Mavericks' Josh Howard hates AmeriKKKa
Wednesday September 17, 2008
Categories: Culture
Dallas Mavericks star Josh Howard caught on home video refusing to honor the National Anthem as it's being sung to start a charity event. Why? Quoth the celebrity athlete, to the camera: "The Star Spangled Banner's going on right now...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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You should change the name of this blog to "Judgmental Con."
Josh Howard should be boo'ed at every game for this behavior. He is and has been a cancer for the Mavs, and he tops off his refusal to play for his country in Beijing with these thuggish and ungrateful remarks.
I will say that having "Amerikkka" in the post title was a bit unnessary, though.
No need to boo him, just hope that someday he grows up enough to realize what a fool he has been. Until then, why waste a minute thinking about someone like him?
The thing about living in America, is that as a citizen you are entitled to certain freedoms, one is the freedom of religion and to express that religion in the way you see fit. So in essence citizens are entitled to freedom of expression, because you can read, write, think and speak, however you like, and other citizen's must respect your right to do so. That is the catch 22 of having freedom. You might not like what the other person says of does, but as long as it is within the limits of the law, you have to respect their freedom to do so. Perhaps I should use the word allow, instead of respect. For it is difficult to respect someone who lacks respect for the belief's of others.
I'm assuming that the Mavericks are making more than $42 million off him if they're willing to pay him that much. It's not like anyone's giving it to him out of charity, or he's drawing a government payroll. I don't see why the amount of money he makes in any way obliges him to any set of political or cultural beliefs. I'm also not sure what his private drug use has to do with anything, either.
The pro football players caught in this video seem -- despite their athletic skills -- to be emotionally and intellectually immature. They live in a bubble and like many so-called "celebrities" (Paris Hilton and Britney Spears come to mind) are entirely clueless.
With age we all can hope that they will mature (for their sake). As for Josh Howard's dismissive evaluation of the U.S., he might examine the story of Barack Obama and his younger step-brother who lives in a Nairobi shanty-town ... and then ask himself if living here is really all that bad.
Oh for pity's sake. Don't be so shocked. Many black people feel exactly the same way.
I don't see why the amount of money he makes in any way obliges him to any set of political or cultural beliefs.
How about gratitude for opportunities granted?
I watched the video and was surprised how many times they said, "Nigger". I thought that was supposed to be a bad word. Guess not.
I don't see why the amount of money he makes in any way obliges him to any set of political or cultural beliefs.
How about gratitude for opportunities granted?
It would be nice if rich people in general acknowledged that they are only able to make the money they do because we have a functional physical and institutional infrastructure, but I'm just kind of leery of the attitude that says that pro athletes or entertainers ought to grovel at the feet of the public out of gratitude for the privilege of being able to do their job. The Mavs are willing to pay him $42m because he has skills that are worth that much to them. In return, he owes the Mavs whatever he agrees to in his contract, but he doesn't owe anyone else jack.
The Mavs make money off him, he gets the best deal he can from them - it's all strictly business and everyone involved is acting in their own (perceived) best interest. It's not like anyone's doing him any favors out of the goodness of his or her heart.
I don't agree with the man's reasoning, but I'm not much bothered by his nonparticipation. It's not like he went to the vets' cemetery and peed on somebody's grave or something.
Pro football players are paid huge amounts of money to do some peculiar ritual involving the inflated skin of a pig. It is unrealistic to expect intelligence of them.
Everyone in Dallas knows Josh Howard is an dope-smoking idiot, a one time all-star who has pissed it all away. Of course he has the freedom to say whatever stupid thing he wants, and we have the freedom to rightly despise him and critsize his sponsors (the Mavs, the products he endorses) for his contempt of the nation that has made him rich.
Wow, Rod, if I didn't know better I'd think you scored very highly on that political morality metric pertaining to loyalty.
Nah!
More substantively, this is a man who feels that seven generations is not enough to ease the pain and anger over the murder, brutality, rape and enslavement his race was subjected to for hundreds of years. He's not ready to make nice, irrespective of the equality of opportunity (about which he's probably somewhat skeptical) now afforded to his race.
Regardless of whether one shares his opinion, he holds it as deeply and sincerely as religious conservatives hold theirs about, say, sex education in public schools. (And IMO his is quite a bit saner and more reasonable.) As for disapproving (to say the least) of his extremely mild expression of his belief, it's so disrespectful and unempathic as to boggle my mind.
-O
Um, why should we care about a basketball player's opinions about anything but basketball?
Because kids look up to him as a role model? Then we as a society are doing a pretty piss-poor job of holding up role models to kids.
I believe the sincerity of his opinion about as much as I believe the moon is made of cheese. What a load of crap. The guy is just a jerk, why make excuses for bad behavior.
nrsesuernbsn made an interesting point - that, according to the Constitution, we are entitled to Freedom of Speech.
What disturbed me more than the "I don't celebrate that sh*t. I'm black" comment, was the number of times that the "Forbidden Word" - Nigger - was used. And not once in a derogatory manner.
So, I guess that means that Freedom of Speech only extends to certain citizens of this country, and only if your skin is a certain color.
Life is too short to be outraged or even pay attention to the comments of professional athletes.
This punk sucks from the USA and thrives here. He has never been a slave, has a ton of money via the opportunities and freedom provided by the USA yet the spoiled sick SOB needs something else?? What a useless piece of shit.
Rod's right, it's despicable behavior, but who cares what this guy thinks, anyway?
Even Michelle Obama has been proud of AmeriKKKa once in her adult life.
In league with Washington and Jefferson
None of the founding fathers ever stood up for the national anthem either. None of them ever recited the Pledge of Allegiance, for that matter.
Of course, we didn't have a national anthem, or the Pledge of Allegiance, back then. All we had was a republic. We managed just fine without the symbols because the reality was strong, and the founders didn't seem to feel a need to come up with symbols to fetishize.
Whenever I see someone today obsess over the symbols, I figure that the reality these symbols stand for isn't very strong with them. I've seen nothing in this space to make me figure different.
In league with Washington and Jefferson
***
All we had was a republic. We managed just fine without the symbols because the reality was strong, and the founders didn't seem to feel a need to come up with symbols to fetishize.
I'm not sure how historically accurate that is. A fairly strong case can be made that George Washington WAS the symbol of the Republic, and that he (and after his death, his memory) was treated with much the same reverence as we treat the Flag and the National Anthem today.
Well Josh-boy, since you don't celebrate American pride because you're black, I won't celebrate Black History Month, because I'm white. Fair is fair. Throughout most of my life, I've nearly had more black friends than white, so I'm embarrased FOR you, and for those friends of mine who resemble your heritage. You're ghetto street-trash, pure and simple. I was hoping you could use the word nigger a few more times, too. Hopefully Mark Cuban will fire you, and you can get back to your ghetto and so some more drive-by shootings.. obviously you miss doing that. You're a true worthless piece of human flesh.
My god, what a frighteningly revealing thread this is. We're a whisker hair away from antebellum times, I see. And it certainly provides a window onto pro-torture religious conservatives, in that it demonstrates how easily their intellect and morals can be switched off when their fear and outrage are triggered. (And it's a hair-trigger.)
“More substantively, this is a man who feels that seven generations is not enough to ease the pain and anger over the murder, brutality, rape and enslavement his race was subjected to for hundreds of years. He's not ready to make nice, irrespective of the equality of opportunity (about which he's probably somewhat skeptical) now afforded to his race.
“Regardless of whether one shares his opinion, he holds it as deeply and sincerely as religious conservatives hold theirs about, say, sex education in public schools. (And IMO his is quite a bit saner and more reasonable.) As for disapproving (to say the least) of his extremely mild expression of his belief, it's so disrespectful and unempathic as to boggle my mind.
“-O
“Posted by: ossicle | September 17, 2008 6:12 PM”
Your mind is easily boggled.
I saw the video, and Howard didn’t say anything remotely like that. He merely expressed his contempt for America. He gave no indication of this being a “deeply and sincerely” held belief, and you gave no reason for anyone to find his contempt “saner and more reasonable” than religious conservatives’ opposition to sex ed. Unsurprisingly, your reverence for the rationalizations you have projected onto Howard is matched by the contempt you have for anyone so “disrespectful and unempathic” as to disagree with him. Why didn’t you just cut to the chase and say, “I celebrate black America-bashers, because I see in them a reflection of my own racism, just as I deny non-blacks the right to criticize them.”
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Nicholas Stix
This is all fine with me, but what are Howard's thoughts on the AIG bailout?
I'm coming at this issue as a non-American, so you can feel free to disregard what I have to say.
However, it seems to me that patriotism in countries that are basically of immigrant origin (eg. USA) is qualitatively different from that in other countries. In most of Europe, and also in Japan, people feel much less comfortable with overt, flag-waving patriotism than they do in the USA, and I think this is legitimate - because it is a celebration, at least partly, of one's own ethnicity. In the USA, on the other hand, patriotism is more purely civic, being a celebration of US political principles (albeit interpreted in various ways), and that one's ancestors preferred to be in the USA to being somewhere else. However, if one is Black, they didn't make that choice - is it not therefore arguable that US patriotism is therefore less natural for Blacks than for any other ethnic group?
No, Rod, you have it all wrong. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is a terrible song, and Josh Howard understands this. It's unmusical, un-melodic, un-singable, it's nothing but a simplistic exercise in spelling chords. It's also not about United States.
Now, "America The Beautiful" is a wonderful song, and a proper choice for the anthem. It is about America and loving America. If you are against it being the anthem then you are anti-American. Partisans of "The Star-Spangled Banner" simply have no taste or discernment, and except the same old herd mentality. Josh Howard is schooling you on matters of taste.
Mr. Howard needs to visit and stay in another country, to appreciate,
his good fortune... only in America is anything possible.....
and he is getting paid to play BASKETBALL, COME ON....
"No, Rod, you have it all wrong. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is a terrible song, and Josh Howard understands this. It's unmusical, un-melodic, un-singable, it's nothing but a simplistic exercise in spelling chords. It's also not about United States."
Yeah, one thing I noticed about Howard from the video was his wonderfully developed sense of artistic aesthetics.
I mean really, how can Francis Scott Key stand up against a real artist and word smith like, say, "50 Cent"?
For the record, not only is it about the USA, it's about the USA rising to victory after being attacked.
1:34 post was me.
Definitely not a fan of Josh Howard, or Mr. Cuban, or the Dallas Mavericks...
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