Here’s something interesting that clearly underscores the mainstream acceptance of MMA. It really doesn’t have anything to do with the sport, other than it being used as an example in a political opinion column by a writer named RS Davis. What’s significant is that there’s no disclaimers, no “human cockfighting” blasts–the writer uses MMA and boxing as an example to illustrate his point without qualification. Interesting topic, but here’s the significant part:

One of the things that fans of MMA and boxing have no doubt noticed is that when there is a white guy fighting a black guy and both are wearing the same colored shorts, announcers will go to absurd lengths to ignore the obvious - “Houston Alexander is the one in the…er…trunks with the half-inch hem.”

I’ve always had a good laugh over that, bemusedly shaking my head at their unwillingness to say that Houston is the insanely muscular black man.

Truly, though, it’s a tough situation for them. They don’t know what to say. African-American isn’t a good catch-all, because the sports are international. The second you get used to calling black athletes African-American, Cheik Congo - the lanky black Frenchman who beat up Mirko Cro-Cop - steps on the stage and throws marbles in your mouth - “African-Am…er Frenchman?”

((BTW, he spelled Cheick Kongo’s name incorrectly, not us))

Obviously the reticence of high profile announcers in high profile organizations to step into the racial minefield is understandable–in particular, you can imagine a guy like the UFC’s Mike Goldberg, who occasionally gets trapped in a full mount by the English language as it is–getting tounge tied and making an unintended offensive remark. Still, his point is well taken and particularly in light of the pride that so many fighters rightfully demonstrate in their national/ethnic heritage–for example, you’re not going to offend Antonio Margarito by calling him “the latest in long line of great Mexican ring warriors”.

Fighting–be it MMA or boxing–is an excellent discipline to illustrate his point. Basically, if you’re a serious student of the fight game its impossible to be racist. If you asked a random SAVSCI writer to name their favorite fighters–past or present–you’d get an ethnocultural polyglot including African Americans (Ali, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Leonard, etc.), white guys of a variety of ethnic backgrounds both American (Rocky Marciano, Arturo Gatti, Willie Pep) and not (Fedor, Cro Cop) along with Asians (Yoshida, Aoki) and in a recent positive development for equality there would be some women included (Shayna Baszler, Kelly Kobold).

But that’s neither here nor there and you can agree with his premise or not–what we found most fascinating about the article is how he treats MMA as a real sport without having to explain it or apologize for it. That’s a sign of progress in itself…

A Racial Catch 22 @ NolanChart.com