Black quarterbacks have to deal with different things than white quarterbacks. If you don’t think that’s true than you are naïve. [...] I bet Fran Tarkenton, Steve Young, Jake Plummer, and Doug Flutie have never been told by a member of any racial consciousness organization that they don’t play the quarterback position white enough.

After the jump, Michael Fichman parses apart why Donovan McNabb might actually be right.

While the talking heads sidestepped the issue, the second most significant subplot of this past week, Eagles-wise, was Donovan McNabb’s assertion on HBO’s Real Sports that black quarterbacks still face more scrutiny than their white counterparts. (The most significant subplot was, of course, the Eagles’ slow start and subsequent dismantling of the Lions.) Most arguments about existence or lack of undue scrutiny are anecdotal and inconclusive, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Firstly, and most importantly, if we’re talking about the existence or non-existence of undue scrutiny of black quarterbacks, well then, we’re scrutinizing black quarterbacks. The issue is one of subtleties, but it becomes substantially easier to consider it in binary. Is this a topic we are still discussing? Yes. Was Donovan McNabb asked a pointed question about whether race is a stumbling block to his desire to be considered in the same terms as Peyton Manning or Tom Brady? Yes. Nevermind the tenor of the discussion: The mere subsistence of such talk means that race is still a topic which pervades the American dialogue. It would be hopelessly naive to assert otherwise.

Race is perhaps the principal subtext behind all that happens in America. Where you live, what you earn, how long you live, how well educated you are — all of these things are strongly correlated with your race. In Philadelphia especially, many public discussions are underlain by race. Every political appointment — is he white? Is he black? Is stop-and-frisk racist? Is Michael Nutter “too white” to get the black vote? Why should a discussion of Donovan McNabb carry any less of an implication of racial politics?

Many recoil at the idea that Donovan McNabb should be subject to any race-card pandering, but we live in an age where racism moves in an undercurrent, not above ground like decades ago. It’s not OK to proclaim racism anymore. Does that mean it’s gone? Of course not. Any white boy who has worked a day of construction in Philly knows that a messy scrap pile is “a moolinyan job” to give to a white hauler. Any white boy who’s told a MontCo elite that they live in West Philly has received a quizzical look or worse. However, the public admission of racial bias, in earshot of a mixed audience, is grounds for ostracization, as Don Imus recently found out.

Politics and sports are the two arenas in which blacks and whites are considered as true competitors in public debate. Given the ineptitude and corruption in local govenment, perhaps sportsmen are thought of as being even more representative of the region, especially nationally. Allen Iverson was never truly embraced as a representative of Philadelphia, even though he’s possibly the most accurate caricature of a white sports star — scrappy, hard working and indomitable — a true underdog. Granted, all athletes are measured by wins and losses, and moreso by championships. Jeff Garcia, a natural foil to McNabb in this discussion, was only on his Philadelphia honeymoon when he left town, so a comparison would be inappropriate. But he certainly garnered much more adulation than McNabb has at any one point in my memory. Do people think that McNabb’s physical gifts make a championship a eugenic certainty — one which he failed to attain but one for which Garcia valiantly lunged?

Now, is Donovan McNabb subject to increased scrutiny because of his race? He’s made it abundantly clear that he thinks so. Four years ago, he was singled out by Rush Limbaugh as being the recipient of some sort of affirmative action: Quarterback of the Eagles at least partly by virtue of his color, not his talent. So, that a chip should live on his shoulder should come as no surprise, because he was indeed called to answer for race in the context of his position as quarterback, publicly and openly. Perhaps his perception is all that counts.

Postscript:
For Donovan’s take, check out his blog entry about it at Yardbarker.com. Here’s an excerpt:

Black quarterbacks have to deal with different things than white
quarterbacks. If you don’t think that’s true than you are naïve. Peyton, Tom
and Carson to name a few, have never been asked what it’s like to be a white
quarterback. They probably have not been told that they should have
scrambled more. I bet Fran Tarkenton, Steve Young, Jake Plummer, and Doug Flutie have never been told by a member of any racial consciousness organization that they don’t play the quarterback position white enough .

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 12:02 pm.