I was sitting down reading a book today and this Black dude came out of the hospital and said to me, “the verdict is at 2:15.”
I just nodded.
Then he said, “I hope she doesn’t get any time.”
I nodded some more.
Then he said, “I mean, even if she did kill her, I still hope she doesn’t go to jail. She’s probably suffered enough.”
By now, I’d at least figured out what he was talking about, but I still knew better than to comment so I nodded again.
“Doesn’t the whole thing remind you of OJ?” he asked.
I nodded.
Now, the imagined response that Black man would give as a follow-up to the Casey Anthony trial, a trial in which the 25 year-old Ms. Anthony was found innocent of murdering her two year-old daughter Caylee and then not only lying about it, but muddling up the evidence is, “of course. It’s a little white girl. No wonder the whole country is concerned.”
Then we’re supposed to roll a blunt and turn to BET (if it isn’t already on).
When white people invented “Blackness” as a way of suggesting “otherness” for descendants of sub-Saharan Africans, the role was supposed to be played with minimal intelligence, a narrow worldview, chronic myopia and even less compassion.
I, however, view my own Blackness a lot like I view my status as a Knick fan. Not saying that being Black is as bad as being a Knicks fan—being a Knicks fan is far worse—it’s just the Knicks not playing has never precluded me from watching the game of basketball.
See, I’m a fan of the game even before I’m a Knicks fan.
And it’s as such that two of my saddest days as a fan were the day that Len Bias died from using coke in 1986 and the day that Reggie Lewis suffered sudden cardiac death in 1993.
I was heartbroken in each case despite the fact that both of those dudes had ties to the hated Boston Celtics; Bias was the 2nd overall pick in the NBA draft that had taken place two days earlier and Lewis was an all-star swingman.
A tragic loss of a life should be more important than basketball.
And it should even be more important than race.
What are your thoughts on it all? Log in below using your Twitter or Facebook to comment.
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