Special Guest Appearance

Hey All.... My friend a. renee from BlackBerrySpeak Urban News Magazine wanted to do a guest blog entry on here and since you all know how crazed I am for time these days, I said, "Hell ya!" So here's what's on her mind:

Looking for Bobby Fisher. I believe in free speech. But your right to speak doesn't preclude my right to respond. Bobby Fisher is a chess master. If you're lucky enough to be of the age to remember his matches against Spassky and Karpov of Russia, you must recall that the tension was as palpable as any March Madness game. This country was revited.

As of today, after nine months of detainment in Japan for trying to leave the country with an expired American passport, Fisher is a citizen of Iceland. At his Iceland press conference, Fisher had a lot to say. Mostly anti-Semitic. Mostly to Jewish ESPN reporter Jeremy Schapp, whose father Dick Schapp, after spending time with Fisher, said of the prodigy, 'There isn't a sane bone in his body.' Jeremy's response to Fisher's rantings and denouncement of his father: 'I don't believe we've seen anything today to not support my father's pronouncement.' Good for you, Jeremy.

Targets of racial and ethnic discrimination don't always know how to respond. When the action is public, so much more thought goes into how to respond. Too often we suck it up because we're tired of this shit or we just don't want to bring any more notice to ourselves. And the only way I know, as an African-American, to gauge when I've given the appropriate response is assessing in a calm moment 'do I feel good about myself?' Jeremy Schapp, I feel good knowing you were at that press conference. You proved diversity in 'Big Brother' is a need, not a want. I haven't found an audio of the press conference online, but I'm sure Sportscenter will continue to show highlights through the weekend. Even with March Madness, Fisher's madness was shown in the top half of the hour.