Rap legend DMX has been confirmed to fight George Zimmerman, the man controversially acquitted of murdering unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, in bizarre ‘celebrity boxing match’
“A geek is a circus performer who has been hurt – but since he has been hurt and the circus is the only way he knows to make a living everybody feels sorry for him so they put him in a cage and throw a live chicken to him. The geek then chases the chicken around the cage and tears it apart and eats it. He throws one chicken bone to the audience. Cause he’s the geek and the audience is the freaks.”
– Huey P Newton
Imagine a parallel universe where a black man gets away with killing an unarmed white child – I know it’s hard to believe right now but stick with me.
Imagine that after this miraculous acquittal, the black man continues to threaten his wife and her family with a firearm. Imagine that in between all these threats the black man finds the time to conjure up a genius idea: to challenge the white community to a duel – well, not so much a duel, more a celebrity boxing match.
I can’t think of a more perfect vehicle to overturn racial injustice, can you? Now, imagine that there is no shortage of white people seeking revenge, and they sign up with the fervour of a cracker on the lynch to fight the child killer. Imagine that a future washed up Justin Bieber is chosen as the great white hope. The crowd go wild. Let’s get rrrrrrrrready to rummmmmmble!
Granted, DMX, forty-three years old, thirteen years older than George Zimmerman, is no Justin Bieber. Then again, he’s certainly no Floyd Mayweather either. He is also far weaker than the 6’5” 240lbs Game, another problem-riddled musician who first threw his ill-advised Red Sox starter cap into the ring. There was of course no shortage of people wanting the chance to knock out the notorious big man.
A total of fifteen thousand people signed up to take on George; the fact that DMX was chosen as the best choice out of fifteen thousand possible candidates is testament to the fact that this whole sordid affair is the very brainchild of George Zimmerman.
This is not about revenge, justice or respect. This is about redemption, a public baptism in one fell pay-per-view swoop, with a little help from the Don King of celebrity boxing: self-proclaimed opportunist and morally devoid scab Damon Feldman. Together, the exploiter and killer come together to produce the re-enactment of the Geek and the Freak. An apt depiction of everything that is wrong with capitalist America.
The use of such a troubled figure as DMX, who promises to urinate on Zimmerman’s face, a man who has struggled with mental health and drug issues, in this saga adds further humiliation to the African American community.
Last time I saw DMX he was on a television show refusing to give up drugs at the expense of his relationship with his own son, in a tragic combination of ridicule and sensationalism the likes of which have made Jerry Springer and Jeremy Kyle a lot of money.
Parasitic capitalist culture
This parasitic form of capitalist culture exploits the weak and vulnerable by usurping serious issues and concerns and turning them into cartoon trivia, transforming real tragedy into comic value.
For those who desperately want to see Zimmerman’s ass whopped, what’s the worst that you think will happen in the controlled environment of a “celebrity” boxing match? A graze, a scratch, a cut, a bloody eye, maybe a bruised rib if you’re lucky? All of which will heal in weeks if not days.
Do you believe such an oddity to be an adequate barometer of justice? Is the bar seriously that low? Do you honestly consider a celebrity boxing match a fitting tribute to a murdered child?
Do you think such an extravaganza will dampen the Martin family’s suffering or with better judgement do you think that the ridiculous spectacle will just exacerbate it?
Will they whoop for joy at the ringside while scantily clad women provide a parade of eye candy for a stadium packed full of testosterone?
Will they boo as Zimmerman cockily enters the ring to the sound of “Here comes the hot stepper, murderer!”? Will they join in the chants of “D M X, D M X” as the man who killed their beloved child is christened a celebrity? Only in America, the land of the free, home of the slave, is such a morally repugnant exhibition of faux vengeance possible.
This is not the World Wrestling Federation. Zimmerman is not the Big Boss Man. DMX is not Hulk Hogan.
Whatever the outcome, win, lose or draw, there will only be two winners: George Zimmerman and the grubby pockets of Damon Feldman. African Americans are once again the butt of all jokes; DMX, threatening to break every rule in boxing, plays the geek, and the screaming audience settle in their predetermined role as the freaks. Does any one seriously think that, if the races were reversed, such a circus would ever be thought of, let alone be taking place?
If Trayvon had been white, would this have been your idea of justice? This is nothing more than a modern-day freak show, one that makes a mockery of African American’s, their position in society and their slender avenues for justice.
This is not justice but a damnation of a sick and racist society. As if the official announcement of the fight on Trayvon’s birthday was not evidence enough.
