Mitch Albom and the N-Word
This morning’s Detroit Free Press has an interesting article from Mitch Albom,“Examining the NFL’s Debate for Penalties for N-Word.” In the article, Mitch writes of his discomfort with the NFL’s new rule fining the on-field use of the N-word, while decrying any use of the N-word.
There’s lot of places to go with this, but let me address two consecutive sentences in Mitch’s article:
“Look. I don’t shake the rafters of this idea and find sociological ghosts of white supremacy. I see a multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry worried about its image.”
What are the unspoken assumptions within those two sentences?
1. White supremacy is a thing of the our past- a ghost.
2. The present, multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry has no vestiges of white supremacy, particularly as a means of protecting its image within a culture of whiteness.
3. There are no connections between assumptions 1 and 2 above.
Let me start with Mitch’s assumption that “white supremacy” is a thing of the