Life's Persistent Questions

Question: do you know what holiday it is this weekend?

President's Day of course. Well maybe. Leading up it, this was known among my friends and family as the NBA All-Star Weekend. No, not the All-Star Game, but a whole weekend, rookie challenge, skills competition, three point shoot out, slam dunk contest, and of course, parties. A weekend when the stars of NBA baseketball, along with their entourage and anyone who want a piece of these stars, converge on the city of Angels. Or Black Thanksgiving as David Aldridge or perhaps it was Michael Wilbon called it on CNN. He is catching a lot of flak for that.

However, 2100 miles east of Los Angeles, some people in Alabama are celebrating the President's Holiday honoring both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson's birthdays, so they say. They are doing so by reenacting the inauguration of another president Jefferson, Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy, that is. The motivation for the inclusion of Thomas Jefferson in the south for this holiday is patently transparent. The President's day celebrates two of the greatest U.S. presidents, Washington and Lincoln, both born in February. Thomas Jefferson was born in April! But JEFFERSON DAVIS was inaugurated in February 22, 182. Although he died in 1826, Thomas Jefferson Day was not written into law until 1938. But nonetheless, the occasion seems a good enough reason to get dressed up like rebels, scream some treasonous slogans, and reinvent the history.

I found this quote particularly powerful, as one Son of Confederate Veterans asked, "“What is it in a man...that would cause him to deny his fellow man the pride and dignity of his heritage?” I don't know what heritage he is proud of. Last night, I watched the players (who are black) compete in the dunk contest. No, to claim that dunking or basketball in general has become the black heritage would be an insult to African Americans and to basketball. But dunking two, three basketballs at once is not the basketball of Dr James Naismith, who invented the sport in 1891. The contribution of Black players to the sport is undeniable, and watch players soaring over the rim, twisting and gyrating, and finally punishing the rim, these are the distillation of their voice, their aspiration and their culture. To deny that NBA is not "black" is like to deny the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery.

I'm just glad that based on the ratings, the "Black Thanksgiving" has a lot more followers than Jefferson's Day.

posted by hedgehog @ 6:29 PM