Here we go again – I’m writing another article regarding the NFL!  In the National Football League’s latest bout with hypocrisy it has decided to denounce entertainer Janet Jackson for bearing her breast (with the assistance of singer Justin Timberlake) during the Super Bowl halftime show.  The NFL’s partner in crime, CBS, also feigned concern over showing Jackson dancing provocatively with Timberlake and her breast antic during, of all things, “The Family Hour!”  This must be the sign of the apocalypse!  These fine institutions are aghast over the body part that helped to create “The Family Hour?”  Heavens no!

Seriously, let’s explore this event further.  There are two major issues inherent to the affair:

1. Race: Is the NFL and CBS concerned about a black woman grinding her behind against a white male?  Considering America’s racial history of white men raping and having their way with black women for hundreds of years, from white slave masters and their sons sexually experimenting with their black slave women to the modern-day exploitation of black women by the late former (?) segregationist and U. S. Senator Strom Thurmond (Note: we called him “Sperm Thurmond” in South Carolina because of his little tryst with his black domestic, which produced a daughter), America should be happy that Janet “Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty” wanted (and got paid) to grind against Timberlake instead of being forced to grind against him.  This is progress, isn’t it?  (On another note, isn’t it interesting that when it comes to race, the NFL and media outlets like CBS have no problems showing black men and their acts of minstrelsy – dancing and profiling after touchdowns, pointing up to the clouds, and chest thumping after good plays?)

2. Sexuality: The NFL and CBS knew what it was getting when it hired Jackson.  Anyone who has seen or attended any of her concerts knows that they are in for sexually provocative songs and dance.  The NFL and CBS, in criticizing Jackson highlights their brazen double standards: it’s ok for any NFL team cheerleader to wear clothes so scanty and tight and dance so sexually suggestive (enough to make even a sex industry worker blush) and have it promoted on television while it is inappropriate to have an someone outside their realm do the same.  (I guess it is a matter of nipples.)  Moreover, the Jackson incident becomes more ludicrous when CBS showed beer commercials that suggested bestiality (a monkey making a pass at a woman and another with a bear and a woman on a date), cowered to conservative ideologues by not showing the MoveOn.org commercial criticizing President Bush’s failed economic policies and how our children and grandchildren will pay for those policies (and failed to show a movie on Ronald and Nancy Reagan during their White House years), and had numerous (implicitly sexual, I might add) drug commercials promoting male erections.  The NFL and television stations like CBS are junior members of the sex industry by collaborating to promote sexuality and reinforce male/female images and stereotypes like men driving big trucks, like men guzzling beer, like women as sex objects that like the men who drive big trucks and guzzle beer, and like men that are messianic leaders (i.e. Tom Brady and the New England Patriots versus whomever or Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers versus…) or individuals instead of team members.

So, in retrospect, what does this breast-bearing mean?  Absolutely nothing, other than the NFL trying to maintain or project an image of being a good corporate citizen on one hand while selling sex and stereotypes in order to make billions of dollars on the other hand.  And, finally, for those that experienced psychological pain (or arousal, depending on your point of view) from seeing Janet Jackson’s breast, fear not because Lil’ Kim will be performing during the 2004 National Basketball Association All-Star Weekend, and she, in no way, has any problems in revealing her breasts.  Besides, I know more about psychological pain than anyone; I’m a New York Jets fan!

Reynard Blake, Jr. is a East Lansing, Michigan based freelance writer and has a business, Community Development Associates, which serves nonprofit and faith-based organizations.  He is still at work on his book on hip-hop, black leadership, and the black church and hopes to complete it by mid- to late 2004.  And, despite his penchant for using raw language in his writings, he is a master’s degree student in Pastoral Ministry at Marygrove College in Detroit.  (Heaven help him!)