"I am not racist. Just careful."

Firstly:

For all those telling me to write more, you're preaching to the converted. Unfortunately, since the start of this last NBA season, I've been annoyingly busy. I was working ever hour God sent until December 21st, and most of those hours were also at night, which meant I missed a helluva lot of NBA action. Then I was making Christmas presents, because I am a tightarse who refuses to buy people things. Then, it was Christmas day. And then on Boxing Day, I fell ill. I have been in bed since then, with a rather rambunctious fever, the details of which I won't go into. It's basically involved lots of lying down, massive temperature fluctations, more mucus than you could shake a stick it, the constant struggle to prevent your head exploding, and a disturbing craving for oranges. I'd still be in bed now, but I have to get up, for my big ol' school assessment is in for three days time. Basically I'm just wringing it out for sympathy now, so say awww or something.

Nevertheless, I've had 7 cocktail sausages and a slice of pizza, and have mustered up enough energy to return to the computer and start tackling my long to-do list, a which should feature my really-rather-important assessment at the top, but doesn't.

Instead, I've been Googling my own name. And, after finding nothing interesting from doing that, I started to Google this website.

Part way down the list of rather strange and uninspiring hits (I really need to advertise more, I reckon. Even once would be a good start) was a piece on AOL Fanhouse linking to a blog post that I made on here nearly three months ago. The post was this'un about the NBA's preseason game played in London.

I'd never noticed the Fanhouse page before now. I read through it, and also the 7 comments people had made (I DREAM of comment numbers that high). Two of them annoyed me, and I felt that I had to respond.

I could respond via the comments system on that page, but being two and a half months late, that might be a bit pointless. No one would see it.

I could maybe try and contact the person directly. But this requires effort, which I don't have. And it also might annoy them, which I don't want.

So instead, I'll write a completely un-topical rebuttal on here, two and a half months too late, and to the interest of basically nobody. Hooray!

(The quote, by the way, is from the talk radio station on GTA San Andreas, and is used ironically.)


This is the bit that I object to.

It sounds to me like the ShamSports writer was simply uneasy with seeing so many black faces on television all at once. Is he white and uneasy not seeing a face that looked like his?

No. Not even close. (Although yes, I am white. Like that matters.)

I am not offended by the sight of black people. Not by one of them, not by one million of them. I am not offended by the sight of any minority, or even any majority. To judge people based on how they look is pathetic, trivial, and the bane of my entire existence, and it should only be done if it's not serious and rather funny.

To actually be racist is just a really, really stupid thing. You might as well just top yourself if you are.

But yes, the whole thing did annoy me. However, note this key difference below.

It did not offend me because I dislike looking at black people. It offended me because I really want the NBA to succeed over here, and it will never do so if it's continually promoted to such a tiny market.

That's a pretty key point that needs some funky text on it or something. I don't care about skin colours, I care about NBA basketball. And that's why it offends me that the people trying to sell NBA basketball here seem to care so much about skin colours.

Since when did the fact that it is mostly black people who play the sport at its highest level mean that it has a solely (or even predominantly) black viewing audience? Obviously, that's not the case. We all know this. And Five's TV executives probably know this too. So why have they chosen to appeal to an incredibly small market?

And if you don't think they have, you're just going to have to trust me that they did. I can't go through and relay to you every single poorly impersonated Dizzie Rascal impression used to overdub an advert for the game, or every instance of grime music, or who used terms like "blood" and "bling" and when, because I can't be fucked. You'll just have to trust me that these things were rife, to the point of idiocy. And if you can't trust my judgement on that, then just say nothing and move on. I at least saw all this, and even if my recollection or rants on the subject aren't entirely accurate, they be a helluva lot more informed than those living in a different continent could offer up.


Black culture doesn't offend me, alienate me, or upset me. But all this pandering to it, does. It's needless, narrow minded, and frankly a bit silly. Appeal to everybody, and then you have a wider range of potential viewers. And that's what you want, isn't it? It's sure as hell what I want, and I don't get paid to care about viewer figures.

People just need to loosen up their sphincters enough to be able to reach a point where they can see the words "black", "race" and "annoy" in the same passage and actually remain calm enough to judge the passage on its merits, rather than instantly getting the arseache and screaming racism. Seriously. It's not that hard.




Secondly:

Happy new year. Let's run this.