Hearts & Minds: The Sound and the Fury of Elevator Music

The Sound and the Fury of Elevator Music
LeBron Helps Trivialize Issue of Race

But even the most tragic historical patterns can at times take a farcical turn, and so it was with the emergence in the 1990s of the self-described “angry white males,” who viewed themselves as victims of racial and cultural intolerance because of the color of their skin. Wallowing in a morass of self-pity, these waxen warriors blame political correctness, affirmative action, feminism and God-only-knows-what for their descent into second-class citizenship.

Convinced that they had been wounded because of their whiteness, these put-upon palefaces have taken up the battle cry of “reverse racism” as the explanation for their plight. True, they are able to garner a modicum of sympathy from the simple-minded, but most folks looked upon their bizarre claims of societal victimization as amusingly preposterous.

This brings us to a recent local example of the trivialization of race and racism: the fallout from “The Decision” by LeBron James. (Actually a better title for it would be “The Deception,” since based on subsequent evidence it has become clear to this writer – who has covered the Cavs for the last dozen years – that James had been planning to leave since at least 2008 and colluded with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to make it happen.)

Shortly after James’ announcement, Cavalier owner Dan Gilbert issued a blistering denunciation of his departing superstar, calling him – among other things – narcissistic and claiming that he quit on the team. As the media all over the country boiled over in its analysis of James departure from Cleveland, all acknowledged his right to leave but most criticized him – some very harshly – for the method he chose to announce it and for how he humiliated the fans of Cleveland in the process.

However, as the debate raged on, it didn’t take long for three of the usual suspects – Jesse Jackson, The New York Times sportswriter Bill Rhoden and Jim Brown – to introduce the institution of slavery into the discourse by asserting that Gilbert was acting like a slavemaster who regarded James as nothing more than his personal chattel. Let’s just say that the most generous comment one can make about purportedly intelligent people who appear incapable of recognizing the distinction between an actual slave and a basketball player with a $100 million contract is that they are simply guilty of hyperbole and leave it at that.

As it turned out, the only prominent public figures who specifically injected the subject of slavery into the immediate aftermath of James’ announcement were the aforementioned trio. But Brown continued to keep the race card rolling a few weeks later by characterizing his demotion from a $500,000 position as hand-holder for Browns’ team owner Randy Lerner to a $100,000 something-or-other in the organization by writing a letter in which he astonishingly invoked buck dancing, monkeys, legendary slave master Willie Lynch and the fact that he plays golf at Highland Hills in support of his indignant refusal to take the job offered him.

This brings us to James’ comments last week. In response to a question from CNN’s Soledad O’Brien regarding whether he thought race played a part in the reaction to him leaving Cleveland, James mechanically said. “I think so, at times. It’s always, you know, a race factor.” LeBron uttered these words as if he were talking about what he had for breakfast. O’Brien didn’t follow up with a probing question because to do so would have been tantamount to following up on a hiccup. A day or so later he was asked if he wanted to amend his statement and quietly muttered, “I stand by it,” as if even he was unconvinced that there was anything at all substantial in his earlier remark that warranted a firm stance.

In the sheer insipidness of his responses, James had done the seemingly impossible: he had taken the ultimate hot-button topic and, by the sheer force of his perfunctory thoughtlessness, neutered it.  Put another way, if race has been the thunderously roaring soundtrack of American life, LeBron’s baseless assertion failed to even reach the level of elevator music.

Like the knee-jerk cries of racial victimization by self-pitying, angry white men or aging, embittered running backs or self-serving media hacks, LeBron’s vacuous words seem to be part of a disturbing trend which is destroying critical discourse on the issue of race by replacing it with diversionary babble full of meaningless soundbites and hollow fury, signifying nothing.

Larry Durstin is an independent journalist who has covered politics and sports for a variety of publications and websites over the past 20 years. He was the founding editor of the Cleveland Tab and an associate editor at the Cleveland Free Times. Durstin has won 12 Ohio Excellence in Journalism awards, including six first places in six different writing categories. LarryDurstinATyahoo.com

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