Mark Cuban, Josh Howard, and Racism

No contest, there.

As for Cuban’s decision to post the racist comments—complete with email addresses—I guess that was well-intentioned. But maybe he’d have done better to just post the email addresses with a note stating, “All of these emailers used the N-word in viciously criticising Josh Howard’s constitutionally-protected use of free speech. In so doing, they made clear why some Black Americans—such as Josh—are less than all-out in their rah-rah patriotism.”

But that is nothing compared to the earbeating the hate mail trash need,I will decline to rant other than to wish them a swift exit from the gene pool.

Hate is a terrible response to hate.

Maybe they should have sent emails inquiring why Howard feels the way he does. Seeking understanding is the only way to overcome hate.

how the comments basically confirmed Howard’s point. Personally I chalked up Howard’s comment to a guy just saying something he probably didn’t think about as far as public ramifications. People do that from time to time. Mostly I couldn’t care less about such statements unless the guy is important somehow and/or his words have a tangible result (other than getting people angry). To me Howard doesn’t rise to that level of importance. I found the responses far more vile.

Just a reminder…even one comment employing that kind of racist jargon gets you banned from Blazersedge. And please don’t turn it into an academic issue by saying, “What if I used those words in THIS context?” To many people in this world the issue is far from academic. A sports blog is no place to parse that particular distinction.

—Dave

Problem: I have an idiot on my team. Pressure from fans and media is mounting.

Solution: Collect and display emails from other idiots. Original idiot now garners sympathy from fans and media.

There is no question that the USA has a racist history. Very racist and ugly. The average black person in this country is fully aware of this history.

If we concede (which I’m not sure we necessarily should) that the national anthem is inextricably tied to the awful racist side of our history, then comments and attitudes like those expressed by Mr. Howard are fully understandable.

And I don’t begrudge those attitudes and comments at all, coming from someone such as Howard — who undoubtedly experienced racist hostility throughout his childhood (and continues to experience it in more subtle forms throughout adulthood).

to wonder whether “bombs bursting in air” is the sentiment you want to be holding your hand to your heart over.

But if life is so hard for Josh why dont he take his huge $’s and move someplace where he could be more comfortable and make better money

I think comes down, mostly, to tradition. Is it really all that patriotic to just listen to the national anthem at the beginning of sports games and do nothing else? Frankly, it wouldn’t bother me in the least if they stopped playing the national anthem before games. Cuban was right, publish the e-mails.

http://locrants.blogspot.com/2008/09/i-love-athletes-and-anti-americanism.html

I also really agree with this bit from Cuban’s take down post:

 “I wanted to point out the irony of them experiencing the onslaught of attention from suddenly and unexpectedly being placed in the media spotlight from a throwaway comment.”

It happens with religion too, because of too many religious wars and crimes. Many good things have two faces and I don´t think both faces smile at everybody. So why everybody must react the same way?

Stephen A. Smith: We know Howard can play, but there’s little value in what he has to say.

It’s not filled with ignorance and dumb hatred like many of these YouTube comments and emails to Cuban, but still with vitriol.
 
He is constantly complaining about young black athletes not standing up and speaking out about inequalities, heavily criticizing e.g. Jordan, LeBron, and Carmelo for keeping mum in order to not threaten their advertising deals. Now here is Howard, an educated black millionaire athlete who apparently does openly speak his mind on topics that bother him and obviously can’t keep mum about it. Probably in a dumb way that doesn’t help his public image and isn’t thought-out enough to get the message across. But instead of waiting a few days and inquiring about why Howard has these deep feelings, Smith instantly felt the urge to write another column trashing him for saying something but not what he wanted to hear. Which way is it, Mr. Smith? Do we want popular athletes to speak up and risk that they say dumb things every once in a while, or do we want them to keep their mouths shut and let elected officials and other representatives of their causes and communities do the talking who might be more qualified?

As for the national anthem, do you think Howard’s teammate Dirk or any other international NBA player for that matter sings it? With passion? He stands out of respect and he should, but e.g. in Europe national anthems are only played before international games, not every unimportant little-league game. Or a charity event were people tried to raise money for worthy causes in their spare time, and unfortunately one of them made a dumb joke waiting around for the game to start.

do human beings blindly praise intangible things such as national anthems, flags, et cetera?

It’s superpatriotic rubbish in which a person sells out their individualism to a statist institution.

Oh well, people have the inalienable right to mindlessly worship whatever nonsense pleases them.

What’s remarkable isn’t that some American Blacks don’t get all rah rah in their patriotism. What’s notable is how many of them are patriotic despite what’s been done to their race over the centuries in this country. I don’t begrudge any Black person who says, “Take your national anthem and shove it.” But I’m moved when I think of all the Black soldiers who have given their lives for this racist country despite the way they’ve been treated here.

It’s easy for the race that’s been the beneficiary of American freedom from Day 1 to love this country. Listen to Ray Charles or Billy Preston sing, “America the Beautiful”: THAT’S patriotism!

1) Josh Howard is an idiot.
2) Mark Cuban is smart but I think he did wrong in putting all the e-mails together. Some of the e-mails were not racist and should not be lumped together with the other racist crap.
3) If I were a american and a Dallas fan. I’d be more bothered about this Howard statement than the one he said about smoking marijuana ( I didn’t agree with that one either). But maybe thats’s because I don’t have kids yet, I don’t have to worry if my kid will look up to some basketball player as a role model ( I hope they won’t).

Don’t we already know that a lot of pro athletes are bad people and pro sports may or may not be good for society.

Why do we have to argue about what some dude said. Does he matter that much, if at all?

I plan on exercising my freedom of speech when Dallas shows up

And Mavs Moneyball gets like – 3?

Does that prove that Josh Howards comments have been overblown by the media?

Since no one wants to discuss the topic at hand. I will.
I agree with Cuban’s stance to publish the emails and their addresses. Its funny how people hide behind the internet as a way to truly push their agendas yet would almost never be caught in public espousing such views. Such is the greatness (ability to remain anonymous) and sadness (youtube comments) that is the internet. In my opinion if you have the balls to write an email to a public figure and say the things that were said on that blog, then you should stand up and defend your stance to the public.
I dont necessarily condone what Josh Howard did, (to be honest, I don’t care) but I think his sentiment is one that is shared by quite a few people. It just happens to be that he is famous and rich. Howard seems to be in the camp that feels that the USA is an unjust place for black people (which has quite a bit of facts to back up that assertion) and he feels the need to show his displeasure with the state of affairs. I see no issue with that. Not standing for the anthem is a peaceful protest (although Josh’s seemed somewhat tinged with ignorance as opposed to revolutionary peace) and is fully protected under the Constitution. His lack of defiance (and his “and um Obama 08 or whatever” comment) lead me to believe more than anything he was just slacking off during the ceremony and joking around. If you watch the video you will notice MANY people not paying attention, both in the stands and on the field. To characterize Josh Howard as a moron may well fit, but unpatriotic is nonsense. Its his right.
The emails that Cuban received basically helped justify how Howard felt (which I assume is what Cuban wanted) yet I HOPE were just a small sampling and many were less hate and vitriol filled.
I find it sad that the “If you don’t like it leave” people continually cry and moan that people dont respect our country. They don’t realize that the people who don’t like it are the best allies they have. If you blindly follow patriotism you miss out on seeing other viewpoints. Not that Howards will be one to spark anything but those anti-stance people help shape America and make it great.
Group Think = Patriotism (sadly) and without check, will cause nothing but death and destruction.

There’s a lot of hot air in here… but

doesn’t the fact that only 1 person has REC’d the post prove that Howard’s comments are irrelevant?

If they actually meant anything, they people would REC this post.

But they don’t. Who cares?

Nothing but hot air in here.

People can’t even stay on topic because the topic proves itself irrelevant.

…here’s something I don’t believe has even been touched on in the over 300 comments in this thread. That is: do we actually know that Dwight Howard isn’t patriotic? I’m referring to REAL patriotism, not the symbolic, flag-waving kind. What people say is just lip service. What counts is what they actually do when they’re under the gun. In this case, I mean that literally. I didn’t serve in the military, but in evaluating someone’s character, I often ask myself, “If this guy and I were in combat together, could I count on him? Would he put his life on the line to help me if I got shot?”

I don’t know what Howard would do in that situation. But based on the little I’ve seen, I wouldn’t be too quick to assume he’d fail that ultimate test of character and patriotism. From what I’ve observed, Howard is a good teammate. He plays hard and plays unselfishly. He doesn’t appear to be the typical stat-and-endorsement-obsessed NBA athlete. Yes, he smokes weed, and he doesn’t get choked up when he hears the national anthem for the zillionth time. But we only know those things because the guy is honest to a fault.

From what I’ve heard, those are exactly the types of guys who often end up being heroes when the situation calls for it. By contrast, many of the people who are loudly and even obscenely condemning this guy—who they don’t even know personally—would be cowering in their foxholes. Afterwards, of course, they’d line up for undeserved medals.

As the expression goes, “Be careful of the stones you throw.” Patriotism isn’t about wrapping yourself in the flag or singing the national anthem at basketball games.

Here comes the hate mail.

But seriously: often even the person himself doesn’t know what’s deep in his or her own heart. For instance, a guy who thinks he’d run at the first sound of gunfire can end up being the hero. Conversely, the supposed biggest patriot around can end up running for cover when the chips are down. So how foolish and arrogant to presume to know what someone is really about based on some off the wall comments they make to someone’s cell phone.

You make my point. And the fact that one is a good enough basketball player to become “a public person” doesn’t mean they signed on for this kind of scrutiny. Howard was certainly foolish to say what he said, but no more so than all the self-righteous people who crucified him for it. And Howard’s “crime” doesn’t compare to that of the bigots who used the N-word to condemn him. BTW, that was the question posed in the original post: “who was the bigger villain.”

All the bigots did was make clear why some Blacks feel as Howard apparently does. Emphasis on the word “apparently,” because for all we know when push comes to shove Howard is as patriotic as the next person.