I stumbled upon news today that NFL player Odell Beckham, Jr. is planning to room with Drake while Drake completes his “Views from the 6” album. My first thought was Why does Google care that I know this? but after looking up Beckham, I saw why this would be reported on. It seems that people think Beckham is some kind of fugitive from the norms of how black men should behave and The Internet is intent on catching him in the act. To what end - A confession? A fight? A breakdown? - I don’t know, but I guess the only thing that matters is that Beckham do it publicly.
This isn't the first time accusations like these have been leveled against a man of color in the public eye, but this instance stands out because of the timing and tone of the accusations and the behavior that prompted them.
Timing: Now that we have several examples of professional athletes identifying as LGBT, there should be no reason to assume that anyone is straight or gay based on how they present themselves (or how we perceive them). The signals of straightness are as varied and misleading as the signals of queerness, so the subtext of the accusations against Beckham - "Real men don't do that" or "Athletes shouldn’t do that" - is unfounded. Is someone like Ray Rice a better or "realer" man than Beckham because the spouse he abused is female? Is Caitlyn Jenner more of a man than most men because she was married several times and fathered six children from three different women? Or is it that Jenner is less of man because she was was married as Bruce for over twenty years but didn't cheat? The rules for proper behavior as a man are not consistent, so violating those rules are too easy. And when so many men are accused of any number of "suspect" behaviors, maybe it's time to moderate what we consider suspicious.
