More than a social justice class, or watching the upcoming TV show Black America (I’ll bring the beer, if you bring some wings with blue cheese), the Colin Kaepernick saga has taught me so much about this country and how we see race, the value of black people and Colin Kaepernick himself.
1. I don’t understand Ray Lewis. He would be the perfect ambassador for Mixed Messages Anonymous or Fuckboi Talk 101. Matter of fact, here are some things I understand more than Ray Lewis:
A. Lil Duval at a POC rally for Transgender rights
B. R.Kelly and Roman Polanski at a POC rally against pedophilia
C. Bill Cosby hosting seminars about sexual assualt (Oh god this is actually true, please no).
2. Ezekiel Elliot, Donté Stallworth, Joe Mixon and countless others have been accused/convicted of felonies, domestic violence, DUI’s and all of those things are fine. As long as you can play well. And not protest police brutality. Or white supremacy.
3. Clothing, especially T-shirts and socks, will have people all up in their feelings but a four year old seeing her momma’s significant other unjustly gunned down by a cop? Nah. Not so much.
4. Colin Kaepernick is a boss, sitting back and rising above the fray but throws articulate and eloquent shade when needed.
5. Afros are the reason why African-Americans can’t get jobs, and Barack Obama’s haircut was the only reason why he was president
6. White people are mighty optimistic. When a lot of things in this country have been built and mechanized for you, of course you are going to see things in a favorable light. That’s why they balked when someone said Kaepernick was being blackballed (maybe whiteballed)? and they collectively said “Hell no! This is just about football and yes Dan Orville Redenbacher and Ryan ‘Crazy Mullet’ Mallet are better.” That’s why on PTI, Tony Kornheiser was very confident that Kaepenick would get signed and Michael Wilbon was like, “Nah, my nigga,” Kinda reminds me of how white people were damn near losing their minds when that half empty bottle of Fanta with spit in it aka Donald Trump was winning the election and black people just shrugged their shoulders and said, “Meh. We been here before.”
7. Shannon Sharpe knows thangs. And we are all better people for it.
8. Women and youth are the real MVPs. Several women in the WNBA took a knee during the national anthem, because they recognized the significance and power of the stance. So did Megan Rapinoe. People hate on millennials, but it was several youth around the country, in high school and in college, that knelt and showed more courage than these wealthy, powerful athletes in the NFL and NBA ever did. As always, rich men are usually slow on the uptake and need the benefit of retrospect to catch up. Richard Sherman wants to boycott the NFL because of money, but not because of their apathy toward Kaepernick, black people, Latinos and Native Americans. It seems keeping your job is more important than living to perform your job. Interesting.
9. Effective protests force you to pay attention, cause discomfort and respectability politics are performative deodorant. Case in point: do y’all remember when Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul, Lebron James, and Carmelo Anthony stood up at the ESPY’s, resplendent in their suits and respectfully pleading, before the broadcast, to stop the violence and raise awareness of racial justice? Wait, you don’t remember that? Yeah, me neither. But it was really respectful, wasn’t it? By the way, when was the last time that was mentioned? Like, anywhere. But we still talking about Colin Kaepernick. And his “disrespectful” stance against the military, the flag and America. And donating 700,000 to charities with more to come, and suits for the homeless, and aid for Somalia. But the flag, doe, right?
10. Tony Stewart, Kate Upton, Rob Lowe, Tony Stewart and other mediocre descendants of Europeans have everything to say about the flag but nada about black people being murdered. Michael Bennet, Arian Foster, and other black athletes are routinely questioned about this issue but Aaron Rodgers, Rob Gronkowski and others can sip on a white privilege smoothie and skate on by like it aint their problem.
But the flag doe, right?