hey jj,
Thanks for the heads up on the posse thing. I had no idea,
hadn't had a chance this week to check out First Take or Undisputed. Shannon
Sharp tried to turn posse into a racial slur and if everyone agrees the
original use (had to look into this) of this term is archaic and unknown to
most everyone, and we agree that Americans, at least, only know this term from
western movies, then it's impossible to characterize the word as racist.
For sure, rap has acculturated the word in song and applied
an old west term to refer to their crew, but also misapplied the term to mean
outlaw gang. I don't know if before this time posse carried negative weight,
but certainly young black people usurped the term and within these
counter-cultures the term posse carried positive connotations, but the
mainstream most definitely feared this new interpretation of the word.
From a cursory search online i found a term called,
"posse cuts" which are music or videos that include such "outlaw
gangs," black crews dressed in old west attire running around committing
crimes, robbing banks, etc., and the earliest of these go back to the late
80's. So, by the time Michael Jordan is winning championships and Phil Jackson
is hitting his stride and being recognized as a "Zen Master," the
term would have infiltrated mainstream vernacular, but still would have been
largely associated with rap and carry negative weight, which would have been
ripe time for someone who wanted to seem hip to start using the term, even if
he wasn't part of the counter culture that claimed the term as their own. And
so, whalaa, enter Phil Jackson.
At this time, he is relevant and young enough that using the
word would endear him to young black players, like look at that crazy old white
guy, he understands our language, kind of thing. He's the coach of the greatest
of all time and MJ likes him so we can too. Besides, the word posse is
relatively new and to have your crew referred to as a posse versus a gang of
thugs is probably appealing because the media is beginning to acculturate and
accept the usage; albeit still negatively perceived by parents and corporate
stiffs. The young, up-and-coming generation is always doing this with language.
Flash forward to 2004 when Jackson makes his comments about
a young 19 year old LBJ. Jackson is still using the term posse and
characterizing a generation that wasn't even born when the term began to catch
fire, and players like Kobe and Shaq are left-over relics of the same time
period so when he says this back then he looks like a cautionary sage because
he still has that shine of zen master glistening all over him, so he gets away
with it. Jackson using this term in 2004 is a little like me when I say,
"whatchoo talkin' bout willis." I think it's funny, but nobody else
does anymore. But I'm not Phil Jackson, and so when he said it in 2004 people
gave him a pass because, you never know, maybe LBJ does get psychologically
wrecked. In fact, I'd go so far as to say, these statements from his book go
unnoticed except by broadcasters and professional sportspeople (I didn't know
he said that), because they're inconsequential and depend on people paying
attention for a really long time...or until something happens to make everyone
remember.
Visa-vie, 2016. Now Jackson, a failing NBA executive, whose
value is rapidly diminishing, uses the word again, effectively negating his
prophesy because LBJ is a juggernaut in terms of business and in terms of
influence, changed the actual infrastructure of the NBA single-handedly, and
now Jackson just looks like an old-headed fool that doesn't realize the only
person who can pull of the word, "Word!" is Dave Chappelle on an SNL
skit meant to expose the hypocrisy and racist infiltration America is still
steeped in.
Ultimately, Phil Jackson has become a caricature of himself,
and that would be fine if he was like Regis or Phil Donahue, old dudes sitting
at home bitching about the way these young punks are fucking everything up for
the rest of us, but he's the GM of the New York Knicks. I love Lebron's statements
though, and I'm not sure who versed him in linguistics and connotation but
someone did, and it doesn't matter because now he knows how to think for
himself a little bit better. It's clear he understands the damage and extent of
racism and it is systemic, systematic, and semantic in its application, and if
we think 150 years of emancipation has erased 400 of slaveholder/slave dynamics
we are laughably underestimating our corporate institutions and cultural
traditions.
Well, i do believe that sound is the sound of the mic
dropping homie! Word...
seacrest out!
Love,
Ozone
