RG III Gets 'Uncle Tom' Treatment
Dec 27, 2012
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To a black ESPN sports analyst, this is the critical question: Is Robert Griffin III, aka RG III, the black rookie sensation Washington Redskins quarterback, "a brother, or is he a cornball brother?" What has RG III done or said to raise a suspicion about his bona fides as a black person? More importantly, what does this have to do with appreciating -- or choosing not to appreciate -- Griffin as an athlete? Turns out RG III fancies himself as a quarterback who happens to be black -- as opposed to a black quarterback. When asked for the millionth time about his status as a "black quarterback," Griffin responded: "I don't play too much into the color game, because I don't want to be the best African-American quarterback, I want to be the best quarterback."
And, when asked at a press conference about Martin Luther King Jr., RG III said: "For me, you don't ever want to be defined by the color of your skin. You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That's what I've tried to go out and do. I am an African-American in America. That will never change. But I don't have to be defined by that."
Holy color-blindness!
Such an attitude doesn't cut it with ESPN's Rob Parker, who in addition to the "cornball brother" comment, said: "OK, he's black, he kind of does the thing, but he's not really down with the cause. He's not one of us. He's kind of black, but he's not really, like, the guy you want to hang out with because he's off to something else. ... We all know he has a white fiancee. Then there was all this talk about him being a Republican."
Griffin is a winner so popular his jersey set a single-year NFL record for sales. Elected high school class president, RG III ranked seventh in his class, graduated a semester early and began college at 17. He graduated from Baylor University in three years with a degree in political science, a 3.67 GPA and two appearances on the Dean's List. He took graduate courses during his fourth year. He is the youngest of three children -- his mother and father both sergeants in the Army. He's had the same girlfriend since college.
Yep, RG III's practically a degenerate.
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