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Racism & greed weak

 There’s no way I could analyze news and issues that has dominated the mainstream media for the past few weeks without discussing the U. S. Olympics, therefore I wasn’t surprised when the United State’s Men’s Basketball team’s 73-90 loss to Puerto Rico even over shadowed the hurricane that had devastated Florida’s coast . However, Michael Jackson, as always, managed to “Moonwalk” back into the news just in time to give Americans (embarrassed because a contingent of NBA “super stars” got bashed by one of their territories), something else to talk about.

Meanwhile, I have to do a little house cleaning, insofar as I happen to over hear several young people discussing the basketball game when one said, “They let a bunch of foreigners beat them at their own game.” When I heard that, I wondered if they were still teaching about America’s territories in our public schools. If not, I can kill two birds with one stone by explaining why Puerto Rico, that was led by Carlos Arroyo (a Utah Jazz guard), isn’t a foreign nation. First, it allows me to stick with our policy to edify our readers with at least one thing that they didn’t know, or think about until they read African American News & Issues. Secondly, it will give me a chance to further enlighten any of our readers, who doesn’t exactly understand the relationship between America and the Island territories we control.

Since we’re talking Puerto Rico, let’s start with the history of that Island of 4 million ‘Americans.” According to the About Geography website: “The Arawakan people settled the island around the 9th century AD. In 1493, Columbus discovered the island and claimed it for Spain. Puerto Rico, which means ‘rich port’ in Spanish, wasn't settled until 1508 when Ponce de Leon founded a town near present-day San Juan. Puerto Rico remained a Spanish colony for more than four centuries until the United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American war in 1898 and occupied the island. Puerto Rico is the easternmost island of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Sea, approximately a thousand miles southeast of Florida and just east of the Dominican Republic and west of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“The island is approximately 90 miles wide in an east-west direction and 30 miles wide between the north and south coasts. If it became a state, Puerto Rico's land area of 3,435 square miles (8,897 km) would make it the 49th largest state (larger than Delaware and Rhode Island). The coasts of tropical Puerto Rico are flat but most of the interior is mountainous. The tallest mountain is in the center of the island, Cerro de Punta, which is 4,389 feet high (1338 meters). About eight percent of the land is arable for agriculture. Droughts and hurricanes are the major natural hazards. While most Puerto Ricans speak some English, only about a quarter of the population are fully bilingual. The population is a mixture of Spanish, African, and indigenous heritage. About seven-eighth of Puerto Ricans are Roman Catholic and literacy is about 90%.
“Puerto Ricans have been citizens of the United States since a law was passed in 1917. However, they can’t vote because it isn’t a state. Most recently, in 1993, 48.6 percent of the populace voted (in Puerto Rico) to remain a commonwealth, 46.3 percent voted for statehood, and 4.4 percent favored independence (I have no idea what happened to the remaining .7% of a percent!). The territories of Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, and the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands are the principal overseas dependencies of the United States. All are islands (or groups of islands), and each is economically less developed than any State of the United States. The United States also asserts sovereignty over, and administers, a number of mostly tiny islands: Howland, Baker, and Jarvis Islands.”

Also, included are: “Kingman Reef; and Johnson, Palmyra, Wake, and Midway Atolls, all in the Pacific; and Navassa Island in the Caribbean. These islands, which do not have permanent populations, are often referred to as ‘possessions.” With that done, let’s talk about how sports often are a microcosm of real life from a Black perspective. There is a general consensus among African Americans that mainstream America’s sports fans are so tired of seeing Black America’s natural born athletes dominate basket (that is now played so far above the rim), until “White Men Can’t Jump” high enough to compete with the high flying Black athletes. And for that reason they are going to foreign lands to promote basketball and develop athletes who look more like them, because their kids are beginning to wannabe “Like Mike,” a bit too much.
I don’t want to play the race card here, but the truth is the truth. America has always treated foreigners better than native born African Americans, even if they are from Black. And for that reason Black athletes, who can get away with not playing on the so-called “Dream Team,” like Shaquille O’Neil, aka “Shaq,” no longer feel duty bound to play for a country that does everything possible to replace “US.” Maybe I’m reaching to say it’s a money thing. But, perhaps, it’s greed instead of racism? I haven’t researched the situation, but I’m told that not only are foreign Black athletes easier to deal with, but also will work cheaper. If that’s the truth, we have the same situation in sports that we have in a greed-driven corporate America, that is shipping millions of jobs overseas, trying to replace the a less productive, over paid work force, that takes the land of the free for granted.
Meanwhile, America’s economy is in bad shape; unemployment is at an all time high and to make things worse, there’s a war going on. Unfortunately, the war, itself, is beginning to widen a historical gulf between Black and White America, insofar as most White Americans support the war, while Black leaders are beginning to speak bolder and bolder, as they condemn the war in Iraq.

Black America definitely blames the weaker Olympic and/or International sports teams on racist (pointing at the fact that most of the track and field stars caught up in the drugging tragedy are Black), just as they blame greedy and powerful. “angry White men” for the war in Iraq. A war, that has not only weaken the nation’s standing in the world, but our economy at home.