The Line in the Sand

Do Not Step Over It...Wipe it Out Completely

Note: I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass...

The first Jemele Hill article I ever paid attention to was her "Putting Kobe in Perspective" article. Forgetting the fact she is blatantly wrong, I realized writing, or at least, coming up with ideas to write about nowadays is not so much about the ability to write as is, the topic you which to write about.

In the sports world, every John and Sally out there can write about what they think Tiger Woods should do, or who is really to blame for the Steroids Era, but the thing that will get people to read is not the prose of the author, but the topic.

I will be unabashedly straightforward; I am fairly certain I have never seen a Jemele Hill article and gone, "ooo goody, another Jemele Hill article." Simply put, I just do not agree with a single word that she says, well, until now...

On ESPN.Com you can find an article about "stepping -- a rhythmic form of dancing, clapping, and stomping that is widely practiced by historically black fraternities and sororities," in which Jemele Hill calls out the Coca-Cola Co. for waving a magic wand and forcing an all-white fraternity (Zeta Tau Alpha) to share the national title for best steppers with an all black sorority (Alpha Kappa Alpha) after discovering a "scoring discrepancy."

Back Ground

For those who know me, I am not what you would call a silent, or even shy person, when it comes to expressing my opinion. I have held Jemele Hill in such low regard because I think her stance on Kobe Bryant being better than Michael Jordan was simply a cowardly attempt to get people to read her article because no sane person could ever come to that conclusion (and if she does think this it does not help out her case).

One of my biggest rants in life comes out of discussions about race. I grew up in a predominantly (and that is even an understatement) white farm town on the border of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Knowing such you would think that there is rampant racism and bigotry, but for the most part, this lack of "mixing" has been a pretty vital ground for my stance on racism and bigotry.

Not only is it a predominantly white town, but to say that there is a religious melting pot would be lying through your teeth; there are Roman Catholics, Protestants and... and.... well, not much else.

I am an Irish Jew (kinda makes people go , "abuh?") and growing up Jewish in a town of practically all Christians was fun. Instead of nobody saying a damn thing about my "otherness," it was fair game for making fun of and teasing. If you are reading this (and considering the amount of views, I'd say you are not) and saying "oh that's terrible, what horrible, horrible children," get off your damn soap box.

The easiest way to integrate people is by making fun of them; you make fun of people that you are comfortable with, and the easiest way to include somebody is by showing that they are fair game. If you are saying to someone that they are fair game to be made of, you are inviting that person to turn the tables on you (yes, I am aware that there is a fine line, but in this day in age, that fine line is easy to spot).

Yesterday I was told using "Negro" in a Law Brief, even though I had it in quotation marks and it was used in the original case filings, was in bad taste and I should use "African American." Bullshit. My friends from back home with dark skin prefer to be called "black." I say I'm an Irish Jew because it is easy for people to pinpoint, but I think its stupid.

I think the term is stupid and the term African-American is stupid because it does not go the whole way; if you really want to start delineating people by their race, then I say we go the whole way, you are not an African American, but a "Ghanese-American," or a "Samburu-American." The worst is when I hear someone call musician Seal an African American...just wrong...not even close.

The Article

Jemele Hill's thesis in her article is stepping should bring cultures together and that cultural inclusion is a two way street; by forcing the honor of c0-national champions on the all-black sorority and taking the sole honor away from the all-white fraternity they are saying it is good if cultural inclusion works one way, but not the other.

Her thesis (and it pains me to say this) is absolutely correct. She pinpoints the issue when discussing the comments after the Youtube video was posted that the reason the Zeta's won was because they are a novelty rather than for their abilities and Hill writes "Hmm, now where have I heard that one before."

I will let this be known before I go any further, I hate stepping. I hate stepping probably because I have never seen it done well and the most memorable performance I can remember came at a Trinity College Fall Festival show my Freshmen (not Firstyear Trinity, but FRESHMEN) when the "Rhonda Steppers" did a bit at the beginning of an OkGo concert... it sucked.

What made it worse was that at the end of the OkGo concert the bad performed their routine from "A Million Ways," which I, and everyone else there, believed blew the Rhonda Steppers out of the water.

Talking about race and the need to be politically correct is downright unintelligible. As a religious person I truly believe we are all of one species (is that religious or scientific?) and studies show that this is the case. Simply because we originally came from different parts of the world means absolutely nothing anymore.

Do we look different? Yes, but everyone looks different, meaning that no is different if what makes us different is all the same ("YOU ARE NOT BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE SNOWFLAKES"). Racism, and having to abide by a certain set of codes is useless, and all it does is waste time and slow down the process of true integration.

Once we can get past stupid things like this "stepping controversy," we will as a species truly start getting it into our thickheads that the only differences we see are the ones we invent...

-A Money Grubbin' Constantly Drinking Potato Loving Kike