Living in the state of Mississippi, I have been able to learn a lot about the history of racism. This state has had it’s fill of racism over the years, something we are not proud of here. Thankfully over time the racism has subsided some, although it still exists. Mississippi is home for some of the greatest athletes and some of the greatest actors of all time. Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Brett Favre, Morgan Freeman, Oprah WInfrey, Elvis Presley, and the great author John Grisham just to name a few. There are many more that I could add to the list. Each of these people all dealt with racism in their own ways.
In boxing we have two incredible fighters in Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Both men claim to be the pound for pound king. We all know by now that the Mayweather’s have accused Pacquiao of taking steroids. And we all know by now that Pacquiao in response has filed a lawsuit against them for making such baseless accusations. A line was drawn in the sand, thus wiping out the possibility of the two men getting into the ring, until now. Since all of this happened, Pacquiao defeated Clottey, and Mayweather defeated Mosley, igniting the talks once again for both men to settle their score in the ring.
On the sidelines are the fans. The fans have taken their frustrations to a sad level of racial attacks, and tasteless insults. With each and every Pacquiao or Mayweather article, you can bank on seeing racial comments coming from both sides. It’s a disgusting, tasteless, classless way to behave, and unfortunately it doesn’t appear as if it’s going to stop.
Manny Pacquiao has not uttered one racial comment to anyone. Even Floyd to my knowledge has not gone to the race card. Floyd talks a lot, but I have not heard one tasteless racial comment come from him. It’s been the fans of both fighters that have stooped to this level.
What is the motive of someone who makes a racial attack on someone? The purpose is to hurt someone. It’s an attack on a culture that another is proud of. African Americans are very proud of being African American. Asian folks are very proud of their culture. When one or the other attacks with vile racial insults, it’s only purpose is to hurt the other. This is a very poor, weak, juvenile, characteristic, and for anyone to attack another race, religion, or appearance clearly demonstrates that the person doing so has a lot of internal issues to work on.
Why can’t we as fans just enjoy the buildup of the two best fighters in the world without attacking one another? This will be the fight for historians to write about 50 years from now. It would be a real shame if a boxing historian 50 years from now had to include into his or her article that the Floyd Mayweather Vs. Manny Pacquiao fight was great except for the racist fans.
Life is precious, and life is short. I suggest each of you live life like there is no tomorrow because for some of us, tomorrow will not arrive.
