I'm waiting, Chris Myers

Friday 21 May, 2010 at 11:01 am Bomani Blog 23

The other day, Chris Myers sat in on the Dan Patrick show. While there, he broke the first rule of fill-in hosting on radio — don’t do anything that anyone will remember the next day.

Yeah, he broke that. Here’s the money quote.

It’s a great country here. We have disasters issues when people pull together and help themselves and I thought the people in Tennessee, unlike — I’m not going to name names — when a natural disaster hits people weren’t standing on a rooftop trying to blame the government, okay. They helped each other out through this.

And Mike Helton, president of NASCAR, Tony Stewart, among some drivers went from the race over to the middle Tennesee area where still a lot of hardworking, tax-paying, legal American citizens have been affected by the floods and are trying to rebuild their lives and they are helping out. And I think that other people around the country, of course the music industry in and around Nashville helping, without making a big deal out of it and I think that’s a good thing.

Now, because he’s not a fool, Myers apologized…to the city of New Orleans.

I can’t think of anything more ridiculous.

New Orleans was merely the vehicle he used to express his views. There’s nothing fundamental about that city that brought Myers to make his statement. Myers’ rhetoric was steeped in bootstraps ideology, which is used as often to affirm the greatness of the American spirit as it is to separate “real” Americans from fake one. That would explain why his transition from talking about the complainers of Katrina to “hardworking, tax-paying, legal Americans” was so smooth (complete with a NASCAR shout-out, it should be noted).

This wasn’t about New Orleans or Arizona or anywhere else. This was about people, with locality serving as little more than context for this passive-aggressive attack.

What people? It was about the power and resolve of white people and, by an extension Myers didn’t have to make to make his point, the deficiency of black people. Or, more specifically, about how all black people do is complain when things get hard.

Never mind, of course, that those folks pulling together in Tennessee had a lot of help doing so from dry land. It seems erroneous to compare the aftermath of the flood in Tennessee to what happened in the midst of disaster in New Orleans. If it’s like that, there was a telethon for Katrina. Top that.

Think I’m reaching? Put it like this — it wasn’t all of America that was on those rooftops begging for someone, anyone, to save them from the water. Yanno, the water that had friggin’ nutria rats in it.

And this dude apologized to New Orleans?

Come on, man. You weren’t talking about the city. You were talking about those people. And the only thing you really know about those people was that they were black (and presumably poor). No way in the world you’re going to get me to believe all he was doing was speaking on an isolated incident when what he took from the single greatest American tragedy of my lifetime — and I limit it there because that time is all I can speak confidently about — was people complaining.

No, not the people drowning, or cooking on roofs, or losing everything they had. All they were doing was complaining.

Right.

But don’t apologize to New Orleans, Chris. Apologize to me and the rest of the people that look like me. That’s who you offended because that’s who you were talking about. Myers’ racism is the same racism that partially explains why it took so long to get people off those roofs, why the President of the United States never treated the situation with proper gravity, and why Katrina was largely ignored by the media as soon as the ground was dry enough for everyone to get the hell out.

It’s the racism that we all say we hate but spend so much time trying to ignore. Well, there it is. It’s right in your face, and it was offered without provocation. And, to make matters worse, it was expressed without a semblance of backbone, dancing around the topic as if he just had to say it, but didn’t want to get in trouble.

And an apology to Mitch Landrieu is enough, ha?

I think I chose to write about this because of the significance Katrina plays in my life, for better or worse. I haven’t been the same since. At first, I didn’t get it. Then I got too much, walking around in a malaise for days and days because I was so distraught by what I saw on TV and what I heard people say about the area, the people, and the situation. I haven’t paid close attention to the news like I used to. I’m far more cynical than I ever was, perfectly aware that the only difference between me and the folks on the roofs was a whole lot of good luck.

In many ways, it broke me. I heard a good friend openly weep in the airport when the storm was approaching. I talked to him as he drove back and forth to Houston, looking for a father he didn’t like that much in the first place but couldn’t leave in the Astrodome. It was the end of any idealism I had about how things should be.

But, for Chris Myers, it was a bunch of black people on the roof, whining when they could have been building boats or swimming to freedom or growing wings so they could fly or Macgyvering helicopters to get outta there or something. Hell if I know what he thought they should do.

But I know what he should do now — be real. What Myers said was racist, and it displayed a level of racism that’s disturbing coming from someone whose job is to cover sports, where so many black men participate.

Don’t apologize to a city in a letter. You’ve got access to places where you can do what you should — come out and acknowledge what you said as being racist.

Now, if Myers doesn’t think what he said was racist, fine. Where are the rest of you to tap him on the shoulder, like good friends do, and remind him that what he said was, in fact, racist. You’ve got enough common sense to see through that rhetoric, and it only took me a sentence or two to unravel that thought process.

So, if it wasn’t racism, either Myers or anyone else can answer that — what about those people made them complainers when, under similar circumstances, the people in Tennessee rose up? What makes one group different than another. Given that n > 30 in this case, allowing us to assume the population in Tennessee is essentially the same as those in New Orleans, what made them different?

He said, effectively, that black people are whining malingerers, even when give a chance to fight for survival. We know what’s up. We know what he did. Now let’s call him on it.

There are all kinds of hot buttons in the media, things you don’t go out of bounds talking about because they’re of such great magnitude. Katrina was as much of a horror as any of those things.

Yet this cat can say that, send one fake apology, and it’s over?

Sorry, but I’m not going for that, even if all I can offer on the topic are these 1,100 or so words.

http://opinionsnobodyaskedfor.blogspot.com Jeff

I’m presuming Myers thought that the people who got shot on the Danziger Bridge were whiners too. And the people who got shot by crazy white people in Algiers Point.

I’ve spent a week or so in Holy Cross each of the last two years and the last thing they do down there is whine. Honestly, I kinda wish they’d “whine” more – squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that.
Joseph

We all know what this is and you pointed it out perfectly. There were plenty of legal, hardworking Americans in New Orleans too. What does that have to do with being viticms of a disaster that went overlooked by the government for DAYS! I will never watch or listen to Chris Myers again without thinking of these insensitive, racist comments. He was born on third and thought he hit a triple and now he has the nerve to look down on someone! SMDH!
https://www.twitter.com/Stank_0 Stank-0

I have to agree with you 100%.

I’m not surprised, I mean he is on FOX sports.
Justin Walsh

Shaking.My.Head. This fool just implied black people can’t help themselves, then tried to make a connection that cats on the roof trying not to DROWN and swim through CORPSE FILLED SLUDGE are just trying to blame the government. Nevermind the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers TOTALLY screwed the pooch in Katrina, Chris Myers forgets something: the Obama administration reacted much quicker to the distaster in Tenn. than Bush did to Katrina. I got so annoyed when I read what he said. Just going to say this: If all you do is sports commentary? Shut the fuck up about current events. Dude is a racist.
http://twitter.com/permanent4 Dave

Not to try and belittle your stance on this, because I agree with you, but there will be one or two New Yorkers who might take issue with your “single greatest American tragedy of my lifetime” line, just in terms of sheer numbers of lives lost.

And yes, Chris Myers had himself an Al Campanis moment. Someone needs to get their boy.
http://www.bomanijones.com Bomani

dave, i think that’s a fair point. what tips it for me is the overt indifference of the government. it wasn’t just a tragedy in terms of lives, but also the destruction of an ideal.

the other thing is that, on 9-11, i was totally separated from any sources of news until 4 pm pacific time. that feeling of shock that hit most people wasn’t the same for me, given how and when i got all the information.
Bart Smith

I guess this sort of answers that email I sent a couple of days before Myers made his comments.
PJ

So help me here. Let’s go back before the big storm that Halliburton and GWB cooked up and aimed straight at New Orleans.

What was the “ideal” that was destroyed? Was it 200 years of the French gentry and liberal Democrats, as corrupt and in-bred as any political machine in American history except for Chicago, keeping a sub-culture of talented black people below the level of the big waters all around, for their amusement…a good funeral parade, some good horns, some extras at Mardi Gras time, and some real good yassuh..nossuh servanting.

Katrina exposed the situation.

Chris Myers is clueless, and the rest of you…
JREE

I once heard Chris Myers say on air that its hard being a white man in America.
Krista

No one speaks truth to power like you. “Real hard-working Amurhkins” has been code for “white folks” for decades – nobody’s stupid around here Chris Myers.

I would PAY to see you debate him on Around the Horn or something. You are the best!
lc smith

It could be a cultural thing he’s refering to. 28% of the population of Nashville is African American. How did they (collectively) react to this crisis…? If he feels they behaved as their New Orleans counterparts did, then it’s probably a racist remark. If not, he must be comparing socio-economic regional/cultural differences. Or do all black people always react in the same way because of the color of their skin…
http://theholecard.blogspot.com/ Mack Jones

Bo,clear and to the point. let us know if you hear from Chris.
http://rashadiscrazy.blogspot.com Rashad

Does anyone know if Dan Patrick has addressed this situation or not?
Carla

I had some much to say when I started this comment but I just can’t do it. Chris Myers is an idiot and I despise people who apologize for saying what they truly believe.

I can not speak on Katrina because it is something that has devastated my entire family and the families of all of my friends. The subject is a difficulty one even after all this time. So he can keep the apology because it was empty and meant nothing.
Just for the record if we didn’t pull ourselves up the city would no longer be there.
James

Didn’t hear the comment but your reaction and response is entirely appropriate…And just think how “emotional” Myers was supposedly in support for the Obama (Black man for President of the USA) campaign. You see, I never cut any slack to white America concerning race because it is too ingrained in their individual and collective psyche…I never excuse the work nigger, I never allow racist jokes, I don’t allow close ties, etc. I won’t say all whites are racists because it is not good practice to call people names but I will say that they are all suspect racists and until the global system of racism is extinct, as far as I am concerned all whites will remain suspect…
http://ajamaicanprincess.blogspot.com/ DORRETH WITT

I agree with your reaction whole-heartedly.
Harry

This is our society today. People want to appear not to be racist, so they don’t want to discuss racism openly. But the they go to “code”. And they want to blame the people that call them out.

Let me give you an example. Bomani had a gig in Raleigh, 9-1 on a certain sports station. He approached topics from a different perspective then is normally mentioned, just like he does now. People called and complained; they could call him racist, but they complained that he was all about race. He brought up some tough issues at times and people refused to talk about it openly.

There is another Sports Talk show in that time slot now. Country is the bump music now and there’s plenty on NASCAR talk mixed in. Now I know little about the host; he could be a great guy. But the powers that be didn’t make this move by accident. A larger organization now owns the station and they want to show a big difference from the past.

As an African-American there is something I miss about the south of the 70s – honesty. Where the racists weren’t afraid to show themselves. Now they are all scared fools who hide behind ignorant talk. These gutless wonders make stupid comments and immediately back up.

This is why the subject needs to be talked about, debated, argued. Every day of our life. Because until we all show the respect to one another that all our opinions matter, and the bravery to say those thoughts in the light of day, we are all in the cowardice of our society today.
Steve B

Harry makes some excellent points, my favourite is how back in the day racists were open about their racism as apposed to the closet racists of today. Political Correctness only improves the way people speak about a race instead of the way they really think. And the pity is it makes it harder to identify a racist and deal with him/her on the spot because they don’t speak what’s on their minds.
http://www.kentuckysportsradio.com Wilby

I live in Nashville and I am white. I say this only because it appears my race IS important. Listen I didn’t hear what Chris Myers said. In fact I just checked you out from MJ at KSR.

You know opinions are like buttholes, every one has one. Sometimes it stinks, comes out runny, comes out wrong, leaves a stain, makes you irritable, or just plain stinks. Maybe Myers should have expressed himself differently or completely omitted the conversation on natural disasters.

But let me make something very clear. I have a choice. I chose to not interpret what is or is not racism. Either I can discuss the miracles of life, survivors from Nashville and New Orleans, and magnify hope and truth. Or I can look out my door, see all the differences in the world; all the injustices; and stand still in the darkness hopeless and helpless.

It is my intention to put water on the fire on racism. But the fact is I am white. And my perspective and viewpoint may only put fuel on the fire because I am white, something beyond my control, just like how others act, say, or do.

“People want to appear not to be racist, so they don’t want to discuss racism openly. But the they go to “code”. And they want to blame the people that call them out.I really enjoyed reading obviously sound reasoning on eliminating racist These gutless wonders make stupid comments and immediately back up.

This is why the subject needs to be talked about, debated, argued. Every day of our life. Because until we all show the respect to one another that all our opinions matter, and the bravery to say those thoughts in the light of day, we are all in the cowardice of our society today.”

You know Harry you probably have had experiences I can not relate to.

But I read Bomani bio, much like MJ, He is pretty smart guy. He knows the only way to prevent that from happening ANYWHERE, is to own the station. Hey the web isn’t radio, but my Tennesseee reading glasses says bomanijones.com.

All I can tell you, perhaps the code is the converstation which divides us rather than brings us together. To me, that is gutless.
Harry

Wilby, i respect your points and your views. But here is the bottom line – some things that are said are from closet racism. Now sometimes they are said from ignorance, and I don’t expect someone without my experiences and background to totally understand. But if someone says something that insults my and is race-based, expect me to call it out. And people should respect my view, even if they don’t agree. And I should reciprocate. When our level of respect gets to that point, we have made progress.
The Jug

Does the truth hurt? NOTHING was racist about Mr. Meyer’s comments.

People in Tennessee pitched in to help each other. Black and White were affected by the flood. Black and White banded to gether to help those in need. In New Orleans they shot at rescuers, looted, raped, and robbed.

Your comments are typical of “victim syndrome”.
Harry

What a silly comment. That statement was racist. The “black” area of New Orleans, the 9th Ward, was the least protected area and was built below sea level. They were not in the position to help each other; many did not escape with their lives. Putting your head in the sand and saying “it’s not racism” doesn’t change the facts.
http://fredbatisteonline.blogspot.com Fred Batiste, A Weapon of Mass Destruction

Some of y’all that make statements about the history of New Orleans/south Louisiana are off-base in some regard. You can’t just pick apart a piece of political history in this state (especially in New Orleans) and just simply use it as justification for some useless drivel.

I worked on the Northshore (that’s local slang of suburban areas of New Orleans on the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain) during Katrina. I seen first-hand the chaos. I had friends that are from New Orleans lost everything, including loved ones. These folk, generations-deep in New Orleans, got pissed off when the insurance companies dilly-dallied around settling on their homes which most of them had paid faithfully on for years (was the damage flood- or wind-related? getdafuggouttahere!)…after talking heads bantered about just leveling the city and abandoning it…after the haphazardness the local, state and federal levls of government handled things.

For Chris Myers to get off on that rant is reckless, IMO. For anyone to holler “victim syndrome” is reckless. Victim syndrome damn sure isn’t someone crying uncontrollably because they haven’t found their relatives IN DAYS.

Oh yeah, there’s no such thing as “the black area” of New Orleans. Please don’t comment on stuff when you’re basing it off of snippets of video and audio and not knowing all the historical contexts of what went down here.

Sincerely,

a native Louisianian