Kobe Bryant: the worst thing to happen to basketball (as of late)

So Kobe scores 81 points in a game. Of course I respect the skills of such a great player, and Kobe is indeed great. I was initially surprised by all the media hype, but then I reminded myself that we live in a culture of quick fixes. While everyone drops their jaws at Kobe’s performance, has anyone besides Vince Carter (who said this is bad for basketball) stopped to ever think about the consequences that this will have on the future of basketball?

I am 29 years-old. I grew up playing basketball at times from 10 AM to 10 PM. I chose not to pursue it because I wanted to show young people that there were other ways to excel other than through entertainment. I have never let go of my love of the game. It is starting to fade now the way I see the game changing and the impact it has on young people. I am not on every court in the country, but I am very familiar with how our young folks see basketball.

In many parts of our inner cities across the country, our youth think of basketball as a one-man sport. The idea of Woody Harrelson’s comments from White Men Can’t Jump rings true: “Black men want to look good first and win second.” This mentality leads to many kids believing that the way to excel in basketball is to shoot first, second, and third, and maybe win fourth. The way Kobe is getting attention these days, more and young people will see this and aspire to do the same.

Why is it that we are praising Kobe more than we are praising the Detroit Pistons? They are the ultimate team and are approaching a 70-win season. If we celebrated them, more young people would want to practice the team concept and know it was a way to win and be celebrated. Why is no one talking about Kobe’s teammates standing by and not advancing their own skills as a player? Is he making his team better by outscoring them?

Lastly, all the comparisons to Michael Jordan needs to stop. Scoop Jackson even compared him to Tupac. C’mon. Until Kobe leads his team to consecutive championships (as in NBA Finals MVP), he should not be compared to MJ, who won 6 championships as the MVP and never even played a game seven in the Finals. Michael Jordan became the greatest when he embraced the team concept and Phil Jackson knows this, so it is odd for him to allow Kobe to play like this. Maybe the Zen-master feels he needs to let Kobe get this out of his system.

Long story short, there have been other great scorers in the NBA. Kobe’s performance is indeed spectacular, but his selfishness is bad for the game of basketball. We call AI selfish for his shot selection, but since Kobe has a higher percentage, I guess it’s OK. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kobe break Wilt Chamberlin’s record before it’s all said and done. If it happens, I won’t be as impressed as I thought I would be. From what I see, defense has become worse in the NBA since the mid-90s, now that so many players have lucrative contracts before they’ve even dribbled a ball. The Jordan years (particularly the earlier years) was the last era where we saw contracts based on earning it in the league. I could probably score a good 30-35 points in a game nowadays with my rusty self. I’d prefer to make the news however, if I had a triple-double. At least my teammates would have been involved.

Dr. King Day, what a day to remember

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Interesting day today. On the day we celebrate King’s life & death, I had a mini-brush with death today. I wasn’t the target, but I could have easily been a victim of a drive-by shooting today.

I park the car at the restaurant where I am about to have a meeting for a radio-hosting job. As I park, I hear 10-15 gun shots ring out behind me. I look in the rearview mirror and can’t see what’s going on. A car comes racing by me and stops a few cars in front of me. Two young men then run up to the car and start shooting at it. I duck down in the driver’s seat and just wait for the exchange to end. If I didn’t wait an extra minute or 2 in the car, I could have been the victim of a stray bullet.

On any occasion, this would have been a heart-wrenching ordeal, but this happened on Dr. King’s holiday. I got out of the car and carried on to my meeting, not knowing if someone else was going to turn the corner and start firing again or even if one of the shooters saw me and thought I would recognize them or their car (I couldn’t). I just told myself that I couldn’t be moved and that I had to press on. We’re too often forced to live in fear and I just decided that wasn’t going to be my moment of fear.

During the meeting, I thought long and hard about how my life could have ended and how I didn’t say goodbye to my wife the way I wanted to when I left the house. On the way home, Michael Baisden was airing his Dr. King show and Baba Dick Gregrory just finished his comments about how the 3 things that we do to kill ourselves quickly are not getting enough sleep, not drinking enough water, and not exercising. I get home and turn on the radio to listen to the rest of the show but the dial stops on WPFW (the radio station I just met with) and it is Dr. King’s final speech. He speaks about not making it to the end goal with us. It was a day of symbolism all around.

On this day, I thank Dr. King and all civil rights activists for their work and I am saddened that the biggest threat to my livelihood is black on black crime from the same people I write to help uplift. I write, perform, and live for all of humanity, but I this work started from a long burning passion to see black people love themselves. It pains me to see this not happening in 2006 on a large scale. King day is seen by too many as a day off, a day to get a car deal, and a day to shake your butt because you can sleep in late. How many parties did you here advertised on the radio in horror (yes, horror) of Dr. King?

Humankind is on a serious path for destruction. You and I owe it to all who came before us to not lose focus. We are soldiers in this war and there will be casualties that won’t always be physical. We must press on. If we kept the legacy of King alive everyday, we wouldn’t need a holiday. My wife and I had an interesting debate about King’s legacy which spun into a discussion of media images and black TV shows. I told her I was frustrated because in the 80s & 90s, we had a good balance of black programming with shows and now everything I see is comedy or promotes more black stereotypes. This is
the subject for a future blog so stay tuned.

I am proud that we have this holiday and with today’s events, I am more inspired to press on with my work than ever before. We as soldiers in humanity’s war against ignorance need to reflect 365 days a year on how to live peacefully. King’s holiday should not be the equivalent of sinning 6 days a week and going to church on Sunday for purification. Let us live life to the fullest and if we learn anything from King this day (I learn something new every year), let us learn that life is fleeting so say what’s on your mind and only apologize for being too stubborn to listen to anyone who may offer you a differing opinion. Think before you speak. Write before you fight and remember—we are only as humane as our most inhumane soul. Peace be unto you.

To hell with the dark continent

While peacemakers cheer the new “peace process” and transitional government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa), massive human rights violations are still taking place in the east, including rape as a tool of war and mutilations. Mass graves are still being uncovered in Bunia. Now I could say that this is a result of a war (supposedly ended) that has killed over 4,000,000 in four years. I could say that this war has caused a second genocide in less than 100 years that has gone without mention. I could say that the root cause of this war is the world's insatiable thirst for diamonds, coltan, copper, rubber, and gold that began even before King Leopold II infected the Congo with his Acquired Immune Dictatorship-from-a-distance Syndrome. I could even say that in addition to corrupted Congolese leaders caught in their own scramble for Congo, this war is a result of Western forces such as the United States and Belgium, who have participated in assassinations of democratically-elected Congolese leaders so as to insert a leader (Mobutu Sese Seko) whose 32-year dictatorship easily rivaled Saddam Hussein's. I could say that is why mass graves are still being dug up, the proliferation of child soldiers continues, and women are still be used as sexual toys. I could say all this but what’s the point? Nobody gives a damn about the Congo, much less Africa.

I watched coverage of the war on Iraq from before day one. As much as I empathize with the people who suffered under Saddam, I kept asking myself why no one cares about US-supported dictators in Africa. I wondered, rather than debating whether America is responsible for Saddam because of the support he enjoyed in the eighties and nineties, why is it that no one talks about the current support that Rwanda and Uganda receive from America, even though these countries invaded Congo twice within the last decade? I wonder why it is that Americans do not realize that our purchase of cell phones, computers, and diamonds have indirectly supported this genocide. The reason is that no one gives a damn about Congo, much less Africa.

Once again, Africa has vanished off the map of human concern. The average American is resigned to the fact that whatever transpires in Africa is destined because Africans are savage and "unsaved." Africa is still the Tarzan-inspired, AIDS-infested country where people die because they are heathens. I even wonder how many readers will gloss over the fact that I just referred to Africa as a country and not a 54-nation continent. I can do this because, as you'll find in many of your conversations, we recount our travels to China, Brazil, India, Canada, and Africa. To the average American, Africans have been engraved in our mind's constitution as three-fifths of a person from three-fifths of a continent. I should actually say four-fifths since Northern Africa is so conveniently left out of the doomsday-statistics concerning the continent.

As disheartening as these facts are, as a former middle school teacher, I looked every day into the eyes of America's future and saw the cycle continuing. Before I showed videos of my travels to African countries, I had my students write about their images of Africa. I got the same answers you probably would have given as a child (or give now as an adult): far, half-naked heathens, "people" living next to wild animals, dirt roads, huts. However, after seeing my videos of African cities, my students asked to take a field trip to “Africa.” It was no longer far. It was no longer savage. In 15 minutes, I often changed images of Africa that these children had learned since birth.

While I never heard the word "spic," "chink," or "kike" used to refer to any of my Latino, Chinese, or Jewish students; insults such as "African bush-boogie" or "African booty-scratcher" roll off the tongues of my students whenever a dark-skinned student aroused their ire, particularly if that student had a "foreign" accent or name. Is this the melting pot that we are striving for in America? Is this indicative of a nation that promotes true understanding of diverse backgrounds and is open-minded towards the beliefs of others?

It seems that we Americans talk about embracing differences only when we feel threatened by a foreign agent or domestic upheaval. Since Africans in the Diaspora are, for all intents and purposes, complacent with the stereotypes put forth about them throughout the international community, Africa will continue to be that dark, faraway, unsaved country (yes, “country”).

I could tell you about my cousin in Congo who died of tuberculosis at 22 years of age; which happened on the day I met him for the first time, because his family could not afford medicine. I could tell you about my other cousin in Mozambique who is living with AIDS and has already lost her husband to the AIDS grim reaper because he had to choose between money for expensive Western AIDS medicine or financial aid to feed his children. I could tell you that this great country that invaded Iraq to "liberate" the Iraqis has supported genocidal regimes in Africa. You would probably like that.

On the other hand, I could tell you about the warmth of the African people who opened their doors to me and fed me like a king though no one in the family was working. I could tell you how I honestly felt more safe walking the streets of all but one of the ten African countries I have visited than I do on the streets of America where I can have my life snatched away just as easily by a crook as by a cop. I could tell you that I often think about why I should give a damn about human suffering in Iraq or Israel and how I could never think that way because of an African traditional principle that my mother taught me — hate hatred, not humanity. I could probably even tell you that each time I leave the African continent, I am more inspired that those "savages" are the hope for all of humanity's children. I could say all of this but what's the point? As long we do not have a government, an educational system, and a society that actively challenges its people on misconceptions of a people whose ancestors built this country, the same, irrefutable fact will hold for all eternity — no one gives a damn about Africa.

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In Katrina’s wake, the government is the biggest obstacle to racial harmony (repost from 9-7-05)

“President Bush doesn’t care about black people” lamented a visibly frustrated rap superstar Kanye West on a nationwide benefit concert this past weekend. Right or wrong, his comments are indicative of a discussion that the nation will revisit for years to come. Even as I watched the Sunday morning talk shows such as “Meet The Press” and “The McLaughlin Group,” I couldn’t help but notice how, in 2005, black guests on these shows from former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial to Clarence Page are, in essence, still being asked to “speak for their race” as to whether we see race as an issue in the lack of a strong governmental response to Hurricane Katrina. I sat frustrated watching this because were it not for the United States government’s slow response, as well as the overabundance of black faces on the television, America would not be discussing the race issue in the aftermath of this hurricane.

Throughout the week, I watched countless civilians contributing to the hurricane relief efforts. I saw Americans (and non-Americans) of all racial, religious, economic and political backgrounds contributing food, clothes, money, and even their homes to this effort. One evacuee (not refugee) even commented that he never knew “Texans were so hospitable.” Just as with the tsunami of 2004, the initial response of American citizens was greater than the response of the American government financially. The debate on whether race was a factor began to emerge once appalled citizens realized that President Bush was playing golf and speaking in places such as San Diego promoting his war as the hurricane was taking place. Talks of racism came into play when angry Americans began to compare Bush’s response to hurricanes in Florida as well as with 911 to his response to Katrina. There were no bullhorns speaking of “the people who are responsible for this are gonna hear from us real soon,” because, of course, the Bush administration is “the people responsible” for part of this catastrophe, given its diversion of funds for New Orleans’ levees to the war in Iraq. There were no images of Bush handing out food as in Florida (though I did wonder why he had his sleeves rolled up).

Rather, we saw “the leader of the free world” courageously leaving his vacation 2 days early to think about when he would visit and of course, he would have to visit the states with republican governors first. We saw him take a 45-minute flight to the ravaged Gulf Coast where he apparently received no hurricane update only to spend 20 minutes upon landing getting a briefing of the hurricane outcome by republican officials anxious to demonstrate their own style of sycophancy rather than agony on the part of their citizens.

It was at this point that the debate on race became full-blown. After all, many who brought up the issue of New Orleans’ infrastructure over the years questioned whether race or poverty was a reason why there was no response to their studies. Groups such as The Congressional Black Caucus, and news reporters such as CNN’s Aaron Brown began to publicly ask the question of what the response would have been had this disaster occurred in a more affluent area or in other parts of America where citizens had a stronger (republican) voter influence.

The fact of the matter is that if the response of this government was faster, there would be no substantial discussion on race. It is truly a sad state that now on college campuses, in high schools, churches, and other community organizations; we are going to have this debate, which will further divide us as an American people. Just as Bush had an opportunity to bring parts of the world closer and less resentful of America post-911, the President had an opportunity to show all Americans that the tired, the weak, the poor, the black citizens of this country really do matter. Bush has failed miserably in this endeavor. It’s pretty safe to say that many black Americans could care less to hear Bush say during his 20-minute nationally-televised debriefing that he wants to see Trent Lott’s house rebuilt so he can sit on Lott’s porch. Trent Lott of all people? Is this what America waited five days for?

In the coming weeks, as the Bush administration scrambles to cover their posteriors quicker than hurricane evacuees, we are going to see a level of spin that we will trounce what we witnessed during the recent election. Similar to anyone who opposed the war in Iraq being called unpatriotic; and similar to the way the Bush team flipped the debate over his military service to America debating over the service of John Kerry (who actually was in Vietnam); the republican party will now call anyone who brings the issue up of race as trying to exploit this situation for political gain. Some democrats will continue to press the race card, particularly as we move closer to the next election. It is for these reasons that the government on both sides of the zoo, will never have to answer the question of race, even though it is the government that is entirely responsible for the debate of a racial response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The media is partly culpable in this debate as well. When one sees pictures with captions of black people “looting” and white people “finding” food, and overwhelming pictures of black suffering faces being compared to refugees in Africa (with this biased media, there are apparently no white refugees that merit comparison in other parts of the world and no Asians, Latinos, or Native Americans living on the Gulf Coast), it became obvious that a less-informed mind would believe that there are only black people who suffered from this hurricane. Despite these images, even if it was only black people who were dying in this situation, the response by Americans would still have been as massive as it has been. Why is it that oftentimes it is the average American that shows her belief in the tenet of all men being created equal before the government? After all, the multi-racial march on Washington in 1963 was a call for the government to stay true to its promise of all Americans being equal under the law.

I urge all Americans (and non-Americans) to continue to do all you can in the event of this calamity. I urge you to continue open the doors to all evacuees of all races, and to continue to contribute money and clothes to your fellow American. Your efforts are going to be the most significant testimony on where we have truly come in America on the issue of race. Regardless of your political affiliation, you must admit that the response of our American government has set us on a backwards trend towards any type of racial harmony that many Americans still believe that we have a chance of achieving.

A million little lies?

I've been hearing stories about thesmokinggun.com's report on the false statements in the book "A million little pieces." I haven't read the book, but I have a largeer question: do we spend too much time lauding over people who are former criminals and create circumstances of their own doing and then reform themselves? What about the people who go the right path all of their lives? What do they get?

As a trilingual poet/mc who has never been arrested, I often ask my friends and family if I would get more exposure as an artist if I was a former drug dealer, sex offender, pimp or something. Would people then praise the fact that I went to some of the world's greatest schools and spend my life and time trying to motivate young people to respect one another and live in peace?

On a more important note, society is going in the opposite direction. I believe in prison reform (especially in the U.S.) and other programs designed to help those who may have gone done a particular path of negativity. At the same time, I also believe that we cannot brush to the side those young people who have lived on the straight and narrow all of their lives. They need attention. They need respect. They need to be lauded. Believe it or not, there are young people who believe they will become more popular once they go through the criminal justice system or even if they get shot. Call it the "50 Cent effect" if you like, but 50 Cent exploits the problem, he is not the cause of it. This is a systemic problem in a society that from its leadership on down condemns intellectualism.

This is the world according to "O". We must begin again to reward intellectualism and to not glorify violence and drugs. For you young people out there, don't glorify a life you don't live and don't try to gain notoriety by who you hurt. You are better than that. This is a movement that needs to be led from the bottom up, starting with the return of parents and community elders to their rightful authority role. I find it interesting that so many elders talk about the good old days when a community raised children but we are the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren of this community and we hate eachother so we must examine where this disconnect occured and why. We have become too critical of each other. The old hate the young and vice versa. The buck stops when we talk and not point fingers. Changew will occur when we look in the mirror and reward righteousness and responsibility. Let's grow together! Peace.

Just me! Photo by Cinclair Photography!

Welcome to my blogsite!

Greetings!

This is Omekongo (www.omekongo.com). Here you will find what I think about anything that's on my mind. I hope you listen and learn from my perspective and also respectfully share your thoughts with me too! My goal in life is bring positivity to the light so let's do it!