McNabb didn't want to end it, telling the Philadelphia Daily News that he hoped to lead the charge among his fellow African-American quarterbacks to change the perception.His call to arms was rejected. In Baltimore, Steve McNair started his weekly news conference Thursday with these words: "No Donovan McNabb questions, please."In Nashville, it was worse. Vince Young basically told McNabb to quit crying.
(First of all, Vince Young?
That guy wins one big college football game and now he's the voice of civil rights and other thorny social dilemmas?
Are we all just living in a bad movie?
WTF!)
Anyway... without going into a dissertation about whether McNabb was right or wrong for airing his opinions, the object lesson here, to me at least, is when you play the race card, make sure you can back it up with facts, examples, and concrete "for instances."
Otherwise it will ring hollow, even in these hollow, superficial times that we all inhabit.
I'm convinced that what McNabb said is what he truly feels.
I'm also convinced that white supremacism is alive and well in the States, and that people who look like McNabb, and like me, are usually the target of that perverse human cancer.
I've experienced it.
I live it.
But when you go on national media, you have to find a way to express your opinions within a crystal-clear context, because there are a lot of fools out there who will misinterpret you.
I think he failed there.
The reaction to his comments -- especially on talk radio, a mecca for morons [I know what you're thinking: like the blogosphere doesn't attract knuckleheads by the boatload itself ...and yet here you are, reading this... but I digress] -- on both sides (i.e. "is he right" or "is he wrong") were mostly predictable, banal, and illustrative of the fact that this country still isn't ready to have an honest discussion about race, especially when it comes to the Black problem.
What I respect about McNabb in this instance is that he had the guts to state his heartfelt opinion, unvarnished and without nuance.
It's a shame that there aren't more high profile, wealthy and influential people like him,. with guts like that, in other words, it's a shame there aren't more leaders.