ABWW Hater of the Day: Chad Ochocinco

Chad Ochocinco has three lovely black daughters but their type beauty is not what he is looking for in his VH1 reality show The Ultimate Catch. The first episode began with 85 contestants of all racial backgrounds and was whittled down to 16 by the end of the hour. Only three of these he picked were black women. One sister who made the selection is already exhibiting some of the “crazy black women’ behaviors that smear the image of all black women. If this show follows the pattern of black male dating shows that ran before it, non-black contestants not the icon of femininity or sanity that any of these men want on their arm in real life, so why so few black women cast if this is simply show business?

When called to task by New York gossip diva and talk show host Wendy Williams Ochocinco professed his desire for white and Hispanic women and actually expected applause for his post-racial preference from an audience that was populated with sisters. Since his children are older that his NFL career, why has his “preferences” gone through such a dramatic change? I wonder what the stimulus revised his idea of what constitutes a desirable woman? Ochocinco is different that the other type of black-woman-hater that has consistently rejected black women as dating and marriage prospects, I cannot read his mind, it is seems that his change of mind happened after the fame, money and glitz of his professional football career reached its peak. Is a non-black woman the ultimate accessory for a black man who has everything? What message does that send to his sable brown daughters? Are black women simply for breeding?

Ochocinco’s behavior can be traced back to the civil rights movement during the mid 1960’s. The biracial cooperation of the Freedom Rides and other projects resulted in interracial commingling that was seen a a patriarchal perk for black men, while “strong black women” were to wait out these dalliances until the black man was ready to help raise a generation of black children free from the plague of segregation. The pain of paramour rights ( the practice of southern white men forcing black women into sexually coercive relationships) may have been on the wane in the 1960’s but the shadow of that exploitation was a factor in black women’s acceptance of their brother’s new preference. Since the sixties the deindustrialization of cities, the backlash against desegregation, the War on Drugs have all contributed to the dissolution of black families and male embrace of the nihilistic thug life. These factors taken together still do not account for the rejection and dehumanization of black women that Ochocinco and supporters embrace so enthusiastically. The idea that this is an individual choice in a new enlightened race friendly America would be easier to swallow if the date on out marriage between the sexes was not so skewed. Ochocinco may tout his individual post-racial right to date whomever he chooses, but to expect that black women will support him while his actions state that we are good for breeding and not marrying is outrageously disrespectful.