White Families Adopting Black Football Stars

I watch films with a pretty cynical eye, so when I went to see The Blind Side, I did sit there wondering how much was true and how much was overdramatic Hollywood mozzarella. There was a point where something went crunch and the cynical part of my brain went “oh, that’s why they became the legal guardians of a 17 year old boy from the projects.” Then my sentimental voice overpowered my cynical one and I convinced myself that they just loved him. His sporting talents and the prospect of profiting from them had no influence on their decision to rescue him from his horrible life. They were rich already anyway (not that that makes people less greedy).

When I was googling the character, wondering if there is a new American trend, as was implied in the film, of wealthy white families adopting children from the projects, who happen to show sporting talent, I came across an article written by political activist Tim Wise that dated back to 2004. It was about a young man called Marcus Dixon, from Georgia, who was imprisoned for having sex with a minor. He was an 18 year old A grade student who had been awarded a sports scholarship to join a prestigious university. He was also a young black man, under the care of a white family. Dixon’s mother was imprisoned on drug related charges when he was eleven, so the Jones took him in.

Seven years later Dixon was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, for having sex with a 15 year old girl. Accused of rape, sexual battery, aggravated assault and false imprisonment he was found not guilty. However, having been advised by his adoptive mother to tell the police “anything they wanted to know" he never denied having sex with this girl. He was found guilty of statutory rape and because the girl had “injuries” (the Guardian claimed these injuries were bruises and a cut lip, other sources claim it was having lost her virginity), he was found guilty of aggravated child molestation, which carries a ten year minimum sentence. It was the first time this charge had been brought against a man less than three years older than the alleged victim. But Dixon was a young black man and his accuser was a white girl, with a racist father.

Dixon’s case became very high profile, smacking of a racist conspiracy, and a little over a year after the crime was purported to have taken place, the charge of aggravated child molestation was overturned, and he was released from prison. The charge of statutory rape was upheld. Dixon is now a very wealthy football player for the Dallas Cowboys.

Tim Wise, who wrote his article before Dixon’s release pointed out that “Ken and Peri Jones [Dixon’s adoptive parents], for all their love, and for all their "stability" were profoundly unprepared to raise a black male child in this country. Many black parents aren't prepared either - after all, how can one ever be fully ready for all the traps and snares that remain in the path of African Americans even at this late date - but at least they know the drill.”
(http://osdir.com/ml/politics.marxism.analysis/2004-01/msg00011.html)

Marcus Dixon's parents didn't know the drill. They’d never experienced such discrimination. They didn't know that the police were going to take exception to their child. They didn't know that by advising him to tell the truth, without an attorney present, he would ensnare himself. They didn't know that the justice system would conspire to have him imprisoned for as long as possible. They didn’t know about, what Tim Wise calls the “ways of white people”.

Of course, for a white person, to understand the “ways of white people” they have to take a step away from all that they take for granted and realise that minorities don’t just suffer from the presence of discrimination, but also the absence of “white privilege”. White privilege is never having to worry about being stopped by the police for no valid reason. White privilege is not wondering when you move to a new house if the neighbours will snub or even worse, abuse you. White privilege is not having to wonder whether your child is suffering racial discrimination at school, is being isolated because no other children look like them, or being labelled because other children who do look like them have already fallen into the self-fulfilling prophecy set out for them, thereby reinforcing the stereotype that children of that race are not able, not worthy, not willing.

Indeed, theoretically, overt discrimination is being tackled in our society, but equal freedom from discrimination, does not mean equal access to privilege. It struck me that at nearly 25, I am more ignorant about the “ways of white people” than any black or asian child can afford to be and for all my theoretical understanding, I always will be.

So how do any parents, whatever their race, bring up non-white children to be vigilant about discrimination, without carving a chip into their young shoulders? Is it, as Tim Wise states, irresponsible not to teach children about the minefield of racism out there, because minorities cannot afford to not be aware of race? Should Marcus Dixon have been brought up to be cautious about sleeping with white girls, particularly underage white girls with racist fathers? Maybe he should have. I think all young men should be brought up to know better than to sleep with underage girls, irrespective of their race, but for Marcus Dixon, the penalty for doing so was far harsher than it would have been for a white boy.

I think if you were to ask Marcus Dixon, he’d probably agree that his life is better for having been adopted by a white family, than it would have been if he’d been shunted trough the care system. But for all the love and opportunity that his family gave him, to the discriminating world, he is still a black man and his parents’ idealism that his race wasn’t an issue nearly resulted in him being imprisoned for a decade.