The Back Story
The Hopkins-McNabb one sided beef started when Hopkins, a Philadelphia-native, questioned the leadership and toughness of McNabb, former quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 to 2009. Philadelphia is a city with very passionate sport fans and as an athlete they will love you if you give it your all in every single game you play in, but will boo and let you have it if you lack effort/heart and possess a "I don't care attiude." Hopkins has questioned if McNabb had the toughness to compete in the National Football League. Well, at least one ex-teammate wondered the same thing: Terrell Owens, who played with McNabb for 2 years in Philadelphia. Owens questioned McNabb's toughness after Super Bowl XXXIX, which led to a drawn out beef with McNabb that was played out in the media (it somewhat reminded you of the whole Shaq-Kobe rift during their time together with the Los Angeles Lakers.) Eventually as time went on the two ex-teammates (McNabb stayed in Philly before getting traded to Washington while Owens went to play for the Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals) patched up their differences a few years later.
In recent articles, Hopkins has called McNabb a slave who worked in the big house (the Philadelphia Eagles) while being a yes man to the Philadephia Eagles (Owner/General Manager Jeffrey Laurie and Head Coach Andy Reid.) Also, he added that McNabb received a cold reminder on what the Eagles though of him when he was traded to the Redskins in April 2010. Hopkins said this quote in the Philadephia Daily News :
"Why do you think McNabb felt he was betrayed? Because McNabb is the guy in the house, while everybody else is on the field. He's the one who got the extra coat. The extra servings. 'You're our boy,' " Hopkins said, patting a reporter on the back in illustration. "He thought he was one of them."
Those of us who are sports fans has the right to question McNabb's leadership or football skills because that is what we do. But using the whole slave analogy to describe McNabb is insane.
Question of Blackness?
Hopkins believes that since McNabb grew up in a nice suburban neighborhood, he doesn't know anything about working hard and being tough. Also, he said that since he, Owens and Michael Vick, current quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, all grew up in a rough environment, they know a think or two about being tough while being raised in a poor community. Hopkins said the following quote to point out how those who grew up poor has an advantage over people who were raised in a middle/upper class neighborhood:
Look at professional boxing. I've never seen a suburban boxer be successful," Hopkins said. "There has to be something in the DNA of the person's experience, of what they overcame, to have that grit; like, I'm going to bite down and let it happen. I just didn't see that in him."
What? I don't know if the statement is true or not, but boxing is an individual sport. That belief does not hold up when it comes to team sports such as baseball, basketball, football, etc. where it doesn't matter what type of neighborhood you grew up in. What matters the most are your skills, heart, desire and talent because if you don't have none of those intangibles, you will lose playing time and wind up on the bench, or worse yet, management might just cut you from the team for good.
According to Hopkins' definition of what blackness is, I guess he would probably question my own blackness as well. You see, my parents raised my brother and I in a middle class neighborhood where there were more whites than blacks. For example, through a 3 block radius, you can can count on hand how many African American families that lived around us (there 5 black families spread among the 3 streets in the neighborhood.) My parents worked hard for everything and they instilled that in the both of us. As an African American you must work hard for everything because 1) In many situations, you are only black face one in the room, group, in the meeting, etc. and you have to work twice as hard than everyone else to prove you really belong and 2) to dispel every negative stereotype people have about you. The only problem here is that every single time you shoot down a negative stereotype, there is someone in our community (African American) that reinforces it time and time again.
What Hopkins failed to point out was that if you're a black person that grew up in a nice neighborhood, you have to be tough and have some thick skin because you still have to go thorough the same nonsense that every black person experiences such as getting stopped by the police; women clutching their purse the moment they see you; people setting their car alarm when they see you either go to or leaving the parking lot; getting followed in stores by a clerk or security guard; The public doesn't know that you live in a great neighborhood. They will just assume that you're from a tough area and they will based their beliefs on every stereotype have heard about us.
Oh, by the way, since when blackness is defined by either growing up in a rough neighborhood; going through the legal system (jail, prison, probation, parole) or standing on the block hustling? I didn't get the memo about that is what we need to go through in order to be a black person in America.
Stop this foolishness
Memo to my people: Stop tearing each other down in the media. The idea of doing that in public with cameras and reporters around is just plain stupid. It's great to see that McNabb did not respond to this nonsense. However, on May 13, Fletcher Smith, McNabb's agent addressed the Hopkins comments with this quote:
"It perpetuates a maliciously inaccurate stereotype that insinuates those African-Americans who have access to a wider variety of resources are somehow culturally different than their brethren,"
I strongly agree with Mr. Smith's comments. We need to get rid of that stupid "crabs in the barrel" mentality in our community, where if one of us are doing something positive such as going to school; getting a job; moving to a nice neighborhood; doing volunteer work, etc. or anything that no else in the neighborhood is doing (i.e. oh, I don't know--talking and acting like you have some sense) we are called a sell-out, or we're not black or we are "acting white."What is so wrong about making some change in our lives to turn it around. If you want to grow as an individual, you must have your own thoughts, opinions and separate yourself from everyone else. You expect me to act just like you--it's not going to happen! Just because I'm into different activities than you does not me less black than you.
The folks in my community (African-Americans) need to wake up and stop this petty bickering over who's black and who's not black. To me, if Hopkins has a problem with McNabb, he should have talked to him-man to-man, not go to the nearest microphone or camera and run his mouth. One more point, Hopkins has some serious money as a boxer throughout the years, so isn't this the pot calling the kettle black (no pun intended.)
Final Word
Personally, since Hopkins has the platform to speak, he should use it to talk about real issues such as : Why is black employment higher (currently at 16%) than the national average (right now, it's at 9%); the sad state of violence in our community; how to find ways to stop the availability of drugs and guns in the neighborhood; why there are so many men, women and children going to bed hungry every night; why there are more blacks in prison right now than in college, etc--instead of picking these one sided fights with McNabb.
The sad thing about the whole thing is that Hopkins is a 46 year old man. You would think that he should be old enough to know better, but I guess not.
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