Why has there been such anger and vitriol about the Gayle King Kobe Bryant interview? Well, It's not just a journalistic faux pas; it's deeper, because everything with black folk runs deep.
There has always been an attempt to malign Black history to justify current racism or brainwash the masses into believing the worst of us. Dr. King, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and other have had their legacies attacked long after they were buried.
More recently, we saw this trend during the Black Lives Matter Movement, when the state consistently impugned the character of the dead Black men in order to justify a white cop's action in killing them, even when they were not armed. "Oh, he was a thief! He sold drugs! He was a thug! I was scared, Your Honor!" In each case, the Black man was reduced to the worst thing he may have done and was unable to defend himself because he was conveniently dead.
More recently, we saw this trend during the Black Lives Matter Movement, when the state consistently impugned the character of the dead Black men in order to justify a white cop's action in killing them, even when they were not armed. "Oh, he was a thief! He sold drugs! He was a thug! I was scared, Your Honor!" In each case, the Black man was reduced to the worst thing he may have done and was unable to defend himself because he was conveniently dead.
Then we see Michael Jackson taken to task after his death in a documentary produced by some white men and Oprah Winfrey, even though all the cases were dismissed or settled years ago. In the end, it all turned out to be lies and the whole thing fell apart.
Then right after that, Russell Simmons is attacked in a documentary again produced by Oprah, but wait, Russell is not dead, and so he pushes back and that also fell apart and Oprah pulled out of the documentary before its premiere.
And all the while, it feels like black men are being punished over #Meetoo issues (Cosby, Nate Parker, R. Kelly, Cuba Gooding Jr.) but white men are free (Woody Allen, Polanski, Been Affleck, Kevin Spacey, Less Movees, Matt Lauer, Brett Ratner, Charlie Rose, Bryan Singer and more) Once again, it feels like white society's heinous injustice standard aided and abetted by, in this case, a black woman.
And all the while, it feels like black men are being punished over #Meetoo issues (Cosby, Nate Parker, R. Kelly, Cuba Gooding Jr.) but white men are free (Woody Allen, Polanski, Been Affleck, Kevin Spacey, Less Movees, Matt Lauer, Brett Ratner, Charlie Rose, Bryan Singer and more) Once again, it feels like white society's heinous injustice standard aided and abetted by, in this case, a black woman.
Then a tragedy of epic proportions happens. NBA legend, Kobe Bryant and his daughter die in an accident and while the man and his little girl are still in the morgue, Gayle King, Oprah's bestie, presses Kobe's friend, Lisa Leslie on national TV about an assault case that was dismissed, one bad incident in a life filled with family, love, success and legendary accomplishments.
The pot boiled over. It felt like an agenda where Oprah had failed twice and so someone dispatched Gayle to just "get some Black man on this issue." And while this is probably not true, in the world of Black America, we have seen men and women railroaded, poisoned experimented upon and subjected to all manner of secret criminality.
People saw injustice, they saw two famous black women surrounded by certified white male predators, but only willing to come after black men when they were no longer alive to defend themselves, just like the slander against Dr. King, just like the smear on Trayvon Martin and Eric Gardner, just like the same perverted justice the Senate used to acquit a guilty President.
So folk got mad and as soon as another Black man voiced his outrage, it turns into Black men attacking Black women, complete with Oprah crying on TV and saying there were death threats and a former National Security Advisor tweeting for Snoop Dogg to "back the fuck off." And before you could say retweet, people pointed out that Oprah's tears were phony and she had no proof of any threat, Susan Rice has a white husband and a Trump-supporting Republican son and Black men should keep their dicks in their pants, anyway. And just like that, Black men and women are at each other's throats, holding our pain, and accusing one another like Miss Celie making the curse sign at Mister in The Color Purple.
The whole idea of Black Lives Matter was of course the reality that Black lives did not and never did matter. But we can't say that about Black America. I was sure we mattered to ourselves. Now I wonder if both sides are right and we're infected with the poison of our oppression in how we treat each other.
None of the dead are coming back and what we have left here must be managed better. I don't need apologies from Gayle or Snoop Dogg. I don't want anyone cancelled, whatever the hell that means. I want us all to stop acting like we are not in this together because of our gender, status, money or fame. A handful of white men ended the Republic last month, and this is what we argue about?
When we get past this, as we always do, I hope we can have a more civil dialogue about how we treat one another, because if we can't, we will surely be here again.
Copyright© Gary Hardwick 2020
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