Racism Dead? Nah, Just Wait for the Bleep

Article excerpt

Byline: Mike Freeman, Times-Union sports columnist

The Cro-Magnon fan on Line 1 was deadly serious. He had called in to one of the Jacksonville radio talk shows here and complained that James Harris, the black general manager of the Jaguars and former pioneering NFL quarterback, had kept too many black throwers on the roster. The Jaguars are believed to be the first team in league history to have all of its quarterback positions filled by blacks.

Harris was doing it, the man said, because he was attempting to atone for all of the discrimination Harris himself faced as a professional quarterback during his playing career.

Three white quarterbacks on the roster? No problem.

Three black men? It's a conspiracy. It's a plot to keep the white man down. It's the Manchurian Quarterback.

Lovely.

One of those affirmative action throwers, Byron Leftwich, has faced some racial ugliness since becoming the starter. I receive several anonymous racially-charged phone messages a month from a handful of fans and readers who believe they can get a discount by knocking two blacks with one call: they first blast me with racist language, then move on to Leftwich.

One caller referred to Leftwich as a "dumb -- --" before hanging up. Called me the same. E-mailers and callers have used code words when speaking of Leftwich -- "stupid" and "idiot" and "slow." Anyone who has spent 30 seconds with Leftwich knows how bright he is, but no matter to some.

One teammate claimed that Leftwich has received several hate-filled letters, something that was disputed by a person close to the quarterback. Leftwich declined to comment and my guess is he would never make a public issue out of any of this because he believes in simply staying focused on quarterbacking the team.

The people who do these things are in the minority. We know this. I also know that I hear from many fans that support Leftwich (and there are also Leftwich backers on the fan boards). Maybe it is only a few jerks feeling creative with their computer skills and speed dial.

But the point is not so much how many weirdos are doing this, but why, in this 21st Century, when privately funded rocket ships blast into space, and we think our society has progressed so much, is there even one such e-mail or obnoxious posting on the message boards?

I don't live in Pleasantville. It is just that maybe we have not progressed as far as we think. Mainly because many black quarterbacks, both now and over the years, from Doug Williams to Donovan McNabb to Daunte Culpepper to Steve McNair, have faced the problem of dealing with racist fans. The attacks may have subsided some, but they are still there, in some ugly form. They won't go away.

Harris played for three NFL teams from 1969 to 1981 and faced massive discrimination both from the NFL and fans. He has since counseled a number of black throwers, including Leftwich and Culpepper, about the unique challenges a black quarterback faces. …