Recently it has come to light that Floyd Mayweather has trouble reading. The statement was made maliciously by former friend, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who mocked Mayweather via social media challenging him to read a page of a Harry Potter novel. Things only got a bit more unsettling when Mayweather did a radio drop and struggled to read a sentence to the point it became uncomfortable to listen to and honestly just flat out sad. So what does this mean in the big scheme of things?
Well for starters it shows a lack of empathy on the general public’s behalf. Mayweather, who has been witnessed as invincible to a degree up until now, has shown us a weakness with his reading problem and to a greater degree a weakness that we have in our education system in America today. The school systems in North America have been based off an industry standard that resembles that of a company rather than an inclusive environment and sadly this has hurt certain student’s ability to grow, potentially Mayweather being one. Now let’s not belittle the public education system, which is one of the last friends of the public at large, in which swayed statistics have been used to try and rid the nation of free education.
In Diane Ravitch’s book “Reign of Error,” Ravitch explains that comparing schools of the past in America such as the 60s and 70s , it doesn’t take into account the disparities of equality that we have overcome since then. Then when you compare the American schools to say Sweden, you are looking at a much smaller sample size with a less diverse population, creating faulty numbers to contrast. In short, the issue as a whole of public education is tricky since people as a whole enjoy complaining and it has been placed in a realm of flawed dialogue for sometime now.
Enter Floyd Mayweather, who spent his whole life from three years old onto adulthood in the boxing gym. In a CBS documentary about him prior to the Robert Guerrero fight last May, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Michael Jackson’s childhood as you saw Mayweather roam a Michigan ghetto only focused on boxing. Mayweather depicted a life that was strictly boxing. It sort of made sense when I look at the Mayweather of today as he is now living out what he wished his childhood was in a sense. So is it that unfathomable to believe that he struggled to learn a basic foundation in our educational system? Well, no.
Mayweather is a freak athlete, once in a lifetime type star who from the early onset showed promise. It’s not hard to believe just on the cruelty of life that he could be deeply flawed in one regard and so talented in another. It’s the curse of humanity one could say. The troubling thing about this whole thing is the heartlessness of looking at a flawed person as a joke. On top of all of this, he came from a turbulent household as a child and community at large that didn’t see the point or value in education let alone higher education.
Mayweather has problems with reading comprehension, so why do we need to rub it into his face? The fact that 50 Cent brought it up furthers his reputation of a bully who will ruthlessly bring up anything that will hurt someone deeply. It’s not unlike when 50 Cent recorded a depressed Young Buck crying to him over the phone about taxes. It felt so candid and close to the chest. Truly nothing is funny about it as a whole. We should really think about showing support to help him read no matter how rich he is since it is an important skill.
It is funny though if you think about the accolades that Floyd Mayweather achieved without being able to read. It sort of makes you realize why he is so great in the ring. Mayweather is able to read people whether it be in the ring or outside the ring. He is a body language expert and that seems to have guided his life. It’s like Mayweather is a master manipulator and body movement expert and he has created a world where that was all he needed to be successful, that world of being the highest paid athlete.
Then the next component to this comes on Mayweather’s behalf. Now that you have an issue that is readily available to the public, why not donate to some public schools or run some events to promote reading while you further your own comprehension? Out of every negative there is a positive attribute in life and if Mayweather refuses to put together a positive for the community out of this, what is the message that he is truly sending to the youth? Devote your life to sports and athletics and neglect school to become the best at your sport? Sadly that only pans out for about 10 to 15 people every 20 years, so is that productive? In the hood, education is already hard to push on youth as it is.
Nonetheless on the heels of perhaps, the most interesting Mayweather fight of his career against Marcos Maidana, it seems one thing is eerily true about Mayweather. Mayweather’s worst performances came when the most of the talk was outside of the ring and not about the fight. Two examples of this are his last fight against Maidana and the Miguel Cotto fight in December of 2012, which were both covered by various allegations and scandals. Leading into this fight Mayweather has a Deadspin article that portrayed Mayweather in one of the worst lights possible and now he is publicly humiliated at the expense of his reading comprehension. How will all of this effect Mayweather on September 13th? That’s a good question that we shall soon find out.
