CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
Magic Bond? Not Quite
(reprinted, with permission, from Everybody's News, Issue 544, February 19-25,
1999)
by Michael Blankenship
Last week I had the good fortune to cover the Cincinnati appearances of Magic Johnson at NKU, and Julian Bond (historic figure in civil rights and current president of NAACP) at Xavier. The difference between the two events was striking.
I asked Magic if he felt that discrimination aimed at people with HIV was related to their perceived or actual sexual orientation, and whether, by protecting those people's civil rights, we were somehow diminishing or impeding the civil rights of African Americans. That came at him out of the blue-most reporters kept their questions to basketball.
He looked at me kind of strangely and said he wanted to answer the question, but gently brushed off the sexual orientation angle and focused on the discrimination, conceding that things were indeed tougher for those infected with HIV and AIDS, and that blacks were doing much better. And then it was back to basketball: "What do you think of our local talent?" etc., etc. More basketball.
My next question was another doozy, citing an article in Jet magazine in which I understood his wife to declare that Magic was cured. He immediately corrected me by declaring that he was "healed," and questioned whether we were both educated men. I assured him I believed we both were, and asked him to differentiate between the two terms, as I had been so confused.
This story of his "cure," or "healing," was related to me as part of a Hamilton County STD Education Program for at-risk minorities, with an "educator" declaring that Magic's faith had healed him. "No, I believe that was the Cocktail," I assured the "educator" and the others present. I don't think it's very responsible to go throwing terms like "cured" or "healed" around in populations already distrusting of doctors and susceptible to notions that Jesus will protect them from AIDS, "the same as he did for Magic."
Magic said "healed" was not cured. "If I was cured, things would be hunky-dory," he replied, and then it was back to basketball. I wanted to ask him if he thought statements of faith in God should be presented as statements of medical fact in government-sponsored educational efforts, but sensed I was on thin ice as it was-better not to push it. John Zeh was sitting behind me. He'd get something good out of him.
Another reporter asked about the highlight of his career (basketball, again), at which Magic instantly replied, "the Olympics."
Zeh then asked Magic if he thought the Olympics had a chance to come to Cincinnati, since it was the only place in the nation that had legalized discrimination against gay people. He got a great reply: "I don't think that could ever happen. Too many would hold it against you," Magic said, and went on to point out the loss of business and influence incurred by Arizona due to its King Holiday resistance.
But when he answered another question, citing a good frame of mind as necessary for meeting the challenges of his struggle, I wanted to know whether he had any comment about the status of healthcare for the uninsured, or HMO reform as elements relating to such a frame of mind for many others. He refused comment.
Then Zeh got him to agree that the cost of medicines needed to be reduced, and cited my "frame of mind" angle. "You two guys, look, as 'magic' as I am I can only fight one battle," he said, declaring that his battle was for young people and for blacks. That's understandable, considering that he can't very well address such controversial issues without risking his ability to raise the kind of money that he does. But such "feel good" efforts are meant to alleviate the societal symptoms of the AIDS crisis, without challenging the underlying societal infections that block any "cure" or "healing."
I didn't care to stick around for the speech, and I hadn't the money for the AVOC reception fundraiser. It was clear he wasn't there to answer my type of questions, and I wanted to catch Julian Bond within the next 20 minutes.
I was not disappointed. If Magic Johnson skirted around the tough issues to protect his reputation, Julian Bond tackled them head-on to reaffirm his own. Ostensibly there to speak on race issues, he dove right into the heart of all social injustice, making it clear to his Catholic hosts that gays and lesbians were a part of the picture, too.
No cameras were there to catch Bond's firm denunciation of Clarence Thomas, his condemnation of the white-supremacist sympathies of Trent Lott, his castigations of Senators Voinovich and DeWine for their silence regarding the senator's actions, while use of the word "niggardly" was permitted to end the career of a D.C. city official. No record was made of Bond's vigorous ridicule of the notion that gay rights are "special rights," or of his assertion that it is "totally false, specious, ridiculous" to suggest that by protecting the civil rights of gays, we infringe upon the civil rights of blacks.
TV news had a choice to make that day, and they went with the best photo-op. The cold realities of Mr. Bond couldn't challenge the warm, fuzzy illusion of Magic.
