"Racist talking points"... You've got to be fucking kidding. You are like an alt right SJW strawman come to life in this post.
Hey, I think Conor McGregor is a modern-day, hedonistic POS too. And he's just the first guy that comes to mind. (Or am I not allowed to say that because I'm not Irish?!)
And your defending Trump due to his willingness to consider a pardon for Johnson, a black man, is no proof of your lack of tribalism. If anything, given your stated, radical political leanings, it is further evidence of it.
Imagine all the youth centers Johnson could have built and all the black owned farms and businesses he could have invested in if he hadn't opted to spend his incredible (for the time) wealth on new cars and clothes and hookers and booze and poker games.
Johnson was a great boxer but a morally bankrupt, socially irresponsible member of his race and, more importantly, of the human family.
I think it's a bit over the top to call him a piece of shit, just because he did what 90% of people would have done, if they were in his position.
We applaud selflessness but we shouldn't necessarily expect it. Especially from a guy who fought other people for a living. All things considered, he could have been a lot worse.
The problem for him, like with anybody who becomes a "first" of anything, whether it's the first woman, first human, first whatever, is that there are certain expectations put on your shoulders, to be a "model representative", to push a movement forward which will improve everybody else's condition. But Jack Johnson was not that guy. He was all about himself, and that is, truthfully, the only reason he was ever where he was at. If he had considered the feelings of his fellow men, he would've been dragged down. That's the harsh reality of it. A lot of black boxers at that time got stuck on fighting each other, taking "care" of each other, financially. Johnson preferred to fight white men, because that's where the real money was at.
Only a man such as Jack Johnson could've come out "on top" despite all of the things potentially holding him back. He didn't let anyone hold him down, not white people, not black people, not anybody. He lived, and succeeded, purely based on his own merits, his own strength, wits and determination. For better, or worse.
Being an individual and living out the "American dream", isn't always without its problems.
