Due to the popularity of the last post, “Q & A with Tariq Nasheed”, and the rising popularity of the site, brilliantbrown’s 5 Questions series will continue on. This week, we have a treat for you sports fans out there, acclaimed sports columnists and TV personality, Jason Whitlock!
For those unfamiliar with Jason Whitlock, he is a mainstay columnist for the Kansas City Star and also writes weekly columns for AOL sports online. Whitlock was formerly employed by ESPN as a columnist on ESPN Page 2 and had appeared on many ESPN shows such as Pardon The Interruption, Rome Is Burning, and The Sports Reporters.
Whitlock is both well respected and well known in the sports community and is a voice of reason in the educated black community. Not only does he write about sports, he also covers topics that include “the Black KKK”, blacks accepting lowered expectations, and many other topics relevant to the black community as a whole.
You can find all of Jason’s REALTALK columns here. Listed below are the links to his more interesting columns:
On to the questions!
For those who may not know, how did you end up working for aolsports.com, rival of your former employer, espn.com? Also, do you miss ESPN?
Well, ESPN and I disagreed about the value of my column for the entire five years I wrote for ESPN.com. The compensation was out of line for the work I did at the Kansas City Star, in radio and in television. But I thougt it was good for me to have ESPN.com as a platform and to be associated with Page 2 when Ralph Wiley, Bill Simmons and Hunter Thompson were also writing for Page 2. Things changed at Page 2 — Ralph and Hunter passed away. In my mind, the association with Page 2 became less important and the value of my column increased when Ralph and Hunter passed. ESPN obviously didn’t see it that way. Kevin Jackson, my supervisor at ESPN.com, told me my compensation would be addressed. I was given a $25 (half a tank of gas) raise. That was about six months before I left. I promised myself that I would take the next good offer I received from a competing web site. I’d turned down previous offers. Neal Scarbrough at AOL made me a good offer and I took it. I gave two week’s notice and wrote two more columns for ESPN.com and bounced.
Do I miss ESPN.com? I miss having an association with Ralph Wiley and Bill Simmons. As for ESPN TV, I had a good six-year run on the network. I’d learned all I could as a fill-in on PTI and Jim Rome is Burning. I miss the people I worked with on those shows. As for the Sports Reporters, don’t miss that show at all. It’s an intellectually dishonest show. Everyone on that show is basically a prop for Lupica’s ego. And that would be perfectly fine if Lupica actually was informed about and involved in today’s sports world. Instead, he’s a little, bitter, insecure man fighting to hold on to his last piece of relevancy. Good luck with it.
**Note**-The Lupica that Jason is referring to is Mike Lupica, a mainstay on the ESPN show, The SPorts Reporters.
Did you have trouble convincing your editors to allow you to transition from commentary on sports to commentary on the state of black America?
Nope. I stated quite clearly in my first column for AOL what I was going to do. I’ve been writing the same style of columns since 1992. I once wrote in the Ann Arbor News an entire column about what Malcolm X would think about the Fab Five. It was at the time that Spike Lee’s Malcolm X movie had just come out.
What is your favorite sport to watch and why? Also, who is your favorite athlete all-time and why?
College basketball is my favorite sport to watch. You can’t beat the energy rush of watching a college hoops game courtside. There’s no better feeling in sports watching. Magic Johnson. I was the only kid in the state of Indiana who rooted for Magic to beat Larry Bird and Indiana State in the national championship game. I just loved the way Magic played the game. His enthusiasm and the joy he took from the game. Plus, Magic used to “date” my sister. Yeah, that used to be a big deal before the “announcement.”
You don’t pull any punches when talking about blacks in America, what do you think are our 2 BEST qualities as a collective group of people and what are our 2 WORST?
Best: We love hard. Martin Luther King Jr. is an example of the kind of love the black community produces.
Worst: We’re insecure. The self-hate and self-destructive behavior are a byproduct of our insecurity. Sorry only one apiece.
Lastly, any advice for young blacks who want to get involved in writing (books, sports columns, etc.) on a large-scale basis and as an aside, who do you have winning the Men’s NCAA basketball tournament and NBA championship this year?
Kansas and the Mavericks. As for advice, be prepared to struggle and be willing to make sacrifices. Be willing to move to a city (or town) where you might not be socially happy. You have to get outside your comfort zone to grow.
–
AJ
Oh, that’s a tough one! It was hard enough for me to move up to New York–away from all my friends and connections, but at least it’s a city where I could find and build a camaraderie among young black professionals. I don’t know what would happen if I took that job in Nebraska.
I don’t know what the future holds, but that would be a difficult jump for me to hop into the middle nowhere.
–Charles
i do agree with his assessment about blacks being insecure though, even in the business world, I’m always overexerting myself to make sure that I don’t get disrespected as a person in charge, I have a thing about that, especailly being the only black person in charge at my job, it gives me an extra edge.
First up, thanks to Jason Whitlock for taking the time to respond to our inquiries. AJ and I really appreciate it.
Whitlock’s answers to question 4 are so very true. I suppose insecurity is one way of putting it. My mom always used to say that as a black man, I’d have to be twice as good to get equal appreciation. I approach most things in life with that mindset… I suppose this is the other side of the insecurity Whitlock speaks of.
In reference to question 2, I’d be interested in reading that article about Malcolm X vs. the Fab Five. Any idea where I can find it?