D.B.Tarpley's Amazing Ass Blog-9/11/18

Greetings and salutations people and peoplettes,

This blog serves no purpose but to record whatever random thoughts I may be having at the moment. I assign no particular importance to these thoughts because while we live in an age of un-earned self-importance, I have tempered my thoughts with an awareness that they are no more important or vital than yours and whether or not you chose to subscribe to mine as being all or partially true is no more relative to their truth than the other incidentals in your life which may be leading you in that direction.

In other words, to quote Ice Cube –

“Don’t quote me boy, I ain’t said shit.”

See what I did there? He told me not to quote him and I did anyway. I’m not scared of his bitch ass. There are primarily 2 reasons for this.

1 – I saw Charlie Day kick his ass in Fist Fight.

2 – What are the odds he will ever read my blog… I mean I know I’ve got mad street cred but still. He’s too busy making sequels to films which should have died with the original.

But I impress.

Where was I? Oh yes, giving you random thoughts on some of today’s more recent topics. And again, all these will ever be are random thoughts. Just one man’s ill-informed opinion. And for anyone to ever present their thoughts as anything other is… well, it’s the way of the world we live in isn’t it? Thoughts are presented as fact and nearly every issue seems to be co-opted by one tribe or another… METOO/ BLACK LIVES MATTER/ RESIST/ SCANDINAVION PLUMBERS UNITE!!! And I, like any reasonable human being, hesitate to engage in discussions about this due to A – not wishing to be immersed in the vitriol these passionate hashtags seem to resonate, and B – sincerely not wishing to cheapen the very real issues at the heart of each movement, even as I feel so many of these posts and ‘warriors’ do just that – cheapen their own cause by adding unwarranted noise to the already crowded room.

Your feelings on any particular issue should never be relegated to which hashtag they will fit under.

Examples? Yes please.

Serena Williams.

I am a fairly decent tennis fan, which means I will stop and watch the majors when I am available and they are on. I watched Naomi Osaka beat Anna Sabalenka in a hard fought fourth round match and I said to myself, ‘Now there’s a kid to watch.’

Sure enough she makes it to the final with Serena. As I watched the match it became very clear that Serena was out performed and that the mistakes she was making, no doubt due to her frustration, were causing her to lose her temper. Add to this the fact that the primary judge was a stickler for the rules, notoriously so, and you had a recipe for exactly what happened.

(Allow me to back up because so many things happened to Serena recently and they all got lumped together when they actually all don’t support one another. Previously, quite recently actually, she was chided by the organization for wearing a body suit - being told essentially that the skirts were the only acceptable wear. This was completely wrong. If that were the case then the men should also be required to wear skirts when they play. That is just a marketing technique the organization’s head honchos want to keep in place to not lose that horny male demographic which I am sure they have tracked as a healthy percentage of the women’s tennis viewership. It is bullshit. It is wrong. And it needs to be changed. Athletes should be allowed to wear whichever clothing helps them perform at their best… period. Women’s tennis should not have the same wardrobe proclivities as a Hooters franchise. So Serena came into this tournament righteously upset.)

Add to this the fact that she was gunning for a record setting win – most majors won by a woman – and you can clearly see the pressure involved.

Getting back to that line judge.

He was a stickler for the rules. He saw Serena’s coach throwing her coaching hand signals. This is against the rules. In a post-match interview her coach admits to doing this. When he called her on this she got hyper defensive/ yelled at the line judge in an almost tearful voice that she didn’t need to cheat and that she didn’t get to where she was cheating and how dare he call her a cheater. And all this would have been fine, had she not been actually cheating. She did. It was against the rules. She knew this. She did it. She cheated. This cheating had nothing to do with her being black. It had nothing to do with her being a woman. It simply was what it was. It has been said that all coaches and players do this and she was unfairly called on it but I can’t see the judge witnessing her coach do it and calling it and not witnessing Naomi’s coach doing it, presuming of course that all coaches do this. I am guessing the reason for this has less to do with prejudice against Serena, and more to do with the fact that Naomi didn’t cheat.

Much has been said comparing this to the outbursts of John Mcenroe. And yes, 30 or so odd years ago when he did that it was deemed entertaining and perhaps viewed in a different light. But I would challenge that view with this statement. If he had been playing in this day and age and had to deal with the social watchdog that twitter has become I dare say things would have gone down differently. It is comparing apples and oranges. Was Serena’s meltdown wrong? Yes, but not because she was a woman, and again not because she was black, but because she is a professional tennis player who let the pressure get to her, causing her to act in a way which wasn’t professional. It is understandable and she was fined a total 17,000 dollars for 3 ‘transgressions’. What?!?! You say, 17,000 dollars? How dare they! Before you get too bent out of shape know that she took home 1,850,000 for coming in second place… for being beat fair and square by 20 year- old Naomi.

And it is understandable. The pressure was so much that the crowd booed Naomi for winning. They wanted their narrative appeased so bad, (Serena getting her record breaking win) that they booed a 20 year old prodigy who won fair and square against a seasoned veteran who was called out for cheating. That is a lot of pressure on all parties concerned. I get it. Mistakes were made. But let’s not take these mistakes and make them out to be the second coming of the black women’s movement. Someone under a lot of pressure made some unprofessional mistakes. That is not oppression, it is just life. Is equal application of the rules across the sexes important? Damn skippy it is. But we shouldn’t make a martyr of a professional athlete who took home 1,850,000 dollars for a tournament and threw a tantrum when she didn’t perform up to expectations.

I love Serena. Overall she is a class act, (she defended Naomi as the crowd booed which I admire to no end) and I will continue to root for her to get that last major. But not at the expense of a better player.

OK, now that all the women hate me let’s move on. I’ve been here before, last time I called it Junior High.

In keeping with the theme of sports let’s talk about tennis shoes. Specifically Nike tennis shoes. If you don’t think Nike anticipated/ wanted the social media push back they received then you are crazier than Mr. Belvedere at a Chucky Cheese. (I have no idea what that means but you get the general gist.)

It wouldn’t surprise me if Nike didn’t burn the first pair of shoes. It is a prime example of there being no such thing as bad press. Nike doesn’t give a rat’s ass about social justice. Hell, they would sell and market specially designed ‘chase black man’ shoes for cops if they knew they would sell a lot. It is all about money to them.

(I should caveat here that I admire Colin Kaepernick’s stand and his continued commitment to his cause, even though I think the main focus of the activism is pointed in the wrong direction. Cops should not have the legal license to kill as they currently do. Every time there is a shooting - people rally for the cop to be charged but if the laws are examined closely then it is plain to see that cops pretty much have the right to shoot anyone anywhere, claim they were scared for their lives, and get away with it. The laws themselves need to be the focus of the activism, but that is more abstract and perhaps a harder sell to the American people in general.)

The fact that people fell into the marketing trap and immediately bolted out the door to show their ignorance is and should be no surprise to anyone. Everyone wants to pick a side… who cares! We are talking about a 2 minute kneel before any game play actually begins. Are we robots? Is group participation that important? Are your beliefs so fragile that unless every other single person in the room stands to confirm them your self-doubt and recrimination will only serve to further smother your conformative and unoriginal body? Yes? No? Maybe?

Who cares?

The third thing I want to talk about is both not and both is a sport, if that makes any sense. I am going to talk about the Miss. America Pageant and the changes they felt compelled to make this year. I will not pontificate long on the subject although longer, I am certain, than it warrants. This year they took away the bikini competition and attempted to focus more on the mental. Which is, I suppose a step in the right direction. But here’s an idea. Why not scrap this bullshit altogether and stop having a competition where you say, this woman’s better than that woman and make all the other women feel bad for not being this, or that woman. And if you ever watch one of these things they end up having 50 women all cut from the same mold. There are a million things beautiful about women and they focus on 3. It’s like they take a cookie cutter and stamp out the perfect woman from a huge amalgomistic glob of stem cells.

How boring is that?

(Oh, I get it! Mr. Belvedere hates children, just like my dear papa.)

OK, that’s enough sharing…. Ugh. I cringe to even say the word, much less do it. Until next time try to keep thinking for yourself and I will continue to do the same… oh, and have an amazing ass day…

Or not.

Your choice.