“Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me”
In 1989, Chuck D of Public Enemy challenged oppression, discrimination and the definition of a hero in his seminal work, “Fight the Power.”
Twenty-six years later, they’re concepts with which we’re still grappling.
A cohort of dissenters has cropped up in response to ESPN’s decision to present Caitlyn Jenner with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for 2015.
The network praised Jenner, a recently transitioned transgender woman, for “embracing her identity and doing so in a public way to help move forward a constructive dialogue about progress and acceptance.”
The former Olympian traded in the packaging of a Wheaties Box for the cover of Vanity Fair, and became a mouthpiece for the transgender community in the process.
This heroism, in the words of the sports entertainment outlet, is courageous in that it “shines a light on an important contemporary issue.”
But not so for the dissenters, who have clamored for the ESPY to be awarded to a “real hero.”
Campaigns to replace Jenner went viral on social media, with veteran amputee athlete Noah Galloway and freshman basketball player Lauren Hill — who suffered from terminal brain cancer — as the chief nominees.
This debate is a disgrace, as it disrespects these remarkable individuals, their battles and their achievements.
There is no universal hero, and to degrade someone else’s definition of heroism in order to advance your own is not only antithetical, but it’s asinine.
Courage can be found in the men and women who give themselves up in service to their country.
It can be found in those who battle cancer.
But it can also be found in those who choose to become their inner self — and not the self their family, society or culture has told them to be.
It’s not a form of heroism everyone will understand.
Some will go their entire lives without questioning the roles they were taught, lauding themselves behind the veil of a linear existence.
But those who undertake the heroic task of finding and expressing their identities, gender or otherwise, should understand and regard Jenner’s actions with the same aplomb as ESPN.
For 65 years, Jenner channeled her efforts into being someone she was not, and it won her Olympic gold.
Now what Jenner will achieve as herself will be even greater, because it will guide generations to act with love and acceptance for themselves and others — no matter who that might be.
So let’s not play Kanye to this celebratory moment in human history.
The media has taken an overwhelmingly positive approach to Jenner’s transition, and ESPN is taking that progress by the reigns.
If you can’t applaud or at least respect the network’s decision, then kindly remove yourself from the conversation and relocate to a time pre-1989.
