Bennett's 'Black (Stereotype) Olympics' a disgusting display
By Mike Freeman | CBSSports.com National Columnist Follow MikeIf you want to see something that sets back a group of people 50 years, please, watch this video.
In it Martellus Bennett, who plays for the Dallas Cowboys, performs The Black Olympics on his YouTube's Marty B TV. Bennett's Black Olympics features a fried chicken eating contest, watermelon eating contest and Kool-Aid drinking contest.
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| Martellus Bennett must have had his own 'bowl o' stupid' before coming up with the 'Black Olympics.' (US Presswire) |
The only thing missing from Bennett's Black (Stereotype) Olympics is him finishing off the event by smoking a pack of Newports. Or washing down the 'melon with some grape soda.
I'm sure Soledad O'Brien had this in mind when she started filming Black in America 2.
On the next episode of Marty B TV: Bennett does a production of Mammy with Fuzzy Zoeller.
Somewhere W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Ralph Ellison and Dr. Huxtable are rolling over in their graves.
We all sometimes make mistakes and public fools of ourselves (I do it three times a week with this column). But Bennett is making a habit of using his own people as racial cannon fodder. Remember, this is the same fool who was fined over $20,000 after he recorded a rap video that used so many epithets to describe blacks and gays it would've made Richard Pryor blush.
And I know what you're going to say. You're going to play the Dave Chappelle card. You're going to say, "If Chappelle did this, Freeman, you'd be laughing your ass off."
Three things:
First, Chappelle is funny.
Second, Chappelle uses racial humor to make a larger point about racism specifically and society in general. He's sarcastic, witty and biting. There's nothing redeeming about what Bennett does. It's an attention grab at the expense of his own people. That's it.
Third, Chappelle is funny.
Part of me can't blame Bennett too much. He's just 22 years old. He grew up watching the self-hating stupidity of Tyler Perry and listened to certain types of rap music (not all but enough) that do nothing but degrade blacks, women and gays.
Blacks have fed a steady diet of the N-word to our own for some time so we can't be surprised when a child of that disgraceful nonsense grows up and becomes Bennett.
Point taken. Roger that.
But it's time for older, more mature players and coaches on the Cowboys and throughout football -- black and white -- to get in this guy's ear. Make him understand the awesome power he has in his hands as a high-profile NFL player; that's it's a power which can do tremendous good or tremendous harm.
Maybe it's time for even the commissioner to get involved. I'm serious.
The commissioner can ask a small group of former NFL players like James Harris, Jim Brown and Warren Moon to discuss how difficult it was for African-Americans historically in the sport. They can meet with Bennett, cobble together what's left of Bennett's pride, and give Bennett, you know, history books. Books that describe the era when blacks weren't allowed to play professional football and stereotypes like the ones Bennett publicly embraces were used as ammunition.
People like Bennett weaken the argument when legitimate cases of discrimination and ugliness arise because he dramatically lowers the racial bar.
And I don't see Arab-American athletes doing The Terrorist Olympics or Italian athletes doing the Mafia Olympics or, as the site Youbeenblinded.com points out, Boston Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis doing The Jewish Olympics. It's doubtful Yao Ming is performing The Chinese Olympics complete with a rice-eating contest.
No, but Bennett feels the need to do The Black (Stereotype) Olympics.
Talk about brainwashed.
No, no one is perfect, but most people also don't go out of their way to prove it on YouTube, embarrassing their team, their league and their race while doing so.
Somebody shake this guy up. Quickly please.
Because next up for Bennett on Marty B TV: The Black World Cup.
With Carlos Mencia.
