Isiah Thomas is a lot of things, and lately many have been calling him petty for bringing up the decades-old feud with Michael Jordan. But his latest beef with ESPN over a photograph isn’t petty.
It’s absolutely right.
While appearing on ESPN’s Keyshawn, JWill & Max earlier this week, a photo of Thomas was used that he didn’t like and he immediately took the show to task over it.
The image showed him as serious, bordering on annoyed and angry.
If you know Isiah Thomas, most of the time he’s smiling, so that image was in contrast to the way he’s often seen. And while he didn’t like it, his feelings are actually rooted deeper than the actual image for he recognized the image’s impact.
He told Keyshawn that when the photo first appeared onscreen.
“By the way, I’m looking at my picture, come on Keyshawn. Y’all doing that to me?” said Thomas.
As Max and Keyshawn stumbled over his critique, Thomas continued.
“I saw Max Kellerman’s picture up there. I saw your picture up there. Y’all smiling. Y’all just had my man up there doing the football, he was smiling. This is the picture you put up there of me?”
Max did his best to play it off and inject humor into the situation, but Isiah wasn’t having it. And rightfully so.
This wasn’t about Isiah being petty, dramatic or egotistical.
It was about history, control and the way Black men are portrayed in the media through coded language and imagery.
How many times have we seen a news story on television involving a Black man and the images they use of the individual are unflattering and humiliating? Oftentimes those photos show them with a serious face, trying to act tough or intimidating.
That’s not because they didn’t take those photos, because they obviously did.
But rather, it’s the media’s way of portraying an individual and casting a narrative around them. And when it comes to Black men in particular, that narrative is often a negative one.
The coded language used by the media to describe and portray Black men is often infuriating and disrespectful.
Continue reading over at First and Pen.
This content has been brought to you by First and Pen in partnership with TheHub.News. First and Pen “amplifies local sports stories from voices of color to the national conscience…”
