Tuesday, October 25, 2005

On Montgomery buses, the first four rows were reserved for whites. The rear was for blacks, who made up more than 75 percent of the bus system's riders. Blacks could sit in the middle rows until those seats were needed by whites. Then the blacks had to move to seats in the rear, stand or, if there was no room, leave the bus. Even getting on the bus presented hurdles: If whites were already sitting in the front, blacks could board to pay the fare but then they had to disembark and re-enter through the rear door. Some other interesting things in the news: Nasa is now seriously considering the idea of an elevator to space. One cable would be tethered to some point here on Earth and the other end would be held under tension somewhere in the atmosphere because of centripetal forces. It was never thought of as a reality before because they didn't have the right material for the cord, but they recently discovered a material that could be used under those conditions. An interesting article: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-1.html And... the NBA Commissioner has recently instated a dress code requiring players to wear "business casual" during public functions, press conferences, pretty much anywhere where non-family members are going to see you. Now, there have already been claims that this is racism and claims by others that it is treading on a player's personal freedom. But is it? In my opinion, David Stern brought all this on himself. For years he's been courting the 'hip-hop' culture and now the slippery slope has gotten too slippery for him. When you authorize games like NBA Street to represent the image of your league, when you let your players make millions off sneaker contracts who now won't even be able to wear those same sneakers to the games, he deserves to be in the mess he's in. So, what about those claims raised by players? On the racism point, I say no. I think the confusion comes when people automatically tie "hip-hop" to "black." Hip-hop isn't owned by black people and it never was. It might have been created overwhelmingly by black people but hip-hop, at its core, is an idea, and ideas can't be owned; they're fluid and subject to evolution. A doo-rag isn't germaine to a black person's history/identity. So, when David Stern tells people how to dress according to certain standards, he does it as a businessman, not as a white man. On the point of trampling personal freedoms, well, yes it does trample on their freedoms. But, in this situation, these guys have no personal freedoms. You might say, "their business is on the court, so why do they have to dress a certain way off the court," then I would say their business extends off the court also. Everywhere that they're seen by the public, they're a living representation of the business called the NBA. I guess I'm in favor of this because I always enjoyed seeing Jordan arrive at a game looking like the smoothest mofo that ever lived--it gave me something to shoot for. I'd rather see guys walking around like that instead of this: