NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is a symptom of an America that does not want equality
Colin Kaepernick sounded liked a fool when praising Fidel Castro, but Kaep’ is an expert when talking about unequal treatment of people who look like him.
We are here today because of you and I, and the choice of following the easier path of Do As I Say Not As I Do laid out not by the NFL, NBA or any sports league, but rather our revered Founding Fathers.
Despite their intellect, intent and vision they blew it. Since this nation’s birth we have failed our fellow Americans, humanity, and the words of Jesus Christ, ever since.
There is no other way to say it. If you don’t believe it, a bottle of Denial awaits your continued consumption. You can buy some right after church.
This was supposed to be a slam on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and his laughably offensive statement on the riots/protesting as a result of the killing of George Floyd.
No one will do it any better than the great Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post.
Goodell’s leadership, and that of the NFL and so many others, is a symptom.
Goodell didn’t kick Kaepernick out of the NFL. Neither did the owners he is paid to represent. You did.
The image of a black guy taking a knee during the national anthem, a protest over what he felt was the unequal treatment of African Americans by police, was too much.
You don’t want to hear it. When the manner in which he protested became the issue it allowed you to discard the issue.
What remains apparent is that the majority of people in the nation really don’t care, because it’s not directly in their front yard. The priority remains the appearance of our home rather than how it actually functions.
If the majority of America supported Kaepernick, he’d be a mediocre backup on an NFL team today. He was no longer good enough to be a distraction player.
The tragedy isn’t Kaepnerick’s career. The tragedy is that since Aug. 26, 2016, when he first protested, we are essentially in the same place, if not a few steps back.
While we are aghast (numb?) to the latest round of images on our TVs, phones and tablets, what we are witnessing is not new. What Kaepernick protested was only new in 1776, not 2016.
Pick your decade, and it’s not hard to find a George Floyd.
This has been going on since the likes of Andrew Hamilton, George Mason, George Washington, Ben Franklin, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and the rest sweated it out in a Philadelphia Hall to write the Constitution. These genius minds could not agree on the easiest issue of them all, slavery.
That the practice of slavery was not abolished in a landslide vote when the document was debated, crafted, and signed, is our greatest failure as a nation. As then is now, money was the priority over humanity.
The Founding Fathers sinned in their noble attempt to create the perfect union not just against black citizens, but women, too.
It’s 2020, and the imperfections of our home can now be streamed to a global audience to be consumed and dissected 24/7.
Advancements have been made for racial minorities and for other marginalized groups, and to suggest that they have not is offensive to those who have sacrificed and suffered for so long. It also helps when the standards for some people are established so low that acknowledging a person’s humanity qualifies as an advancement.
If a bottle of Equality was for sale at a store, how many Americans would actually buy it?
We’d buy it if a cell phone camera was pointed at us. But once the camera was off, we’d pour it in the gutter.
Most people, especially those in power, regardless of color or creed, would. The Founding Fathers got that one right.
What they did not get right was to create something that was mandated, and enforced: the equal treatment of all of its people. In accordance with the hallowed document, we did not then, nor do we do it now.
Roger Goodell’s tone-deaf statement, or a silent college football coach, are just symptoms. They are doing what you want, and what this nation’s forefathers laid out for us.
We are a nation of laws, under God, yet we are clearly divisible by our race, by our gender, and by our bank statement and by our zip code. Because there is neither liberty, nor is there justice, for all.
You can at least start by acknowledging the disparity, or take another sip of Denial from that bottle that you buy on your way home from church.
