P.K. Subban and "the politics of the old South"

A soi-disant "journalist" by the name of Joe O'Conner is liberal, progressive, anti-racist, yada yada yada. Naturally he approves of the destruction, in New Orleans and other American cities, of monuments to heroes of the Glorious War of the Secession such as Robert E. Lee. And Nathan Bedford Forrest. Especially Nathan Bedford Forrest, the finest cavalry general on either side of the Civil War and staunch defender of Southern rights during and after the conflict.

There are several statues of General Forrest dotted around the South, especially in his native Tennessee. Some of them are quite handsome, some, errr, not so much. Like this one in Nashville, sculpted by Jack Kershaw, professional lawyer and amateur artist, which sits on 3.5 acres of privately owned land just off the I-65.

Mr O'Connor (who Walt suspects of being a Canuck, thus having none of his white skin in the American racial conflict) would like to see this and all those other "racist" statues torn down. For reasons unknown, the normally sensible National Post decided to give him a platform for his SJW rant. But (they must have said), you need some kind of Canadian hook for the piece. What could be more natural, then, than to put some words in the mouth of Pernell Karl Subban, a Canadian hockey player who toils -- allegedly playing defence -- for the Nashville Predators. Mr Subban is black. As the Showboat himself told ESPN, "I know I'm black. Everybody knows I'm black."

Turned out P.K. didn't have anything to say about the Forrest statue, or at least didn't give a quote to Mr O'Connor for "P.K. Subban faces off against the politics of the Old South still on display in Tennessee", National Post, 9/6/17. So for a tie-in, the "writer" could do no better than this: "'I don’t want to be defined as a black hockey player.' [That's from the ESPN quote.] It is an admirable wish. What makes it especially compelling, in the Nashville context...here is Subban, a Canadian, a child of Caribbean immigrants from a diverse city (Toronto) bedazzling Predators fans and potentially winning a Stanley Cup in an arena that is about a 20-minute drive from one of the most vile Confederate monuments in the great state of Tennessee."

To which a Post reader by the name of Jason Williams comments: "We define him as a black hockey player, because he has similar mannerisms and personality traits of other black athletes. Showboating, image-conscious, self-aggrandizing, etc are negative traits what we as a sporting culture are accustomed to seeing in majority-black leagues like the NFL and NBA. This isn't to say he isn't a good PERSON - but the fundamental truth is that his ACTIONS are stereotypically negative ones, associated with black athletes... Which stands out VERY distinctly in what you might as well call a white league."

Which is what Walt's old friend Poor Len Canayen said way back in February of 2014 in "Is P.K. Subban a 'nigger'?"

Tomorrow night the Nashville Predators will be at home to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 of the National Hockey League (G. Bettman, prop.) Stanley Cup finals. The Penguins lead the series 3 games to 2, so if the Predators lose tomorrow night, they're out. If the Predators should win, and can by some miracle manage to win Game 7, Wednesday night in Pittsburgh (if necessary), Walt think it would be fitting to attach Lord Stanley's silverware to one of General Forrest's outstretched arms. I don't think P.K. Subban would mind.