Remember when Kanye West stood on stage with Mike Myers at the Grammy’s some years back and boldly proclaimed that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people?” West was referring to the US government’s hamfisted, incompetent and racist response to the plight of black New Orleans residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
But the interesting thing is, if you substitute “The NFL” for “George Bush,” then Kanye would be 2 for 2.
Because the truth is, the NFL doesn’t care one iota about black people. The League watched passively for decades as evidence mounted of concussion-induced brain injuries, most notably CTE. Not only did the NFL not take action to protect its players, but instead it actively worked to suppress the concussion evidence.
That’s just callous and cold hearted, pure and simple. Add to that the fact that nearly 70% of NFL players are African-American, and it’s hard not to draw the conclusion that the NFL hates black people.
Other examples abound. Fans watch weekly as black bodies are twisted, crushed, and mangled on the field. Yet it took years for the NFL to allow players to seek a second opinion from a medical doctor not affiliated with the League, and it still actively works to discourage this.
There’s also the fact that the NFL is the only major sports league that does not, repeat does not, provide guaranteed contracts to its players. Injured? Can’t walk anymore? Can’t play football? Sorry, you’re out of luck, black man. Maybe you can find a job at Walmart. If you’re really quiet and don’t complain, we might even write you a reference.
Then there’s the whole quarterback question. In my mind, if 70% of the league is black, then a relatively similar percentage of quarterbacks would naturally be black.
But they’re not. Starting in middle school, black players are steered away from playing quarterback because it’s considered “too “cerebral a position for African-Americans. The trend continues in high school, and by college a large portion of potential black quarterbacks have been dissuaded by coaches, boosters, fans and the like to switch positions, usually to wide receiver or defensive back.
And who does the steering? The NFL’s influence is so vast and far reaching that younger team leagues look to it for guidance. So if a high school coach sees that most NFL quarterbacks are black, he will naturally want to follow that example and steer his black players away from the QB position, no matter how talented they may be.
The few black quarterbacks that do make it to the NFL face a constant barrage of criticism, stereotyping, and insults from the media, fans, and even team owners.
“He’s got a lot of talent, but he needs to get better at the X’s and O’s of the game.”
Sound familiar? It’s what you’ll usually hear on ESPN just about anytime they discuss a black quarterback.
Or else it’s “he’s got a lot of raw athletic ability, but he needs to improve between the ears.”
I mean could there be anything more racist than saying a black man is physically talented but intellectually challenged? What is this, the 19th century?
When you add to this the fact that quarterback is the most financially lucrative position in the sport, it becomes obvious that the League just doesn’t want to give much of its money to black players. It wants to reserve superstar status for its white quarterbacks, and the money and fame that come with it.
Finally, there’s the much-discussed and debated issue of NFL players standing for the national anthem before games. Never mind that the national anthem was originally conceived to commemorate American soldiers repelling the British at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore, which occurred during the War of 1812.
Somehow, though, it’s morphed into a militaristic anthem that pays tribute to American soldiers and sailors who fight at home and abroad.
But wait, what if you’re an Iraqi-American? Or an Afghan-American? Do you still have to salute the flag and honor the anthem and the military? That would seem to be asking a lot of two countries and peoples who have been absolutely and totally devastated by those same American soldiers and sailors.
Colin Kaepernick, brave man that he is, took a stand against racial injustice in America two years ago by sitting during the anthem. Then, after talking to some military members, he changed his protest to kneeling, and explained that he never meant to attack the military, but simply to call attention to police brutality and economic inequality in America.
Kaepernick’s protest was adopted by a significant portion of NFL players, mostly black but some white, including Cleveland Browns tight end Seth DeValve, who became the first white player to kneel last season during the anthem. Several others have followed.
How has the NFL responded? By blackballing Kaepernick out of the league, that’s how. If you turn on sports talk radio in any major city in America, you can hear white fans screaming about how the black players “don’t get it” and they should just “shut up and play.”
But could there be anything more patriotic than exercising one’s right to free speech and standing up — or kneeling — for what you believe in?
President Trump has weighed in on the issue numerous times, always siding with the lily-white League and its owners. No surprise there. We all know where Trump stands on matters of race and racial justice. He’s a white supremacist, pure and simple.
Trump called the kneeling players “sons of bitches” in a speech, and demanded that NFL owners fire any player who doesn’t stand for the anthem. So that’s Trump’s position, for what it’s worth. Which to me is less than zero.
Then comes the news on Wednesday that the NFL has has ruled that players must stand during the anthem or risk fines and punishment. The only other option they have is to stay behind in the locker room while the anthem is played, and then join their teammates on the field.
Is this really what it’s come to? Are we really so afraid of powerful black men standing up not only for their own rights but for the rights of the entire African-American community that we’re forcing them to renounce their own deeply-held beliefs? Or else, what, they can hide in the locker room, like little children, and cower before the power of the mighty white NFL?
It’s a disgrace, its what it is. Since the time that Kaepernick first sat during the anthem, police have killed 378 black Americans. So what he started is real. It’s a real issue for all of us to deal with, and it’s not going away anytime soon, regardless of the new racist NFL mandate.
Don’t even get me started on the other part of Kaepernick’s protest, which was against economic inequality. We all know that African-Americans are the most marginalized group in America, with the lowest per-capita incomes and highest poverty rates.
The only group they’re ahead of is native Americans, and that’s because America waged outright genocide against them two centuries ago.
I’m 43, and I’ve enjoyed watching the NFL my whole life. But it’s getting harder and harder to watch as the League callously disregards brain injuries, concussions, torn ACL’s and shredded shoulders, and now out and out strips black players of their First Amendment Rights to free speech.
I’ll probably keep watching, for now, to see how the drama unfolds during the upcoming season. What would really be awesome to see is if 50,000 strong fans at an NFL arena or stadium all took a knee in support of the players as the anthem played. Now that would be something.
Until then, the struggle for racial justice and equality will continue. Thank God enough people care about these issues and are brave enough to voice their opinions, because silence is the enemy.
We can never let them silence us. Ever.
