*Trigger Warning: Content mentions R*** and Sexual Assault*
The painstaking decision of enacting cancel culture upon our idols, while a morally just choice in honoring the testimonies of those who experience injustice, can nonetheless feel like the disappointment of a lifetime. However, after the #MeToo Movement in the Fall of 2017, we quickly replaced a litany of Hollywood actors, directors, newscasters, and media figureheads, with entertainers and presenters of the same caliber. When I see “we” I am solely referring to the collective experience of White America, a country with a deep roster when it comes to the potential for individual heroism. However, for non-white Americans, heroism is a constrained and tightly regulated phenomena where Idols are far and few, and are required to reign supreme in their respective discipline or profession for decades at a time. In this sense, non-white idols are irreplaceable because they cannot simply be substituted in the same manner.
Take Barack Obama for example. If I were to ask you who your favorite black president was, you would only be able to come up with one truthful answer. This is obviously because there has been only one black president. Now let’s theorize that Obama was to do something so horrible that he would have to resign from the presidency, giving up his public image and near-immortal status. In catering to the needs of non-white America, would we be able to replace Obama with a black man of similar status? Looking at Obama’s presidency, his legal replacement would be Joe Biden, who’s replacement would be Nancy Pelosi. Diving further down this rabbit hole, another black man would not be considered unless all (presidentially eligible) members of congress and the supreme court were to pass away save Clarence Thomas. Even so, Thomas himself has been accused of gross sexual misconduct, and has historically served as the antithesis of black society, so this would not be a viable solution.
We can now begin to understand that black idols are scare, and that cancel culture carries a double burden for those non-white members of American Society. Reverting back to Kobe Bryant and Davis’s article, I want to speak to a resounding truth about athletics in America. Athletics has historically served as a first step in desegregating society. In many southern states where district officials were weary over the newly enforced mandates of Brown V. Board of Ed., it wasn’t the empathetic sentiment of the South that sought to integrate black students into white schools, but rather the fact that a given school’s football team would greatly improve with integration. Further down the road, when the education system atrociously began to kill of art departments, theatre programs, and afterschool activities in inner city schools, there was always a basketball team waiting to take on socio-economically disadvantaged kids who had been denied access to all other viable alternatives.
As we can clearly see, the perceived potential of non-white children in America is restricted to realm of athletics. In this sense, Kobe Bryant is not just situated at the crux of the NBA, but at the crux of black potential within America. It is also in this sense, that his loss, both physically and reputation-wise, is a double blind for black citizens who once looked to basketball phenom for inspiration.
In terms of wrong doing and restorative justice, there is no harm mentioned in this piece of writing that is greater than the act of r**e, as was committed by Bryant. R**e is never ok. Non-Consensual sex is r**e. Making scripted responses to the charge of r**e that reads more like an athlete making a routine media appearance after losing a regular season game…is also not ok.
However, there is also harm done when a black icon is deemed “irreplaceable”. Let’s look at why. Had there been more black men, in a variety of professions and disciplines, to take the place of Kobe Bryant, non-white America would not have to struggle as much with cancelling out bad apples. Furthermore, we wouldn’t have to pit an icon of black resistance against the impending tide of new-age feminism, both of which are great in tandem and by themselves. Because of a lack of replacement, people hold onto their beloved #10 for dear life, and even fight against the feminist doctrines that say non-consensual sex is not ok. In this sense, the lack of a replacement creates infighting, pitting two positive lines of thinking against one another.
So, while my answer is clearly to cancel out Bryant for his gross misconduct, we should also have ready and viable sources of inspiration available at all times. Furthermore, and despite my long history with athletics (I wanted to be a professional baseball player), we need the kinds of reinforcements who will both inspire and fire on all cylinders. We need black artists, authors, architects, executives and other members of society who reframe what possibility looks like to the underprivileged. We need to deviate from leaving in the majority of black icons within the realm of athletics, a realm that breeds toxic masculinity, and other societal cancers that kids should not be exposed too. We don’t need the next Kobe Bryant, we need a Black Einstein, a Black Hemmingway, a Black Babe Ruth, and Black George Washington, ready to become the object of a disadvantaged youth’s desires when called upon to do so.
