Notional Brotherhood Week
All your bigotry are belong to us
There is a certain category of people who will claim not to be racists while doing racist things. For instance, This all-white basketball league. Here’s what they have to say for themselves:
Don “Moose” Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA, said the reasoning behind the league’s roster restrictions is not racism.
“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” he said. “I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like.”
Racism is implicitly about creating an “us” to contrast with “them”. In academic terms “otherization”. “We” have “these qualities” (usually positive), and “the other” have “these other qualities” (usually negative). “We” have the “protestant worth ethic”, while “they” are “puritanical”. “We” are “civilized” while “they” are not.
Lewis said he wants to emphasize fundamental basketball instead of “street-ball” played by “people of color.” He pointed out recent incidents in the NBA, including Gilbert Arenas’ indefinite suspension after bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room, as examples of fans’ dissatisfaction with the way current professional sports are run.
Alright, let’s ignore that bit about “people of color”. Truth be told, I kinda like that phrase, and wish it weren’t taboo.* What Lewis is doing here is contrasting “fundamental basketball” (whatever that is) with “street-ball” (again, whatever that might be). In general, I can say that Americans tend to like “fundamental” and hate “street”.
Oh wait. I missed the other bit. Lewis is also contrasting players of “fundamental basketball” with players “of color” who “bring[...] guns into the [...] locker room”. This is pretty explicit: people who aren’t us are violent.
So there we have it: this league was founded on an “us vs them” mentality that otherizes their fellow human beings as being violent and lesser. Add it all up and we can say with certainty: supporters of the All-American Basketball Alliance are bigots.
Just for fun, I’d love to see one of their teams play an NBA team for charity…
*But it is. And as a white guy, I’m poorly placed to fix that. So I won’t try.