During Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals between the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns, Chris Paul’s wife and mother were accosted and assaulted by a miscreant. As I noted in my first article on this incident is the latest escalation in an alarming continuum in the severity of fan and player interactions.
What is also disturbing is the lack of coverage this episode received; it made the rounds on the usual suspects of Inside the NBA, First Take and Undisputed, however, by and large, it was flatulence in a zephyr, and little else has been said about it. Even NBA commissioner Adam Silver did not address the crime directly, saying that sports gambling was not the cause of these increasingly acerbic contact between players and fans.
MeToo has been suspiciously mute on the affair, considering they have lauded themselves as a movement that is fighting against the mistreatment of women. In the incident in question two women were harassed and assaulted, which should make it precisely the type of event they would be shouting from every mountaintop about and calling for for the need for protection of these ( and all) women and repercussions. However as the victims were black Americans and the attacker/heckler was a white male, their history has shown that protecting the former and going after the latter, has never been their MO. The defeaning silence should come as no surprise considering MeToo founder Tawana Burke’s goal is not truly the protection of black women ( at least when their abuser is white), saying that it was not her job to go after white men.
Jemele Hill, Cari Champion and Malaika Andrews have all been as quiet as church mice over the incident, as all three have track records of having no qualms when it comes to going after black men, The formers may still be licking their wounds from their latest media failure, so the focus for them may be elsewhere. Andrews was full of verve when she finger-wagged at Kyrie Irving, but was strangely silent on the attack of the wife and mother of Chris Paul.
Not one feminist organization has come out in support for the Paul, nor have they said there needs to be more safeguards in place or even that the offender should be punished for his deeds. Once again providing a stark reminder that the feminist movement was not, is not, and has never been concerned about black women.
Although the Dallas Mavericks have banned the young hooligan. for what that’s worth, but that seems to be the only negative ramifications, as the fact that he is a minor coupled with him having the complexion for the protection has largely shielded him from any real punishment or any news about a potential negative consequences he might face.
Just as with Chad Wheeler,once again the sports media only plays passing attention to an instance of a black woman, or women in this case, subjected to harm from someone other than a black man.
