• Ashburn, VA
  • Friday, March 29, 2024
   
Close
 

 

Juwan Howard: Don't Touch Me

 

Don’t Put Your Hands On Me

Greg Gard, the Wisconsin University Head Basketball Coach, decided to break one of the cardinal rules in the Black community.  Every Black person remembers what your Momma told you, “Don’t put your hands on anybody, unless they put their hands on you. And if they do, LAY THEY ASS OUT!!” 

Greg Gard chose violence instead of peace.  Further, men don’t grab other men unless they intend to show aggression, power, or dominance. Gard intentionally grabbed Coach Juwan Howard, the University of Michigan Head Basketball Head Coach.  Gard’s action amounts to simple assault, but no one is discussing his unwanted and unwarranted actions towards Coach Howard.

In this case Gard attempted and was successful in grabbing and inhibiting the forward progress of Coach Howard.  Gard eventually will make himself the victim by deliberately fabricating the details of the event in his favor. Also, Gard’s privilege made him think that he could do what he wanted, to whomever he wanted, and when he wanted. 

Gard decided he wanted to set Coach Howard straight after his team beat Howard’s team handily.  His pure arrogance made him feel that he had the ability to grab Howard.  Mainstream media, as they always do, placed the blame on Coach Howard for not being the bigger man.  However, where is Gard’s responsibility?  Gard violated Coach Howard repeatedly.  He did the opposite of what a man would do that is trying to avoid an encounter.  He was determined to show his dominance by getting Coach Howard straight, at mid court of his home gym.

It is a hard pill to swallow for black men when we always have to be the bigger man.  Others get to throw tantrums and then shed fake tears.  Those tears always mean the mainstream media will paint them as victims.  In this incident there are very few videos that show Gard grabbing Coach Howard.  There are a ton of videos showing Coach Howard slapping an assistant coach who aggressively grabbed a Michigan player. 

There is very little coverage about what Gard did or said when he abruptly blocked and aggressively grabbed Coach Howard.  The narrative has Coach Howard being the aggressor when he in fact was defending himself from an unwanted touch.  Sure, Coach Howard could have listened like a good boy and nodded his head, but he had every right not to stand there and be violated and degraded.  Coach Howard had every right to shake hands and not be impeded by Gard. See Gard inciting the altercation: https://youtu.be/4ymCp6kRTOA

The same mainstream media that celebrates Tom Brady’s “fire” when he screams and throws computers then turns around and condemns Cam Newton’s “poor sportsmanship” for his celebrations, is still trying to do what it always does.  It is telling Black Americans their feelings and expressions of those feelings are not proper.   Media continues to tell the story from only the white male perspective.  White feelings and expressions are labeled as passion.

While there may be some African American voices in mainstream media, they still are paid by those media sources.  We applaud the moments of enlightenment they get to bring from time to time about black issues but we know they would be hard pressed to veer too far off-script for fear of backlash.

All posturing means something.  We understand what these micro-aggressions and macro-aggressions mean. Let's think about this:  What no name head coach wouldn't want to humble Juwan Howard, member of the McDonald's All American team 1991, member of Michigan's "FAB FIVE", College All-American, NBA 5th overall pick, two-time NBA champion, long-time NBA coach, who was named 2021 Associated Press Coach of the Year and the 2021 Big Ten Coach of the Year.  Really think, who of us had ever heard the name, Greg Gard, before this incident?

Coach Howard is human.  How many of us would be fine with someone grabbing us, and continuing after we told them to stop?  Coach Howard's reaction was normal under the circumstances and based on the violation he experienced.  His protection of his players was exemplary of a good coach, like Dale Brown of LSU defending Shaquille Oneal.  Heck, Dale Brown didn't get suspended after he pulled and pushed a Tennessee player during the game.  Coach Brown even went further when he ripped the SEC league office's, handling of the situation!  I will leave the double standard argument for another day.

I understand many of us in the black community would not have mush-slapped the opposing coach because black coaches just don't get the same opportunities as white coaches. But in the words of Chris Rock, “I’m not saying you should do it…… but I understand!”

 
  • Share:  

NOIRE Online
NOIRE is a new online magazine that scopes the Black and multicultural community from a cutting-edge perspective. Our mantra is “Our Lives, Our Stories, Our Voices.” Our vision is to become the leading source of true, high-quality narratives of people of color.


 
All Comments (1)
  • Gabrielle Grant     2 years ago
         We need to pay attention and stay alert on issues such as these. We continue to allow someone else's narrative to be the truth when it typically is not the case at all. If you feeling froggy, jump! If you are just a toad, stand down.

 

 

Please wait..!