last 3 seasons, yet continues to be one of the highest paid players in the league, much less his own franchise.
Now, with this in mind, it is very difficult for me to accept his comments at face value. I mean, I heard yesterday at a talk by Professor Randy Pausch that it was in Jackie Robinson’s contract not to complain even when fans spit on him and racially abused him. Now, I don’t live in Philly, so I can’t say that there are or aren’t people who are outright racially abusing him and spitting on him. But what happened to playing and training and preparation? What happened to giving priority to your performance as opposed to your off-field comments?
I don’t mean to rip on Mr. McNabb. I think that complaining about race has become all too prevalent an excuse for poor performance and lack of discipline these days. My biggest disappointment with the way we use race as our scapegoat these days is the application of this ideology in the most marginal of situations.
Finally, I think the consequences of our reckless brandishing of the race card are staggering. First, it renders un-credible any sober discussion of the very real problems established by the history of American race relations. How can we talk about racial discrimination on the job if we have no regard for our performance? How can we discuss racial re-segregation and performance gaps in our schools if performance gaps persist throughout socio-economic classes within races? This type of list can go on and on. This goes to my second and more important point: irresponsible race discussion fragments any efforts to create a solution to any of the very real racial issues–among or between the races. It renders any attempt to bridge ideological gaps between black themselves almost impossible.
So, in my view, McNabb is completely unjustified in making these types of remarks in this context. I mean, he’s a professional football player for goodness’ sake. Last I checked, he had no hoses turned against him, no bullets shot at him through his team bus, no outright racial insults hurled at him in the media or at any venue where he’s performed, and he’s most certainly not been required to shower in separate facilities from his white teammates. So let’s get over the race card until we have a winning record, OK??