Quit Crying Double-Standard Over Phelps
There is no bigger fan of racial double-standards than yours truly. But those of you looking for one inside Michael Phelps' bong are misguided, stuck in the 1960s and worship at the Church of Al Sharp-tongue.
Don't send me any more e-mails complaining that if Phelps were black, he'd be dropped by his sponsors, locked in a cell next to O.J. Simpson and banned from all international competition.
If Phelps had dark skin and answered to "Jerome Washington," he'd be headed to Disney World, toting the Super Bowl MVP trophy he stole from James Harrison and Big Ben Roethlisberger.
Yeah, America gives its marketable, talented and wealthy weed-smokers the Santonio Holmes treatment. We forgive and quickly forget.
Oh, I know there's a pattern of misbehavior with Michael Phelps. The cops busted him driving under the influence four years ago.
Well, the cops pinched Holmes twice in 2006, busting him for disorderly conduct and domestic violence -- the charges were eventually dropped after smooth lawyering -- and nabbed him ridin' dirty (three blunts) last October.
Mickey Mouse doesn't care, and neither do you.
America's war on drugs is a scam to lock up poor people, a prop to advance political careers and an easy way for corrupt police and politicians to funnel millions of untraceable dollars into their own pockets.
And you really want to play the if-so-and-so-was-black game over a dorky white swimmer pulling on a bong? Are you really that simple-minded?
The black president smoked weed. Rush Limbaugh was a junkie. Brett Favre had a fling with prescriptions. In college, I was Saddam Hussein and Crown and Chronic were my weapons of mass destruction.
I'm not going to be a hypocrite and blast this kid for blowing trees. And I'm not going to rip his sponsors for remaining loyal.
Michael Phelps knows how to play the game. He's quick with the contrite, toke(n) apology and he maintains a boy-next-door image.
Someone e-mailed me saying the media would be tougher on an NBA player captured on Kodak with his lips locked on a three-foot bong.
Depends on the player. Shane Battier? We'd forget before tipoff, and we'd forgive without an apology. Now, if it's one of Human Tattoo Billboards or Lil Wayne Wannabes, we'd demand a Senate investigation and expect David Stern to punish him to the full extent of the law.
Image is everything whether you're black or white.
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"The black president smoked weed. Rush Limbaugh was a junkie. Brett Favre had a fling with prescriptions. In college, I was Saddam Hussein and Crown and Chronic were my weapons of mass destruction" HAHA .Once again Jason Whitlock drops some knowledge.
In real life where I prefer to live I know that every study and examination of arrest and trial statistics when every variable is taken into consideration and the offenses are exactly the same, African Americans are arrested, tried and found guilty in disproportionately higher percentages.
The fact remains that In the shadows and in public courtrooms minorities are treated differently and too often far more harshly than the majority. This is still a fact in America. To ignore this reality simply to make a point, appease and to continue to brand yourself as "the Black Iconoclast(without a cause)"is frankly ashame.
Sports is the toy department of life. It is clear that Mr Whitlock(A sports journalist) and his cadre of 'YES' men and women intentionally fail to view the real world from the vantage point of their play pens.
Ralph Wiley would be ashamed of you Mr Whitlock.
This may all be true and great, but don't deny a black person or female with a bad image will fair A LOT worse than a white male. You're cherrypicking this analysis. There's a social hierarchy that determines people's level of outrage. I think anyone smoking the sticky icky isn't a big deal. People may be overreacting to the Phelps story, but that's what happens when minorities get railroaded for decades. And Jason don't act like you don't know.
Not athletes. I know it sounds crazy but Kobe Bryant was charged with rape man, and he is still raking in the bucks. There are a ton of football players and basketball players who got caught with weed, and with guns. A ton, probably over a hundred. And no one cares. No one keeps them from being sponsors or anything else. No one puts them on kids cereal but no one was doing that anyway. Swimming isn't hoops and it isn't football. Heck, it isn't even baseball or hockey. Athletes, especially young ones seem to be smoking more weed than at any other time in history. No one cares. But a swimmer, nah man, can't be caught with the bong. You saw that girl from Twilight lighting up, she almost got dropped from the sequels man. I bet you don't catch her smoking up again. Camera phones have destroyed privacy. Gotta be on the look for people filming you at all times.
J
This is very well said. Kobe Bryant was very possibly /guilty/ and he got off and we must not presume innocence. His greatest weapon was that he was a personable young man with a clean cut image. I do have to agree with the author that Dennis Rodman, Latrell Sprewell, or Allan Iverson might have fared differently than Kobe. They might have gotten the Mike Tyson treatment.
Kellogg's dropped him. we need to LEGALIZE ALREADY!!!!!
nah, we need to have a conversation with our kids about not toking.
J
Legalizing and talking with our kids about not toking are not mutually exclusive. We tell our kids not to drink or smoke, but alcohol and cigarettes are legal.
Personally, I believe informed adults should make their own choices and that legalization would combat the same social problems that the ending of Prohibition helped to alleviate, in the short term, until the Drug War brought them back full power.
Great read and thank you for the unbiased perspective! I just made you a favorite.
Nice even handed logical look, at this situation. Kudos.
Who cares? There is no drug war that will ever work or be successful. If we had any sense at all we would go after the Big Pharmas for all of the harm they do to children and others who take their poison for almost everything. Look how they are harming our kids in school with their meds. Look at our prisons who are housing minorities who smoke or sell weed. We certainly are facing more serious problems and concerns than writing about a world class swimmer who gets high. Who cares? I don't.
BigPharma poisons are the true gateway drugs. I don't know if Phelps was ever on RItalin. Mine was for two years before I yanked him off it. He was never the same. He has been in two rahabs in the last year for alcohol addiction. At the moment he is sober and working a menial job. I've had my own devastating 7-year stint on an SSRI, Paxil, which destroyed my life. I'm on a support website called PaxilProgress.org. We have a lot of young people on this site who have been on SSRIs and other drugs prescribed by docs and forced by parents -- 10 or more years for most of them. As young adults most of them are going through the agonizing taper and withdrawal. I had a life before Paxil and an identity and so I'm just praying to get that back. These young people, though, have no idea who they are, what the real them is. Their whole life and brain has been twisted and mangled by psychotropic drugs. And as Britney Spears said recently as she is recovering from her stint on these drugs: "What was I thinking?" in reference to her very-well publicized antics over those years. Many of us who have been touched by these drugs say the same thing. The young people are saying "Who am I?" What is it like to live, to feel, to love again, after their growing minds have been numbed for years?
I believe Phelps was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and his mother put him in swimming as an exercise to help cure it. I believe he also used Ritalin
truth
Place: Breakfast table
Present: Father, mother, 11 year old, 12, year old, 15 year old.
Discussion: Illegal Drug use
11 year old: Dad I saw Michael Phelps smoking what looked to be an illegal substance in a crack pipe. He is on our cereal box.
Father: Since Michael can swim fast son, it's ok for him to smoke that type pipe.
12 year old: Dad, I play soccer . Is it ok for me to smoke the herb in a pipe?
Father: What do you know about the herb? And no you aren't good enough at soccer yet. And no, not in a pipe.
15 year old: Dad I made the All Star team this year and you said I was good. Is it ok for me to do the drug of my choice?
Father: Ah......No son . You should not do the drug of your choice. And further more we are not buying these doggone cereals again until the government is enlightened and make Marijuana legal .
11 year old: But dad, does that mean you will have to cook breakfast on the weekends?
Mother: You see what you have started....
Music........fade.....Tune in next week for the conclusion.
"crack pipe"? Funny how you already twisted that one for your own purposes of a useless story.
11 year old: Dad I saw Michael Phelps smoking what looked to be an illegal substance in a crack pipe. He is on our cereal box.
Father: Since Michael can swim fast son, it's ok for him to smoke that type pipe.
12 year old: Dad, I play soccer . Is it ok for me to smoke the herb in a pipe?
Father: Hells no, you're just a kid. Ask me again when you're an adult.
Jason...you're the best!!
Have you heard? Have you heard? Kellog's has dropped Phelps. This from a company started by a man with an emena fixation.
..
Up until now Phelps had a DUI, was photographed with strippers and drinking alcohol with two hands but that wasn't enough to make him "unsuitable".
One bong hit changed that?
Two-faced, hypocrite corporations who care about nothing but money.
.
Grant, you are awesome! exactly! thank you for speaking the truth
Nice post.
Jason Whitlock rules!
someone once said of getting a hundred emails a day.
"Just let them sit a day of two and 95% of them will resolve. Then you can attend to the rest"
Too, too, many of us are in the instant response mode. A day later this young man was
dropped from Kelloggs.
Someone else said: Now and in future any Prsident who doesn't acknowledge having smoked a weed would most likely be deemed a dud" Seriously in this day and age never bothering to try could mean your not with it. Crimany we have people who consider tasting the grape a no no - I figure if it was served at the wedding in Cana it's okay for me.
I would much rather see our efforts toward convincing our youngsters that a beer or glass of wine is refreshing and not just the gateway to oblivian. Maybe it's us who make oblivian so attractive to them.
Look, it's just a plain fact that the marijuana laws punish black and brown kids harder than they do white kids.
You can see this in action at every stage of the process, from arrest to arraignment to conviction to incarceration.
You are WRONG! I think the discrepancy is whether the accused has an attorney or not, and because many black kids are inner-city and cannot afford one, they have to settle for public defenders....and often times, end up with harsher punishments.
that is part of it, but there is a deeper issue, enforcement is subjective. What I mean by that is targeting black kids for drugs while simultaneously not targeting white kids results in more black kids going to jail. That is part of the problem.
that is true of all drugs.
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