TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2023
Her presentation struck us as strange: Karen Attiah is a good, decent person. At present, she's a columnist for the Washington Post. She has served in other important capacities for the Washington Post in the past.
Last Friday, she wrote a piece about the terrible medical emergency which occurred during last Monday night's NFL game. At the start of her presentation, she conveyed the good news which had emerged about Damar Hamlin's remarkable recovery:
ATTIAH (1/6/23): I had all intention of starting 2023 on a softer, easeful note. Alas, for the first full week of the year, I’ve been consumed with thinking about violence, extreme sports and what it means to risk body and limb for the sake of competitive glory. (As an Aries rising, I can’t help it—testing limits is in my astrological DNA.)
Earlier this week, the world was reminded of the deadly perils of America’s favorite gladiator sport. During the Monday-night football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, Damar Hamlin, a safety for the Bills, collapsed after tackling another player. He’d gone into cardiac arrest. Medics rushed onto the field and performed CPR for an agonizing nine minutes, managing to revive his heartbeat before rushing him to the hospital. As of this writing, Hamlin was off his ventilator and speaking with teammates; doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center said he was showing signs of a “remarkable” recovery.
Just this once, we'll be honest. We find it surprising when major columnists explain their work by referring to the influence of their astrological sign.
That said, we found one aspect of Attiah's presentation to be even stranger than that. We refer to the ways Attiah went on to describe the attitudes—and the demographics—of the NFL's fan base:
ATTIAH: Considering that nearly 70 percent of the NFL’s players are Black, the Hamlin episode is a reminder that almost every weekend, Americans tune in to watch mostly Black men bash into one another for the profit of White team owners. This is also a league that once denied financial support to retired Black players suffering from play-related cognitive deficits—by claiming that Black players had lower mental capabilities to begin with. The NFL had to be sued to change its ways.
When I wrote on social media about this, I was told, by mostly White commenters, “not to bring race” into a discussion about the NFL—that what Hamlin needed was “thoughts and prayers” and “unity.”
I disagree. It doesn’t do Hamlin or any other NFL player any good to ignore the dark side of this sport...In fact, not talking about race and the racial dynamics in the NFL only placates the consciences of the large White conservative fan base, people who simply want to enjoy their Sunday nachos while watching players risk brain damage.
We find such flippant work to be deeply depressing. That said, it's very typical of the kind of air which routinely emerges from our blue tribe on matters related to race.
Question:
Has Attiah given an accurate account of the reason why "Americans" watch NFL games? Is it accurate to say that "Americans tune in to watch mostly Black men bash into one another for the profit of White team owners?" Is that why so many people tune in to watch those games?
A second question would be this:
We're sure it's true that the NFL has a "large White conservative fan base." That said, is it sensible to say that such people "simply want to enjoy their Sunday nachos while watching players risk brain damage?"
Also, is it only white conservatives who spend their Sundays that way? Or do the NFL's many black and liberal fans enjoy their Sunday nachos in that manner too?
(Also, can you see why our wonderfully flippant blue tribe is loathed by so many people?)
Attiah is a good, decent person. That said, our vastly self-impressed blue tribe is also vastly flawed—for example, in the otherizing we sometimes bring to our treatment of such topics.
Should the Washington Post have published that work? Does anyone at such blue tribe publications even wonder or care about such questions any more?
ReplyDelete"(Also, can you see why our wonderfully flippant blue tribe is loathed by so many people?)"
Yeah, but that's the least important part of it, dear Bob.
Even so, thanks for documenting this minuscule portion of the recent liberal atrocities, dear.
Somerby doesn't like it that black people want to participate off the field in a game where they dominate on the field. He apparently thinks they should take all the risks, healthwise, which are considerable, but not participate in any of the decision-making.
ReplyDeleteYou could call this one of Somerby's strange foibles, or you could call it racism. Given the amount of bigotry Somerby shows in other contexts, I think he is showing another aspect of racism.
And then he will complain about being called racist -- but if he doesn't like being called racist, he shouldn't behave in racist ways.
And notice that, although many sportswriters have said similar things, Somerby singles out a female journalist today, to call "strange" over a rhetorical statement and "otherizing" because she correctly described the white conservative audience?
And then Somerby assumes that Attiah must be a member of some blue tribe which he has invented, without examining her membership card, and blames her for not letting them enjoy their nachos in peace. That assumes that none of those spectators gave a fig what just happened on the field to Hamlin, right in front of their nacho-filled faces.
Somerby is the one who is politicizing Hamlin's near-death and he gets a two-fer again -- he can blame Attiah AND the blue tribe that supports the aspirations of black players and thinks they shouldn't be modern-day laborers on the field (rather than in it). Attiah isn't the only person to have raised that controversy and Somerby knows it but plays dumb.
Church Lady is delusional ya'll
DeleteNot much of a rebuttal, Mike.
DeleteCalling someone a "good decent person" before you slime them and reveal their lack of decency, is dishonest and not the least bit funny. It is a kind of verbal tic with Somerby but it makes me dislike him, even before he craps all over some journalist just doing their job.
ReplyDeleteIt's downright flippant.
DeleteBob thinks it’s funny and he doesn’t have many jokes. See opening Brazil joke, as dumb as anyone being interested in Astrology.
DeleteBob's jokes are lazy. Yet another attribute he has in common with the political Right in the U.S.
Delete“Should the Washington Post have published that work? Does anyone at such blue tribe publications even wonder or care about such questions any more?”
ReplyDeleteTranslation: the Post should refrain from publishing certain views because those views might upset some people.
Wouldn’t that be “cancelling” Attiah’s views?
By that reasoning the Post should go ahead and publish Klan members. There are different kinds of stupid. Work harder.
DeleteThat was the NY Times who published Tom Cotton's editorial. Not the Post.
DeleteThe Klan believes in white supremacy. Attiah is interested in the safety and well-being of NFL players, 70% of whom are black. Not exactly an apt comparison, 7:11.
DeleteAries are not good, decent people. The media should not publish their work.
ReplyDeletePeople who take Astrology seriously are dolts.
DeletePeople who take Newt Gingrich serious are media moguls.
DeleteRonald and Nancy Reagan took astrology seriously.
DeleteWell, Bob can’t fairly be dismissed here. The Post writer IS a moron and the Post is lazy at best that they can’t find better, more intelligent writers. This cliche will repel people on the Right who seemed to live to find things to be repelled by. It’s stupid for people who think they are enlightened to be interested in the Golden Globe Awards. It’s stupid at this desperate time for Bob to only be interested in reverse racism but to religiously ignore racism against black people. There is a lot of stupid out there!!
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, it’s kinda hard to say anything, even or especially the truth, that the right won’t find some way to be repelled by, since that’s what they live for and all.
DeleteMostly true, but if the post is going to run silliness from zodiac fans, they deserve to be ridiculed.
DeleteHere’s something that appeared in the Post way back in the dark days of Jim Crow, 2021, mentioned by Attiah in her piece, that Somerby didn’t mention;
ReplyDelete‘“Race-norming” kept former NFL players from dementia diagnoses. Their families want answers.
It’s been more than a year since Black former players seeking payments from the landmark NFL concussion settlement first drew attention to the use of race-norming, a controversial practice in neuropsychology in which Black patients’ cognitive test scores are curved differently than White patients’.
A Post review of confidential medical and legal records, provided by the families of three former players, underscores how race-norming put Black players seeking settlement payouts at a disadvantage, saving the NFL millions of dollars.’
This seems to support Attiah’s views, at least where NFL ownership is concerned.
“is it sensible to say that such people "simply want to enjoy their Sunday nachos while watching players risk brain damage?"
ReplyDeleteIt’s pretty clear that a majority of NFL fans do simply want to enjoy their nachos while watching and not trouble themselves with the fact that the players are risking brain damage. They also probably don’t like having discussions about things like ‘race norming’, (see my comment at 7:44am) that tend to show evidence of racism within NFL ownership.
Well, obviously it is the fans who make it all possible, so they can find something better to do than watch football.
Delete