In a column for the Detroit Free Press, best-selling author and sportswriter Mitch Albom takes New York Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie to task for his irresponsible philandering.
But he didn’t just do that. He called out the African American culture, citing a National Center for Health Statistics study that said that 72 percent of new babies in the African American community have babies born out of wedlock, compared to 28 percent among Whites and 17 percent among Asians.
Cromartie’s credentials: 26 years old. Eight children. Six different women. On its face, Mitch Albom has a point. He does. But in his quest to take us to the party, he didn’t even drop us off at the door; he left us a block up the street. To make matters worse, he took shortcuts to get us there.
Cromartie’s tale is as new as a George Clinton sample. Albom had to have a fresh peg to hang this old narrative on. So taking a cue from Glenn Beck, he uses race to buttress the story. Albom states:
Fathering kids as if you’re watering plants is a growing problem in the sports world, particularly in African-American circles. And if we are going to talk about this issue, we need to drop our sensitivities toward this fact.
No, African Americans aren’t the only ones having kids out of wedlock. But, yes, the news is worst in that community…This is not in the skin. It is not about color. It’s about culture. And if the culture doesn’t change, neither will the pattern.
Albom is right to take Cromartie to task. Cromartie’s – or any athlete’s – misdeeds are fair game to any sports journalist. Yours truly won’t use this space to take up for a guy who struggled to remember the names and ages of his offspring. Even if he was a little nervous about being in front of HBO cameras, this is inexcusable.
But there is something dangerous about calling out a culture without putting it into context of how it intersects with other cultures. The professional sports world is an incubator for rampant sex, favors and “look the other way” crimes. Obviously, this is an issue because of the lack of accountability associated.
People who make the news from this world are overwhelmingly African American, which makes it easy to label them as ruffians and uncivilized. But my man Albom neglected to mention the white athletes who make a living running through women as well.
Maybe by mentioning sexual misdeeds by “other” cultures, it would ruin his neat narrative about the pathology of the African American community. Using a Bill Cosby quote to further his point was a nice touch, if not cliche.
I won’t enumerate promiscuous athletes of this ilk, there are other websites for that. Under the subhead “A Problem For Our Society,” Albom mentions Travis Henry and Evander Holyfield (with the not-so-subtle “who claims to be a man of God” jab).
Nothing about Scott Skiles. Entertainers. The general decline of marriage in America. Or any attempt to tie in this epidemic with a larger picture.
Dan Le Batard penned a thoughtful column on this same topic. While I don’t agree with everything, this is a reversal from Albom’s piece. It didn’t paint an easy picture…and Le Batard was less concerned with finding a villain than examining the issue.
I don’t have a problem with calling athletes out. I do have a problem with moralistic, pompous prose that has a clear scapegoat. Whether Albom is sincere in his desire to fix a problem in society is irrelevant.
He has been writing long enough to know that context is everything. Calling out the “African American culture” and not acknowledging the macro culture from which it spawns is the worst of journalism: It’s sensationalism.
Glenn Beck would be proud.
