GORILLAS IN THE MIST AND THE VALLEY TOO!

Did you know that there are tours to the mountains of Rwanda to view the Gorillas in the Mist? Certain people pay thousands of dollars to hike up a mountain to view these powerful primates indigenous only to Africa.

But I’m lucky. I don’t have to travel to Rwanda to see a Gorilla in its “natural” state. I can view a gorilla any time I want in the Valley of the Sun as long as it's basketball season. A gorilla that’s just as big and blacker than any in Africa. Yep, sure can. All I need to do is attend a Phoenix Suns basketball game. There it is, the symbol of the most physical intimidating primate on the globe, the Gorilla. The Great Ape is the premiere symbol of black Africa and an accepted symbol of pure brute strength. It's also the mascot of the Phoenix Suns basketball team. But let me jump ahead for a moment to remember something I read about the development of more powerful bullets. It was said that these bullets were necessary because the conventional projectile at the time wasn’t powerful enough to stop an enraged black man on drugs. Today, I suppose these weapons are needed to stop someone like a "physically powerful" Rodney King or any black man on enhancement drugs, that is if he's not Barry Bonds. Of course this is only one historical stereotypical idea of the black man having the strength of a gorilla. But enough of this, I digress.

When I turn on the T.V. and watch the NBA Phoenix Suns run up and down the court, my attention focuses on those black men whose ancestry was the home of the gorilla, the African American. I pay close attention to how the white players are far removed from the image of their NBA team mascot. For example,who would even accuse a Steve Nash or Tom Chambers of being a black Africa? Plus they certainly don't conjure up images of any association with a powerful black gorilla. Also If you ever really listened to the white announcers, they will tell you that Nash and the other white players are more “heady” than physically dominate. They don’t do 360 degree through your legs behind your head slam dunks and pound their chest when they show their proficiency of the game.

So the onus of this gorilla mascot being the symbol of the stereotypical powerful brute, the black man, is obvious to me. What is not obvious is the connection between a gorilla and a basketball team in Arizona. It's also interesting that this symbol belongs to a basketball team that represents a state that was a confederate territory, has never signed the ERA and was the last state in the Nation to ratify the Martin Luther King holiday. It also doesn’t escape me that NBA black players comprise about 80% of the league. So this symbol can also become universal to a lot of teams who employ men whose ancestry is the home of the “mighty” gorilla.

I must admit that there’s something comforting in knowing that the Phoenix Suns chose this mascot. It is a comforting reminder that if you are black, you can’t be comfortable, no matter the rhetoric. It is also comforting to know that I can save thousands of dollars because I don’t have to travel to the mountains of Rwanda to see the gorillas, but I may have to if I wanted to see the mist.