Joel Ward

Doing It Wrong: Joel Ward’s Goal Nets Hate

by dre of onustees.com on 26 April 2012

*enter Classic Cash Money rap line about Ice*

Initially, I was going to use “tell me what kinda, nigga got ice that’ll BLING!, blind ya…” and then “got so much ice you can skate on a nigga…” popped in my head… both lines from B.G.’s classic “Bling Bling” coined by one, Mr. Lil Wayne…

However, I realized that it would cloud the following text with the use of the word “nigga”… and almost thought of excluding it from the post…

Yet, it wouldn’t be true… solely to harp on the racist rants of bitter Boston fans… who have chosen to take to Twitter, Facebook and other social mediums to express discontent of a Black hockey player winning Game 7 of a 1st round match in the NHL playoffs…

Tale of Two Cities…

On the eve of the return of Redskin’s Glory (we hope with the drafting of Robert Griffin, III…) I was out celebrating a close friend’s birthday… the chosen place for the party is much like the Bull & Finch Pub in Boston, commonly known as Cheers… Everyone there pretty much knows each other… and it’s expected that everyone will return each Wednesday from 6pm until… to throw back libations, catch up, plan for the weekend, shit talk, laugh, etc…

I wouldn’t be considered a regular on Wednesdays… but what makes this place great is that once you step in… after the initial… “Hey! it’s YOU!!!” “Wow, you’re out with us tonight?” “Glad to see you here, been awhile…” is done… you pretty much feel like a regular… to use a colloquialism… One feels like they’re with “ya niggas…” Keyword: in that phrase isn’t “niggas”… it’s “ya” or “your”… Those folks who smiled when you stepped in the bar… are YOUR people… your kinship… you have history, culture and just as important a common vernacular…

Which is one reason why… I love my niggas.

Like most bars, this one has HDTVs plastered along the walls… on every other TV was Game 7 of the Bruins/Caps series… normally, hockey doesn’t get much play in this bar… but it’s DC… it’s the Caps… it’s the playoffs… it gets play that night… So, imagine the surprise of the predominantly Black attendees when Joel Ward scored the winning goal! His 1st goal… defeating the defending champions in THEIR home… for those who were clued in… excitement was all about… not Barack Obama wins the presidency excitement… but a sense of pride nonetheless… It was our brother… our reflection… our culture… our nigga… getting mobbed by teammates on the ice…

It’s not too often a group of Whites jumping on a Black man is a good thing…

Sadly, whenever something grand & Black happens in a mainstream (majority) genre the original strain of the term “nigga” is spewed… Primarily, from ignorant individuals too cowardly to profess their true feelings consistently… Only revealing when something near and dear to them is “threatened”… Baseball, Voting, Education, White Women, Stand Your Ground, etc…

This time it was hockey… the last frontier for Black exploration in America’s Top Four sports… Basketball has long been conquered… Football, is all but complete… once the new QB Type takes over… (see: Vick, Newton, Griffin III) that sport will be Black… Baseball, once on our trajectory… has been gifted to the good brothers of Cuba, Dominican Republic and other Latin American nations…

Hockey… has yet to be infiltrated… but once that puck went into the back of the net during OT of the Caps/ Bruins game… those watching the gate (yes, gate… not game…) knew what was coming… “them”… and whenever “them” gets too close to what they hold dear… “them” goes from “Black” to their red alert term “Nigger”…

“Nigger” the Paul Revere of the Standard American English… It’s the bullhorn that rounds the troops… It alerts them of pending “danger”… Encroachment of territory… The audacity of being equal and threat of being greater… It’s their Nuke… The end-all, be-all… The word that strikes fear in the souls of the Negro… the word that leads us to march for it’s abolishment… and have debates with media frontman and dance around with the term “N-Word”… as if magically, “N-word” doesn’t automatically render NIGGER in your mind…

I, however, love the term… it’s a beacon of ignorance… the smoke from fires within enemy camps… readily identifying themselves and location… and most importantly, let’s me know…

They’re not my niggas.

{ 0 comments }