The intense black support for O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson and other black celebrities involved in criminal scandals mystifies many non-blacks. Heroes and villains
come in all colorsThese guys are not exactly pillars of the black community. They hang around mostly with rich whites and have used their celebrity little to advance the cause of black people.
Yet if I suggest that Simpson got away with murder or question Jackson's payoff to the kid who accused him of molestation, I can count on outraged blacks accusing me of racism.
I usually write it off as ethnocentric hysteria. But the response to my recent column proposing that we moderate our enthusiasm for Jackson's concerts here got me thinking.
Several black readers charged that I wouldn't feel that way if Jackson were white. That wasn't true. In the same column I had directed similar criticism at Woody Allen. Oddly, it was the calls and letters agreeing with me that Jackson was a poor role model that made me rethink my position.
Inevitably, the callers would go on to list other people they thought were lousy role models - Magic Johnson, Mike Tyson, Daryl Strawberry, Dennis Rodman, Albert Belle.
It immediately struck me and offended me that all the people used as negative examples were black. If you're standing in a black person's shoes, how could you not see something racial in that?
There certainly are enough sullied white entertainers and athletes around - Kelsey Grammer and Robert Downey Jr. if drugs are your beef; Rock Hudson and Tommy Morrison if you think AIDs is God's revenge for promiscuity; Tom Hanks and Dustin Hoffman if you have a problem with men who pose in women's clothing. Why don't these names come up with the Strawberrys, Johnsons and Rodmans in the litany of poor role models?
The demonization of Magic Johnson particularly galls me. Sure, he was carelessly promiscuous and he's paying for it. But the whole of his life it adds up to one fine role model.
As a basketball player, he was all about teamwork and sharing. He respected his opponents while beating them. He played more for the joy of the game than the money. When he found out he had AIDs, he dove into helping others in the same boat. He has devoted himself to rebuilding businesses in the black community. Give the man a medal, not a bad rep.
Tyson, the former heavyweight champion, was convicted of a horrible crime - raping a beauty pageant contestant.
He went to prison and served his time. He didn't get any breaks from the legal system because of his celebrity. He didn't pay millions of dollars in hush money to quiet the victim and make the charges go away. He's kept his nose reasonably clean since getting out of prison.
Tyson is no subject for idolatry, but he has every right to pursue a career in his chosen profession without being marked a pariah for the rest of his life.
Strawberry is everybody's poor role model. The Yankees slugger let drugs take over his life. He's had constant legal and financial problems. But he's fought to regain respect.
Why must Strawberry suffer endless enmity while Grammer takes a vacation in the Betty Ford Center, jokes about it on the late-night talk shows and gets everybody's sympathy?
We can rationalize that none of this is racial. We can deplore how we have to walk on eggshells around other people's sensibilities. But if we truly want a color-blind society, we would do better to rethink the attitudes and perceptions that prevent us from getting there.
