Men Of Honor

Years and years ago, I wrote a newspaper column that — technically, I guess — could have gotten me fired. It was a column about silence. I won’t go into too many of the details but I’ll tell you that the column involved a barber shop, a series of racist jokes and the disgraceful silence of the young man getting his hair cut, the young man being me. I just sat there, in that lost world between embarrassment and rage, while these racist jokes flew around the room. I didn’t say a word. I didn’t express my disgust. I didn’t walk out. I didn’t stand up and break out into a “To Kill A Mockingbird” speech. I just stayed quiet. The column was about my own shame, about the shame of being silent in the face of small injustices, about that “Hey, you can’t change the world,” feeling that I used as a crutch to make myself feel better.

Sports Illustrated