Serena and Kanye and the 10 Minute Hate

I’m sure by now that most people reading this have heard, if not seen, the now infamous “Kanye West Incident” at the Video Music Awards, and Serena Williams’ sudden meltdown at the U.S. Open. No doubt most of you have heard the veritable avalanche of criticism leveled against them. Some of you may have even weighed in on the matter.

I’ve seen the videos. Read articles and blogs and even a number of tweets. So having giving it some thought, and in light of the whole situation, I am calling for a boycott. No, not a boycott of Kanye West’s next release or Serena Williams’ fashion line. I am calling for a boycott of any further criticism of either Mr. West or Ms. Williams. This blog is now a criticism-free zone.

It’s not that I think a grown man interrupting a teenager’s acceptance speech is a particularly suave move. Nor would I suggest that promising to deposit a tennis ball down a line judge’s esophagus is the appropriate response for a bad call.

It’s just that there is something much more serious and uglier going on than bad celebrity behavior.

It’s not simply the double standards at play or the utter hypocrisy revealed in the uproar. A singer such as Frank Sinatra could hold the patent on rude and arrogant behavior, but still be spoken of in respectful terms as the “Chairman of the Board.” Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe – once the two “bad boys” of tennis – cussed and intimidated officials, smashed rackets and almost came to blows in the middle of a match – and yet are still praised for their competitive spirit and lauded for adding excitement to the game.

But the fact that white males have always been rewarded for their “bad behavior,” is not the main reason I have declared a boycott on criticism of Kanye West and Serena Williams.

It’s the tone of the comments. The tenor of the condemnation. It’s the “joke” by a guest comedian on a purportedly liberal news show about meeting Serena Williams in a dark alley. It’s the liberal use of the words “ghetto” and “thug” and the even more explicit racial epithets and death threats posted on blogs and tweeted. It’s the message, some times as subtext and other times stripped raw of any smug decoration, that Kanye West and Serena Williams have overstepped their bounds as Black people in white America and must be put back in their place. While the mob action is carried out via airwaves and electronics, and not with a rope and tree, a lynching is still a lynching.

Now some may dismiss all this as a gross exaggeration or simply crying racism to belittle and even justify outlandish and boorish behavior. But let’s get real for a moment.

I would be the first to agree that there is simply too much “thug” activity in this world. Just yesterday, a Black woman going shopping with her seven-year-old daughter in Morrow, Georgia, was kicked and beaten by an angry white man who evidently found offense in her mere existence. Last month, in the Illinois city of Rockford, two white police officers fatally shot an unarmed Black man – in his back, in a Church basement, in front of a group of children attending day care. Definitely “thug” behavior that demands the strongest of condemnation, the kind that still seems to be currently reserved only for Black people.

Yes, Serena Williams screamed and ranted a bit, and while not one of her finest moments, no one was hurt, bruised, scarred or permanently damaged. Though Taylor Swift may have been disappointed or upset by Kanye West’s politely-delivered-but-still-rude interruption, she still got her moment to shine later in the evening.

Yet judged by the level of hate and vitriol spewed, one would think they both committed unspeakable crimes against humanity. Then again, to the rabid minions, neither Kanye West or Serena Williams have any humanity. In their eyes, only white people do.

Boycott.