Hurricane Obvious or Not Incognito: The Destructive Pathology of White Male Pathologies

Hurricane Obvious or Not Incognito:  The Destructive Pathology of White Male Pathologies by David J. Leonard | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Just this week, Jason Whitlock returned to his familiar playbook: recycling culture of poverty narratives and those demonizing single-parented black homes.  Responding to the sight of the Cowboys’ Dez Bryant passionately demanding that his team do better, Whitlock lamented “Dez Bryant's inability to control his emotions” which to him is “a family dysfunction issue.” Not satisfied, Whitlock continued this line of discussion:
But the reality is, Dez Bryant is swirling in a cultural tsunami every bit as destructive and powerful as climate change.

Let's call it "Hurricane Illegitimacy." Its victims are primarily black and brown, but Hurricane Illegitimacy is a not black or brown problem. It's an American problem that is denied and exacerbated on the left and mischaracterized and exploited on the right.
Like climate change, Hurricane Illegitimacy is powered by man-made factors:
1. A lack of proper restraints on welfare entitlement programs for single mothers and fathers.2. America's bogus war on poor people who use and sell drugs.3. Turning incarceration into a for-profit business model.4. A refusal to recognize that investment in the education of our poorest and weakest citizens could strengthen our entire society.5. Our collective lack of courage and resolve to combat popular-culture forces that celebrate, normalize and profit from baby-mama and criminal culture.
Because of this melting-pot-country's history, we've been conditioned to identify the race of a person misbehaving and examine the racial implications. We would be far better served looking at the family history.
Although there is much that can be said here, from its historic myopia (really, the “melting pot”? the 1980s wants your narrative back) to its misguided assault on social welfare and single-parented homes, I thought of a better way to respond to his new age Moynihan Sports Report.
I took the liberty of writing my own mini column in the tradition of Jason Whitlock.  Just as Whitlock is obsessed with rap music, "single mothers" and "hurricane illegitimacy,” I am inspired to write about "two-parented suburban homes," white masculine entitlement, and a culture of violence/hazing with respect to Richie Incognito, whose rap sheet extends longer than his NFL career.  Accusations of bullying, racism, hazing, and creating a hostile work environment are just the tip of the iceberg - hurricane obvious has been in development for many years. 
The title of the piece captures a culture that has nurtured, sanctioned, and created Richie Incognito: Hurricane Obvious or Not Incognito: the destructive pathology of white male pathologies.
Like climate change, wealth inequality, and war, Richie Incognito is the result man-made factors.  Hurricane Illegitimacy or Hurricane Obvious has produced America’s newest bully.  We must talk about the root issues and the hurricane that produced him:
1. A lack of proper restraint on entitled white youth, whose sense of aggrievement and victimhood contributes to a societal tolerance.  Where is the accountability for white youth who violate or laws and moral standards?
2. America's culture of tolerance for white males who violate rules and laws without consequences. Taking away milk and cookies or access to car and video games for 15 minutes is clearly not sufficient.
3. Turning football and sporting cultures into big business, which has fostered a jock culture defined by widespread pathologies, destructive values, and dangerous behavior.  This is especially threatening when paired with the entitlement of children from suburban two-parented homes.  How else can we explain multiple chances from college squads and NFL teams with respect to Richie Incognito?
4. Societal silence on the failures of two-parented homes to properly nurture kids who are loving, caring, and thoughtful boys.  What lessons did his father teach him?
5. A refusal to recognize that destructive consequence of a masculinity defined by violence, physicality, abuse, and domination.  Suburbia, we have a problem.
6. Our collective lack of courage and resolve to combat popular-culture forces that celebrate, normalize and profit from white masculinity. Rambo, and The Terminator – violent; Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity: where it’s OK to be a bully.
7. The failures of white suburbia to produce males who are accountable.  Richie Incognito is yet another example of the failures of suburban American to produce adaptable kids.
8. A popular culture the sanctions and celebrates bullying.  Who can forget the bullying endured by Lucas; what about athlete bullying in Can’t Buy me Love and The Breakfast Club.  One can only wonder of Mr. Incognito watched these films as a young child finding inspiration from his jock brethren.
9. I can only imagine what music is on Mr. Incognito’s iPod but one has to wonder if he listened to Kenny Rogers’ “Coward of the Country” or Goodie Mob’s “Special Education” and identified with the bullies instead of their anti-bullying message.
10. And finally, a media that turns a blind eye to (white) athletes who are suspended multiple times, who have multiple arrests, who have shown themselves to lack self-control.  The shock and dismay in the face hurricane obvious is part of the problem
I could go on, but why.  Sadly, part of what I write here is satire where as Jason Whitlock and others are all too serious in their troubling attempts at commentary, sociology, history and psychology.  The fact that Whitlock (and there are others who use their platforms to play sociologist while on the job) took (and really miss-took) one incident involving Dez Bryant as a starting point for a larger narrative is not surprising.  Black bodies are consistently seen as criminal and pathological within the dominant imagination; the individual is always representative and subject to scrutiny, surveillance, and criminalization.  On the other hand, whiteness is afforded a sense of individuality never representative or indicative of larger issues; he’s Richie and therefore not a symbol or a mirror of the problems of whiteness, masculinity, the NFL, two-parented homes, suburbia, or American culture.  The double standards are crystal clear and that yet another element of Hurricane Obvious.
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David J. Leonard is Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman.  Leonard’s latest books include  After Artest: Race and the Assault on Blackness   (SUNY Press) and African Americans on Television: Race-ing for Ratings (Praeger Press) co-edited with Lisa Guerrero. He is currently working on a book Presumed Innocence: White Mass Shooters in the Era of Trayvon about gun violence in America.