Even a bona fide sports-phobe like me knows about the legend that is Michael Jordan; from his Hanes commercials and the kitsch-genius of Space Jam to yes, even a few Chicago Bulls games . . . he's garnered the fame, fortune and facade that feels unassailable. As far as I can remember, he was never traipsing around town courting hot young thangs (à la Alex Rodriguez), quaffing steroids (lookin' at you Lance), or fist-fighting fellow athletes (like Dennis Rodman). In general, Jordan was a damn good role model (if a bit of an arrogant dick and a little delusional about the whole baseball thing.)
Here comes a fascinating chink in the b-baller's golden-ebony armor however. A new biography on Jordan—Michael Jordan: The Life by sportswriter Roland Lazenby is poised to hit shelves next Tuesday and packs a wow-inducing punch in regards to Michaels' upbringing in North Carolina.
Jordan talks about his suspension from school in 1977 after throwing a soda at a girl who called him the N-word:
So I threw a soda at her. I was really rebelling. I considered myself a racist at the time. Basically, I was against all white people.
Jordan is a self-proclaimed reformed racist?! Say it ain't so! But before us white-ies get our knickers in a twist, there's more to the story than a renegade bout of black hatred in grade school.
... North Carolina was a state that had more Klan members than the rest of the Southern states combined. As I started looking at newspapers back in this era when I was putting together [Michael's great-grandfather] Dawson Jordan's life, the Klan was like a chamber of commerce. It bought the uniforms for ball teams, it put Bibles in all the schools. It may well have ended up being a chamber of commerce if not for all the violence it was perpetrating, too. A lot of the context just wasn't possible to put it in a basketball book. A lot of it ended up being cut." — Roland Lazenby talking to Sports Illustrated.
If the Klan did indeed have the strong-hold on North Carolina that Lazenby is describing, it's no wonder Jordan had a simmering hatred for the Caucasian contingency; he didn't have too many countering role models—just a festering snake-nest of twisted, small minds. Moreover, those in power were also those systematically undermining Jordan's entire race.
It'd take a saint not to harbor hate for that kind of hate.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
