The obvious tie between Slice’s street fighting past and his current endeavor in MMA further cements unfair notions of African American men – that those who are big and athletically gifted (a stereotype in itself) are also a menace to society (see also Granderson, 2008).
Even more noteworthy about Slice’s introduction to mainstream America was that his competition against Thompson was marketed by EliteXC and CBS and shown as the main event on MMA’s first live broadcast on network television to over six million viewers.
While the more savvy MMA aficionado knows how intelligent and insightful Slice is (he went to college on an academic scholarship), the inexperienced MMA viewer was introduced to Slice and MMA predominantly via Slice's violent masculinity and physicality.
True, other men and women competed on this fight card who are of various ethnic backgrounds, but it was Slice who competed as the main attraction.
African American intellectuals have long held mixed feelings about their ethnic group’s perceived success in certain sports. Elijah Muhammad, for example, felt that sport “harmed the black community ... that white America had intentionally encouraged blacks to participate in games in order to divert their attention from the real source of their problems and keep them from advancing...” (Wiggins, 1997, p. 166).
And as hinted at above, the over-representation of African Americans in some sports carries on the belief that African Americans can make it athletically but not intellectually.
The danger with Slice is that his marketing revolves almost exclusively around a violent identity and directly ties his past and present together as one continuous and inseparable violent trajectory. Therefore, dismissing Slice’s intellectual capabilities and continually mentioning his violent street fights still watched on YouTube does the African American community a horrible disservice.
In fact, many in the MMA community feel that when traditional values of martial arts are infused in MMA, the sport can have positive effects on society that discourage street violence (Mayeda, Onzuka, & Onzuka, 2008).
Clearly, however, Slice is not being promoted in this manner. Instead, promoters are simply using Slice to increase viewership—largely by relying on violent, racist impressions of African American men that still resonate with far too many Americans.
It is absolutely crucial that MMA organizations and media partners think more clearly about the ways they are selling their sport. If in fact they are arguing that MMA should be respected as a sport and not correlated with ugly street violence, then they must stop making such associations.
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