Jack Johnson would be called an Uncle Tom by Leftists
Jack Johnson was one of my heroes.
I recall seeing the movie The Great White Hope when I was a kid. In the film, James Earl Jones played Jack Johnson.
I watched the movie with my grandparents, as they explained the significance of Jack Johnson in history. Most notably, Johnson beat up white men for a living, then marry white women.
Interracial dating and marriage was much more accepted in my youth than it was in the time of my grandparent’s coming of age. Back then, interracial dating required guts; serious guts.
In the case of Johnson, black people feared his dating white women. It brought unwanted attention on all blacks. And you can bet that black women hated Johnson’s white women. That remains true to this day, as black women hate seeing a black man with a white woman.
I remember my aunt saying defiantly that she would disown any child of hers who dated “outside they [sic] race”. Ironically, two of her sons married Filipino women.
My grandmother was a bit more tolerant. She said,
“If you gone [sic] date outside your race, don’t date no [sic] ugly girl!”
One of her sons married two white women. Yep, both ugly.
Both my aunt and my grandmother adjusted. Actually, they loved their daughters-in-law.
Now these conversations took place in the 70s. I can only imagine what blacks at the turn of the 20th century thought of Jack Johnson dating outside his race. I’m guessing they felt that Johnson set blacks back; that he stoked racial tensions.
When I saw the film, I viewed his dating white women during his time in history as amazing. What a maverick. The courage that black man showed. He shoved racism in the face of white Democrats, living life on his own terms.
So when I learned of what President Trump had done in granting Johnson a posthumous pardon, it tickled me. Because this is something dumbass Barack Obama should have done, but instead President Trump had more interest in righting the wrongs of Democrats.
“Sylvester Stallone called me with the story of heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson,” tweeted President Donald Trump on Saturday, April 21, 2018. “His trials and tribulations were great, his life complex and controversial. Others have looked at this over the years, most thought it would be done, but yes, I am considering a Full Pardon!”
The crime for which Johnson was convicted? Violation of the Mann Act: transporting a woman across state lines for an immoral purpose.
The Federal law was wrongly used to convict Johnson for crossing state lines with his white woman companion, as Democrats were determined to teach that black man his place. Nothing has changed today.
Regardless, I would have loved to have lived in the era of Johnson. The pride I would have felt as Johnson knocked out white hope after white hope, then sported around America and elsewhere rubbing white women in the face of racist Democrats. Talk about a man who never felt unworthy. Jack Johnson was all man. He didn’t have just one white wife, but three; not that I’m condoning divorce.
While in no way comparing myself to Johnson, I feel much the same as he did. Societal convention won’t trap me.
I can only imagine that blacks of today would call Johnson a sellout; an Uncle Tom. These same blacks would ostracize Johnson for dating white women. And Johnson would ignore them. Perhaps that’s why neither George W. Bush nor Barack Obama awarded Johnson the posthumous pardon.
President Trump fixed that. So maybe people will now find out more about Jack Johnson. If they do research the man, they will find Johnson more than a brute. In fact, he was an inventor.
While Jack Johnson is most well known as a the first African-American to be heavyweight boxing champion, he was also an inventor and entrepreneur. Johnson was the son of two ex-slaves, born in Galveston, Texas in March 1878. What enabled him to invent? Did his boxing talent as a defensive counter-puncher, ability to play two musical instruments, and his self-confidence help?
