He may be a spaceman. He may be a race man. But contextually, all that matters is boxing. The rest of it is drivel?
When he?s not The Alien playing the space card, he?s a boxer playing the race card. It?s never becoming and rarely germane, but there?s no denying that he?s a black man in a white world that is often indifferent when it?s not downright hostile.
The latest from Bernard Hopkins regards the supposed lack of attention his accomplishments have received. Perception is reality and Bernard?s perception is his reality, but not all realities, let alone all perceptions, are created equal.
In the lead-in to Saturday?s fight against Sergey Kovalev, Hopkins, presumably attempting to explain his unpopularity, and not just having fun at our expense, told ESPN?s Brian Campbell, ?[It?s] because I?m black. What do you think if my name was Augustine, Herzenstein, Stern? Cappello? Marciano? Don?t you understand the conflict of interest??
It wasn?t that long ago that the Sterns and Cappellos were the equivalent of white Negroes. The Italians and Jews (and Irish and Poles) worked their way into the system, but it wasn?t easy and it took decades. They also weren?t, assuming history matters, brought to the country in chains.
?If I was any of those names of any other background, I?d be on every billboard and every milk carton and every place to be,? continued Hopkins, using reductionist thinking to make, and at the same time delegitimize a salient point. ?If we?re talking ?American Dream,? here?s a guy who almost threw his life away and he took this great country?s great attributes and used it?do for self, work hard and be a law-abiding citizen. I?ve done that for 26 years.?
Hopkins inclination to insert race into the discussion is no way to win friends and influence people. Poor beleaguered white men, and even some rich beleaguered white men, believe race has nothing to do with it. They might be right. By the same token, they might be wrong. Blacks can assimilate with varying degrees of success, but unlike the Italians and Jews, they cannot simply shave, go to Harvard, and blend seamlessly into the mainstream.
Hopkins has the right to speak his mind, as do we all. But if he thinks being on a Wheaties box confers significance he is mistaken. He may be a spaceman. He may be a race man. But contextually, all that matters is boxing. The rest of it is drivel.
