Oh, The NBA Draft.......Memories

With the NBA Draft a few weeks away and Ohio State's Greg Oden about to enter the lottery sweepstakes, I remembered what it felt like to be drafted. Well, not by the NBA---though I once dreamed of playing on TV. The draft I recall is the crowded playground where you stood on the side-line, waiting to be picked. It started with, "Who got next?" Someone would say, "me." Then you waited to see who would be picked for these 3-on-3 games. That one person got to draft his team. There was always a number one pick---where Oden will probably go. Then there was the second, and third picks. Some didn't get picked at all.

When I came of age I got drafted for pick-up games with the big boys at Pershing Avenue Park. Then came the high school JV and Varsity teams. Nothing like what Oden and Kevin Durant from Texas will experience. But I was once drafted.

AND WHAT ABOUT IMUS?

I've been amazed by the range of conversation concerning Don Imus' attack on the Rutger's basketball team. His rant was obviously over the line. Many stand behind him and want to equate his use of negative language with blacks (mainly rappers--as if they define black communities) who have used the "N" word or mysogynist language. They miss a major context. First, the last time I thought about it, I recall that whites invented to the word nigger (let's say it). Black folk, for various survival reasons, took the word and tried to kill its sting, its hurt. While I recognize the danger of this and don't condone the wide use of the word, I resent white people who say, "It's a double standard---why don't we make blacks apologize." There's a historical context here. Whites used this word for decades to kill the black spirit and to dehumanize a people. I don't believe that black folk have this intention---though we do need to abandon how its use.

And what about the word, ho? Don't expect me to try and explain a context for this word. There is none. I know this, you know it, and Imus should as well.