Russell Wilson, a polite Christian, is the only black quarterback right now I’d feel comfortable building my franchise around. I would not worry that he’s going to go out and do stupid things and get arrested.
Barack Obama and George W. Bush both lost their first runs for political office because they were not strong enough in their district’s dominant in-group identity (black for Obama and white Christian for Bush). They never forgot this lesson.
There is also an element of race that needs to be discussed. My feeling on this—and it’s backed up by several interviews with Seahawks players—is that some of the black players think Wilson isn’t black enough.
This, again, was similar to the situation with McNabb. And this, again, will be denied by Seattle people. But there is an element of this.
This is an issue that extends outside of football, into African-American society—though it’s gotten better recently. Well-spoken blacks are seen by some other blacks as not completely black. Some of this is at play.
Runningback Marshawn Lynch reacted to the trade with a tweet, “Damn, they got my nigga.”
Charles Barkley weighed in on a report that the Seattle Seahawks’ locker room is divided because quarterback Russell Wilson isn’t “black enough,” saying that blacks are “brainwashed to think, if you’re not a thug or an idiot, you’re not black enough.”
The NBA analyst, as always, was never anything other than outspoken on a topic that has roiled the Super Bowl champions since the trade of Percy Harvin sparked rumors about divisions within the team.
“We as black people are never going to be successful, not because of you white people, but because of other black people. When you are black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people,” Barkley said in a CBS Philly radio interview on “Afternoons with Anthony Gargano and Rob Ellis.”
Barkley wasn’t finished.
“For some reason we are brainwashed to think, if you’re not a thug or an idiot, you’re not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don’t break the law, you’re not a good black person. It’s a dirty, dark secret in the black community.
“There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don’t have success. It’s best to knock a successful black person down because they’re intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school, and they’re successful. It’s just typical BS that goes on when you’re black, man.”
Barkley and all the other mainstream commentators on this don’t get it. Every group has to look at the world in a way that it finishes first. Let’s imagine blacks looked at the world the same way whites did. Then blacks would go around feeling bad because they didn’t have the cognitive skills, on average, to compete with whites and to out-earn whites and to out-perform whites in business and academia and organization.
So blacks, like all other groups, look at the world in the way where they finish first by valuing things that blacks are great at such as sports, rap, jazz, other parts of pop culture, thuggery, trash talk, womanizing, baby making, and other improvisational skills.
Here’s an article on the Dallas Cowboys offensive line: “Callahan said the characteristic that connects Dallas’ offensive linemen is their intelligence…” Three of the Cowboys starting five offensive line players are white. Blacks dominate the speed positions in the NFL while whites hold their own at the positions that require strength and IQ.
