Some­thing that has befud­dled me for years, but I sel­dom talk about, is how com­par­isons of  celebri­ties and ath­letes are made. Now, we all do–make com­par­isons; but I’m specif­i­cally talk­ing about how com­men­ta­tors, jour­nal­ists, and peo­ple in every­day con­ver­sa­tions are locked into only com­par­ing some­one of a par­tic­u­lar race with some­one of the same race.

I don’t watch bas­ket­ball that much any­more, but it just amazes me that so many white play­ers in the NBA are com­pared to “Pis­ton Pete” Mar­avich. I mean…really? Can that many white play­ers have the same style as Mar­avich? I don’t mean to be harsh, but it’s almost a strug­gle to find white play­ers to com­pare to these days. If any­one has seen Jason Williams play bas­ket­ball, I think Magic John­son or even Jason Kidd, not Bob Cousy or Jerry West.  Sim­i­larly, if there is a player who is Jew­ish, why com­pare him only to Dolph Schayes? That’s just dumb.

Music is another area where peo­ple seemed locked into mak­ing com­par­isons of artists based on race. If Diana Krall vocal style is rem­i­nis­cent of Ethel Ennis, why not just say that instead say­ing she’s the mod­ern Rose Clooney? I’m sure many of you can rat­tle off other singers she sounds like, but per­son­ally I think Diana Krall sounds like–Diana Krall. Surely, if I put some thought into it, I could come up with some fabled jazz singers to com­pare her to. I can’t tell you this, what they look like would not be a factor.  Will the next black male coun­try music star auto­mat­i­cally be com­pared to Char­lie Pride?

I think you get where I’m going. 

Don’t get me wrong. If the com­par­i­son fits, no prob­lem. If my pho­tog­ra­phy evokes thoughts of Gor­don Parks. Sweet. that’s quite a com­pli­ment. How­ever, if I’m tak­ing black and white images of land­scapes, it would seem Ansel Adams would be more appro­pri­ate. (Granted, I’m tak­ing quite a leap to even sug­gest my work is any­where near that of Adams.)

In the end, though, I just wish peo­ple would break out of these nar­row boxes when reach­ing for a com­par­i­son. That is, to the extent com­par­isons are even necessary.