Don Banks: Redskins Hater and Racist

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/don_banks/10/06/Banks.burning.questions/index.html

Okay, Don Banks makes some interesting points about the Redskins which he backs up with statistics. Its sort of hard to argue with him that they are really not the team that everyone expected them to be.

But in his third section, on Rickey Williams, he writes "But what else is he going to say? He's in a deep financial hole and he can't sing or dance. So football once again equals a pay day."

Does this strike anyone as fairly condescending? What is the message - that if black professional athletes can't play football, they have to sing or dance for a living?

Is that like saying, "Dat Nguyen - what else can he say? He's in a deep financial hole and he can't perform kung-fu or cook chinese food. So football once again equals a pay day." How about, "Peyton Manning - what else can he say? He's in a deep financial hole and can't do accounting or practice law. So football again equals a pay day." Finally, "Tony Gonzales - what else can he say? He's in a deep financial hole and he can't make make pinatas or dance the lambada."

Am I reading too much into this? Am I pissed off at Donny because he is picking on the Redskins? Did I pay too much attention in my cultural studies classes?

Opinions..

DR,

I usually like your posts - but I think you are off base with this one. He was referencing the fact that Ricky's been hanging out with and mooching off of Lennie Kravitz, and that Ricky's not a singer/dancer but a football player.

Plus, I don't automatically associate singing and dancing with the African American race - I definitely didn't make that mental leap when I read the article. I mean, how do you explain the Backstreet Boys and Brittney Spears???! (Ummm... totally joking about that sentence - let's make that perfectly clear....)

If he was going for a racial slur, there are a lot more obvious ones out there (like the ones you used in your examples or say, watermelon and fried chicken).

However, I'm guessing that (unlike Ricky) he probably wants to keep his job.

And if I am wrong, I'll help you kick that honkey's head in!

Peace.

I don't like Banks either, but I don't think he wrote that as being a racist comment. If you think hard enough about anything, you can perceive it as being racist.

I think it's a reference to Kravitz, as AJFC points out

yep, your just pissed he's hating on the skins... but honestly, until we turn the corner, its deserved...

I don't like Banks either but he does back it up. The Skins have to prove they are better.
On the other hand, he says it's "Just more of the same lousy product that Washington fans have been subjected to for most of Daniel Snyder's six-year tenure as team owner." Umm, I'm sick of everyone blaming everything on Snyder. Yeah he's made mistakes, but what about the "lousy product" we were subjected to after Gibbs left and before Snyder bought the team??? In all but one of the 12 years since Gibbs left, the team has been sub-par, or average at best, no matter who the owner was.

I believe in Joe Gibbs!!!

Totally agree with you SkinsRock, that was just a cheap shot at Snyder

DR, I don't see any racism. Even if it were not for Karvitz, that is a "color-free" metaphor earning a living, I have heard in the past. I don't know why that would trigger racist thoughts. And I have a tendency to be overly sensitive to those comments because of a couple family members that I regularly am at odds with over that type of stuff.

i would have never have seen it as a racist comment, little overboard there.

yep, your just pissed he's hating on the skins... but honestly, until we turn the corner, its deserved...

Now that's Effed up my man!

"One-win clubs such as Kansas City, Green Bay, Tennessee, and Carolina -- all playoff teams in 2003"

Why didn't this dried up stinky D!ck licker talk about THESE clubs sucking it up... we were 5-11 last year, we have a new coaching STAFF, we get one every year, Gibbs has been out of coaching for over a decade, the teams above have had their schemes in place for a LONG time, Carolina was in the superbowl last year for pete's sake. I wrote on hailredskins.com after this guy wrote his last column that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but this guy is way off base here. Get a Rope!!