Comments on A Trite, but Wonderful Epiphany

weekly game of what? b-ball? cribbage? Chutes & Ladders?

Why? Does Barak Obama suck at basketball?

Josh, we get it. you are down with black people. cool for you.

So - was he good? Because if not, you guys probably felt pretty shitty, but not as shitty as him.

there have been many a game where i've done my part to shatter the black = good at basketball stereotype, so i'm with #4 - was he good?

A "seismic shift" in the "basic image of black men" might happen when, oh, I don't know - when yuppie white folks stop making stereotyping remarks as "harmless" jokes. You probably feel it's just banter because, well, for you, it is.

I really *love* the self-congratulating tone of your post. It seals the sweet irony of your failed point.

When I was in the 1st grade in Bremerton, we had one black kid in our class, Level (pronounced "Le-velle", but it was really spelled "level"). He sucked at basketball, but we always passed to him anyway. Stereotypes start young.

@2, I think I heard Obama mention that he was not that great at Basketball and he is on the short side too.

A year from now, Barack Obama will be well on his way to becoming America's Worst Black President Ever ... but he'll still have a wicked crossover dribble and a dependable outside shot.

Can he play soccer? All the best young American soccer players are black. (Jozy Altidore will be a superstar everywhere but here.)

At least we've put an end to Josh's epiphanizing for a while.

I think. ;)

I'm sure the rest of you guys played the game "the right way," with "intelligence" and/or "grit."

Barack Obama is 6'2", and an excellent basketball player. He plays rough pickup games with former pros. See http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/us/politics/01hoops.html

I'm with the smart Asian dude @6. This post is condescending.

@14,

Condescending to whom?

These comments are weird.

@6:

Much agreed. As a black dude, if someone said some idiotic shit like that to me, I'd have to restrain myself from taking a swing—I don't care how fucking "ironic" and clever you think you're being.

Wait--they let Jews play basketball now?

Nothing witty about it- I have heard too much of that in my lifetime. As a black woman it's usually something related to doing some sort of neck roll or attitude snap rather than about sports. Even if it's tongue in cheek it sucks to be on the receiving end.

Josh @15. Condesceding to whom? It's condescending to me and hopefully everyone else who reads it.

Yes, a President Obama would be a bitchin' statement to the world and perhaps to ourselves, but do you really think bigots (or maybe even average Americans who really love that Will Smith) are going to seismically "turn the page" and "upgrade" their "basic image of black men"? I don't. But it's a step.

The seismic shift happens later, when blacks and whites together can unselfconsciously ridicule President Obama as the laughing stock he has become.