Steven A. Smith: Criticizing A Black Quarterback's Performance And Sideline Comportment Is Racist

So. Cam Newton had a great rookie season last year and was over-praised, as many rookies with a great (rookie) season are. This year, he's not faring as well.

In a 36-7 loss to the Giants, a team captain chided him for "sulking" on the bench. Obviously, a team leader can't be doing that.

Note that the "Smith" here is also "Steve Smith," but he's not the same Steve A. Smith from the headline. The Smith who gets on Newton hear is a top-flight veteran receiver.

After Newton threw his third interception with 6:36 remaining in the game, backup quarterback Derek Anderson began warming up on the sideline. Anderson came in with about a minute left for the final series.

“I watched D.A. and Jimmy (Clausen), they don't play in 20-something games last year. And they get up and they observe and learn and get those mental reps,” Smith said. “I told him, 'You can get some mental reps or you can sit on that bench and sulk.'”

Smith, a team captain, said he used some “unchoice words” with Newton, who was criticized last year for putting a towel over his head and sitting on the bench at the end of losses.

This is the second time in as many seasons the Panthers' captains have talked to Newton about his demeanor. Offensive linemen Jordan Gross and Ryan Kalil took Newton aside last year and said he needed to bring more positive energy to the huddle.

For what it's worth, Steve Smith (the receiver) is black.

Now, Cam Newton has previously pouted and moped in the previous season, by his own admission. And by his own admission, he said he was a "bad teammate" last season and vowed to do better.

So Steve Smith (the receiver) was getting on him about backsliding on that promise.

So, a Charlotte newspaper ran this editorial cartoon about Newton:

Newton does a Superman pose when he scores, so this parodies that.

So, not really a story here, right? Same old same old: A talented, but callow, rookie is being a bad teammate, perhaps a little selfish, and not really a leader, and is having a sophomore slump, and the local media pounces.

As they always have. The media really only has two stories: YOU'RE FANTASTIC! and YOU'RE HORRIBLE! The middle possibilities -- "You are performing below expectations but not really all that badly" -- just doesn't sell papers, and never has. (Note they are using this non-selling headline with Obama, because the truth of it -- YOU'RE HORRIBLE! -- would crush his chances).

Now this isn't really a story at all. It's boring. I am bored by all I have written above. If you have a life, even a little bit, you are bored by it as well.

But some people find it very, very exciting indeed. ESPN (which is having a banner day) has an idiot named Steve A. Smith who thinks it's... racism.

Actually, he doesn't think it's racism. He's certain of it. He feels it in his bones. And he's angry at white people who attempt to "define" racism for African-Americans. See, only African-Americans can define racism, and they are (or at least one is) defining racism as a Hello Kitty t-shirt cartoon about a black quarterback who has previously been yelled at for mopery by his teammates and has just been taken to task about it by his veteran team-captain black all-time-all-star receiver.

It becomes racism the moment a White Person notices, especially in the South (which is 75% of Steven A. Smith's argument).

Steve Smith (the receiver) can notice that Newton is relapsing into his bad old sulky mopery ways, but you're not allowed to. Because agreeing with Steve Smith, who is black, would be racist, if you're White.

He's permitted to comment, you are not. He has that right based on skin color; your skin color, on the other hand, strips you of that right.

Who's the racist here, again?

Video below. Here's the link.

Punked: Steven A. Smith had a silly article written about him in The Onion -- parodying his insipid "Let's have an argument about everything" schtick -- and he got very angry about the various inaccuracies in the "reportage," not realizing The Onion is fake and so is every story in it.

He rebuts, forcefully, the allegation that he has a 9 year old son and soon will give him "The Argument" (not "The Talk," but "The Argument") about the birds and bees.

"It’s a big milestone in every father-son relationship to sit your child down and dispute his pathetic ideas about the birds and bees,” said Smith, fondly remembering his own father belligerently talking over him when he got the sex argument as a boy. “He’s at that age where he’s starting to hear some things about sex at school, so it’s important for me as a parent to corner him on his logical inconsistencies and force him to admit he doesn’t have the experience to know what the hell he’s talking about.”

So this was an article parodying this jackass' jackass belief in his power to argue every stupid thing that drifts into his cavernous skull, and what did Steven A. Smith do?

He argued about it.

Thanks to JackStraw.

Thanks to @PopinjayRose.

posted by Ace at 02:25 PM

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