I Hope Whitlock is Happy
Not only have Jason Whitlock's lies about Las Vegas' All Star Weekend emboldened White journalists to proclaim that Las Vegas turned to bedlam because a Black man said it, he has helped to fuel a dialogue about whether New Orleans should host the 2008 NBA All Star Weekend.
Whitlock and some others have been perpetuating the myth that Las Vegas was some sort of warzone during All Star Weekend. That is simply not true. If you want to make sure New Orleans is safe for All Star Weekend 2008, just make sure Pacman Jones stays home. Don't try to creat a correlation because NBA All Star Weekend and rampant crime. Because there is none.
Here are the statistics.
403 people were arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center.
Of those arrested, 172 were LOCALS.
Only 231 were visitors.
And most of the arrests, 239 were vice related crimes, mostly for prostitution. (The second largest group was for trespassing, 63)
The rest, 164, were for disorderly conduct, battery, burglary, robbery, petty larceny and outstanding warrants.
People were fuckin', not thuggin'. And for the record, more people get arrested during New Year's on a per day basis. Of course, they should cancel that holiday immediately. But 5 people were shot in Las Vegas isolated incidents caused by a few people. However, those unfortunate crimes do not correlate to a general trend of lawlessness. Even 400 arrests is not a lot considering that there were tens of thousands of people in town for various events. But 200 is a pretty pitiful number to justify claims of mayhem.
News flash. Some of the people complaining might just need to come to grips that they're afraid to be in a large group of Black people, whether they are Crips or college students.
Even concerns about New Orlean's logistical ability to handle a full scale event are barely valid. Las Vegas' All Star Weekend was estimated to have attracted about 85,000 people. Not even enough to fill some college stadiums. A scaled back Mardi Gras attracted 800,000 people this year. Furthermore, New Orleans is not going to draw the same crowd that Vegas draws. Everybody knew going in that Vegas would be special because of the gambling and prostitution. Vegas and New Orleans have some elements in common, but The French Quarter is a smaller area and should be easier to control. And the hotels will help preserve order because all non guests will surely be locked out.
And of course, it would be immoral to deprive New Orleans of the economic opportunity of All Star Weekend without serious thought. All Star Weekend was estimated to have brought $90.6 million to Las Vegas. The NBA should think long and hard before depriving the Katrina-ravaged area of that kind of support.
Don't be confused by NBA Player's Union head, Billy Hunter's, statements expressing concern about the city's ability to handle the NBA weekend. "I'm wondering, how will New Orleans accommodate all these people if they elect to come to New Orleans? They'll shut the city down." Billy Hunter is just looking for an excuse to get into it with David Stern. He'll threaten to sue the league over anything. Just sour grapes because Hunter's excellent lawyering foolishly bound the players to a salary cap.
All the hand wringing is likely for naught. It's likely too late to cancel the New Orleans weekend anyway. You can't play with the dates too much because it can't conflict with the Superbowl and it has to fall midway through the season. Concerned about the NBA's "thug" image or not, Stern wants the All Star Weekend to be large and glamorous. He doesn't sit all those stars courtside for nothing. The party atmosphere and the celebrities go hand in hand. Unfortunately, he can't have it both ways.
If mistakes were made in planning the Vegas weekend, the NBA should simply learn from them. You know the crowd is coming. Make sure they have somewhere to go and something to do and a way to get there. That would be much more effective than the fear mongering Jason Whitlock is receiving so much attention for. It would truly be a tragedy if the people of New Orleans had to suffer for Whitlock's thug fantasies.
(Although Whitlock is becoming a hack, ironically, his articles have prompted good writing by others. Check out why Whitlock is going to White heaven and Dave Zirin's open letter to Jason.)
(Update: Although Not That It Matters posted this, I totally have to jack it. It's so appropriate. See Uncle Ruckus come to life.)
Labels:
Jason Whitlock,
nba all star
7 comments:
What hath Whitlock wrought on us? How do you go from being a respected journalist to Hall Of Fame Fuckhead so quickly?
By using phrases like "Black Klan". That was pretty stupid. (And unoriginal - wasn't that just a crappy variation of Chris Rock's "I like black people but I hate niggas" routine?)
When will Aaron McGruder bring us some new episodes again?
Agreed that Whitlock definitely tried to go out on a big limb and it worked out in a way that I think he didn't anticipate. He was probably angling for a Bill Cosby type of response by telling his "truth" and hoping that it would strike a chord. It did, different audience. Shame he moved in that direction.
BTW, MacGruder said he was going to take a year off to recharge. So expect new Boondocks episodes later this year or next.
Give 'em hell HCIC! And as for Jason....here's some chalk for ya lips, dawg.
Ma'am-
It's a joke. Has to be. Whitlock started one of his columns with something like "if it wasn't for me, no one would be reporting about the carnage"...The part that gets us is these guys that have sited Whitlock's column (the one on AOL, not the one in the KC Star...hmmm) as evidence of the fall of Rome that was begun in Vegas; weren't even THERE! Sheeeeet...I don't care much for Bill Simmons, but he usually isn't sensored much. He said shit was on the ghetto side and thuggish in certain spots, but even a pencil necked lil whiteboy like him wasn't calling on an entire race to reevaluate itself. Fatlock wanted attention and approval from the holier than thou segment of sports writers.
The bottom line is simple: Anywhere that invites 85,000 people to come party is gonna have a few incidents that are more than regretable. But the fact that there were a lot of youngish Negro males out and about just scared the shit out of people. Even a 300 pound Uncle Tom that thinks he's a bad ass cause he played some scrub ball 15 years ago wet his pants seeing all the dark faces. Get over it. If 85,000 white people and 1 Pacman Jones showed up, there still would have been an incident. Some people are bad seeds regardless of race. And some people slurp up the chance to pander to the insecurities between the races...just to get they name out there. We hear you, Jason, but we ain't listening. At least not until YOU do.
I think Evan's right - Whitlock fancies serving us Jello pudding pops as he inspires the black race. Problem is...it's hard to inspire when you don't say anything.
Whitlock is great at pointing out things that go unnoticed or unsaid. I usually like his column, although I don't always agree with him. What he has NEVER shown, however, is the ability to provide any useful solutions to the problems he points out.
Basically, he's a big fat neon sign. Which is fitting for Vegas...
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