WORLD-WIDE WRONG: Norman Mailer, in a nonsensical rant in which he claims the US went to war in Iraq because white people are now not as good at sports as black people, lists as remaining bastions of white sports hegemony "ice-hockey, skiing, soccer, golf, (with the notable exception of the Tiger) as well as lacrosse, swimming, and the World-Wide Wrestling Federation."
Things wrong with that statement:
1. The Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and thousands of the soldiers who courageously and successfully fought the war in Iraq were themselves black.
2. The "World-Wide Wrestling Federation" is now of course known as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE); "WWWF" was the name it used two names ago; the second "W" was dropped by the federation around 1970, when Mailer was still wandering around the Village Voice offices in an acid-induced stupor. Doesn't the London Times have fact-checkers for this sort of thing?
3. The most successful wrestling personality to emerge in the past five years, The Rock, is in fact half-black and half-Samoan.
4. As anyone who watched the Wild-Avalanche series knows, two of the game-winning goals for Minnesota were scored by Richard Park, who is Asian-American. And Paul Kariya, who led the Mighty Ducks to a first-round sweep over the Red Wings, is a descendent of Japanese-Canadian immigrants. So hockey's far from an all-white bastion either. Then again, Canada didn't join the war.
5. The most popular golfer in American history is Tiger Woods; the most popular soccer player in American history is Pele, a dark-skinned Brazilian immigrant.
6. So apparently, Mailer's argument has been reduced to "the war in Iraq happened because of the lack of opportunities for racial minorities in skiing, swimming, and lacrosse." But of course!