Jordans: 21st Century Crack: The Miss Education of a New Negro

Looking back at many of the great African American athletes of the 20th century, the unsuspecting eye would have us believe that Michael Jordan was the best athlete to walk the face of the earth. If we think about it, Michael Jordan is a business machine; where ever he goes, his name spells dollar signs. In his past, he put fans in seats of the NBA. Currently, he still puts customers in shoes. His scoring record is astounding. For 10 years (1987-1997) he lead the NBA in scoring. For three years he scored at the bare minimum, 30 points per game. In his career he has scored nearly 6000 points. Athletically, in the sport of basketball, he was a juggernaut. Business wise, his products make billions. When he signed with Nike in 1984, his shoes were relatively unknown. However, once he started receiving fine upon fine in the NBA for his willful defiance to league rules, (aside from the fact that he was just that damn good) he single handedly thrust Nike, a traditional "mom and pop start-up" sporting goods company, into a national phenomena among urban youth. Jordan represented the quintessential archetype of today's post modern athlete. Not only did he have "the skills to pay the bills," but he was savvy enough to surround himself by marketing mavericks to promote what would eventually be called brand Jordan. But is he really the greatest African American athlete or is Michael Jordan a product of political conservative Reaganomics? If we were to de-construct Michael Jordan in a political schema, I maintain that one can see a well paid prototypical indentured slave on the mythical Nike plantation. We can see a man who has offered his body for sport and capitalism, yet willfully remains mute on any hard political stand, especially in matters where his product, Jordans, have in some cases lead to the loss of life in the urban communities, years too soon. In one of my twitter discussion groups #Blackedu, the facilitator was rather plain in her position of parenting and education in matters of Jordans. In their tweet, they pointedly found fault with the parent who would blindly pay $180.00 for a pair of sneakers, yet fabricate a plethora of excuses to get their child a free library card. That's a provocative commentary. Taking a "Shellyian" like approach, I raised a counter question, do we problematize the parent who elects to purchase the "Js" over the library card, or do we challenge the greater society which extols the twisted myriad of materialistic values a pair Jordans may signify. Are they a fashion statement or are they a signifier for which one will live and die for? In my teaching practice, I have had to silently bite my tongue and grit my teeth when I see a revolving door of students who will have seven pairs of Jordans and not one text book for my college classes. When you think about it, at the estimate, that is $200.00 for seven pairs of shoes totaling $1400.00 which represents a sizable chunk of one's tuition bill or their book money, or in some cases, student rent. However, because of the value that is placed on a sneaker, which only costs $20.00 to make, there is in my humble opinion, a gross "Miss Education of the Post Modern 21st Century Negro." First, I think we have completely forgotten who and what makes a true African American athletic hero. The hero/she-ro can't strictly be "all about the Benjamins." Althea Gibson was the first African American to win Wimbledon. My cousin, the late Arthur Ashe broke barriers not just in the sport of tennis, but also in his quest for equality, in the mid 80s he was arrested for protesting the political ideology of Apartheid at the South African embassy in the United States. In 1992 he also was arrested for protesting the treatment of Haitian refuges. But, if one really wants to discuss the true greats, aside from Jackie Robinson, we must discuss Muhammad Ali. Sure, pop culture knows about his refusal to fight in the Vietnam war. Certainly, we know about how he won the title on three separate occasions. Most recently did I learn of his diplomatic skills in securing the release of American hostages before the first Gulf War. But what is scary about that is that my younger brothers and sisters (of all ethnicities) don't know about these acts of heroism, let alone care. Instead, we have some misguided souls of black folk who are willing to live, breathe and die, for an obscenely overpriced $25.00 pair of rubber and leather shackles, as opposed to a book which serves as a key to emancipation from their ignorance. Jordan unequivocally has given his body to the sport which has created family wealth. But in return what has he given to the people who pay for his merchandise. What has he given to the people who make his product in slave sweatshops in Asia and Mexico? To me as I look at the Jordan shoe, it is analogous to crack of this generation and Michael Jordan is "Neno Brown." Second, where is Jordan politically? I am not speaking in the sense of a political party affiliation, but instead, where does he stand on serious issues? It is important to deconstruct Michael Jordan not as a man, as a business entity. As Michael Eric Dyson pointed out back in the late 1990s, when Jordan had an opportunity to use is social capital to stand behind the Sonya Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center at UNC Chapel Hill, he was silent. When Jordan learns of the oppressive sweatshop practices to manufacture his shoe, he is silent. Could it be argued that all Michael Jordan wants urban folk to do is buy his shoes and buy is cars? Don't get me wrong, I love sneakers, I really do, but where is the line between buying a shoe and making a political statement. Where is the line between the African American athletic hero and African American athletic slave? Ali, Ashe, Gibson, Robinson and a host of others have done a hell of a lot more for human rights but in the pop culture sphere, they don't get the credit, let alone the merchandising profits. They don't get the street credit that Kobe, or Lebron walk into. The true African American athletic heros valued things that money can't buy. They valued education and emancipation. They were born from the struggle of what it meant to be human, their own cultural agent and not a corporate lackey for Nike, Coke, or Fruit of the Loom.