This past week Montrezl Harrell, an NBA player, was under criticism for calling another NBA player, Luka Dončić, a “b****-ass white-boy” during their game. Harrell ultimately apologized two days later before their next game, but in those two days I saw a number of posts on social media saying things like “imagine if it was the other way around” and claiming that there is a double standard. I think this ties into what we saw in the readings this week with Irish Americans claiming they were enslaved and had it as bad as anybody but that “you don’t see them complaining”.
The similarity between the two situations lies in the power to prevent another person from doing something. Dončić being called a white boy isn’t the same as Dončić using a derogatory remark towards Harrell because the term white boy has never restricted the rights of a person. The situation in Barbados was similar with the rights of the enslaved being much more limited than the indentured servants. The majority of indentured servants served 3-7 years whereas slaves served a lifetime. The servants had the opportunity to start their own life after their contract while slaves saw no such liberty. Servants also had protection from harsh treatment by the hands of their landowner. It’s impossible to classify the indentured servants and enslaved as equal because of these differences. Overall, I think this falls into the larger problem of people responding to cries of discrimination with something along the lines of “Hey we were also discriminated against, you don’t see us complaining” which does nothing but focus attention elsewhere.
I really like this analogy. People will seemingly do anything to detract from the suffering that marginalized groups have experienced. It is unreasonable to say that there is a double standard.
I enjoyed the detailed connection you gave in your post to recent events. I too saw things posted on twitter about that same thing, but I did not make that connection back to what we talked about in Barbados. I think that this double standard often gets recognized concerning long-standing issues about racial inequality regarding two different groups, such as the Barbados example. However, little microcosms such as what happened between Dončić and Harrell represent an even more important part of this double standard issue. They show that people think about this standard in events that happen in their everyday lives. Although these events may represent a small piece of a larger series of events, they show that we have to always be vigilant to spot this double standard principle being used against progress for real change.
I really enjoyed your post, Dennis! I think you made a really thoughtful connection between an event that happened in today’s world and something that we learned about in class. It helped me gain a better framework for what we read regarding Barbados and indentured servants, because I agree that the underlying tendency for people to downplay the struggles of one group in order to bring attention to their own people’s struggles is one that is toxic and hindering of progress. I saw many of the types of social media comments that you referenced regarding this incident between Harrell and Dončić. Honestly, my initial reaction was that the treatment of the incident did highlight a double standard within the NBA community. Had Dončić used a derogatory phrase towards Harrell, he would’ve received swift punishment, whereas Harrell got by with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. However, as I thought about it more, and especially after reading your post, I made the realization: of course that should be the outcome! There isn’t a double standard because, although what Harrell said shouldn’t be condoned, it doesn’t even compare to the hateful language used to discriminate, marginalize, and threaten the black community in today’s world. I think we, as a community, have to learn how to deal with discrimination in a better and more productive way. I see this a lot with the issue of police shootings of unarmed black men and women too. Trying to deflect blame, or shift awareness away from real, painful issues does nothing more than compound the issue.