Category: African Americans

My Disenchantment and Disappointment with NFL Football and it’s Players

I have been a sports fan for a long time.  I have loved it and pro sports has brought a lot of enjoyment into my life.  I admire the athleticism and grace of the athletes.  As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned to admire youth more and more and pro sports is a celebration and display of the blessing of youth, strength, good health and a competitive spirit.  I’ve looked up to pro athletes for years and they’ve been heroes to me.

But it’s not only important to have a strong body and have physical gifts.  You also need to have a strong mind, spirit and sense of self.  I’m not sure that most pro athletes have that.  Recently the significant other of a man that plays for the San Die…I mean LA Chargers posted a video of herself, her baby daddy Jaheel Addae, some other Black NFL players and their non Black significant others at dinner making a toast to light skinned babies.

There is something creepy and sinister about a blonde haired, blue eyed woman making a toast to eugenics and promoting social engineering.  It was like we were getting an inside look at a Hitler youth meeting that Black men were allowed to join due to their annual earnings after taking a pledge of allegiance to White supremacy and it’s standards of beauty.

I am a dark skinned, Black woman that is forty four years old, never married and without children.  A lot of people are going to belittle what I am saying and write it off as jealousy and bitterness.  That’s usually what happens when dark skinned Black women try to speak out against being belittled as women or question European features being put on a pedestal.  But I am not jealous nor am I bitter.  But I am questioning if I should invest in an institution that is made of men that devalues Black people and run by people that seem to be using it as a vehicle to assert White standards of feminine beauty.

I feel the need to say that I am not against inter racial dating, marriage or mixed race children.  The United States is an ethnically diverse country and friendships and romantic relationships are bound to happen in this day and age.  Great.  The strange thing is the way that these relationships get glorified and glamorized at the same time that Black women with two Black parents are often put down and degraded.

I’m not really surprised by the toast that was made and broadcast over Snapchat because I’ve always known that light skin, so called good hair and White features have been esteemed among Blacks for centuries.  I just never knew how much it was valued and how much Black women that look Black were vilified until social media became such a presence.  I’ve come to see what so many people really think.

I also think it’s very strange that this woman posted that video on Snapchat.  I think it was very bold and it seems hard to believe that she and her baby daddy wouldn’t know that the toast would rub some people the wrong way.  This came after a Chicago Bears player proposed to his White, fair haired girlfriend and then old tweets of hers became public.  She made some rude remarks about race and she said that she loves  to see Black men with White women and Black women with White men because she knows they will have cute children.  This type of thinking has always made my flesh crawl.

The player that verbally made the toast didn’t say cheers to the lovely ladies in our company or cheers to true love and happiness or prosperous families.  He said cheers to being light skinned, the closest thing to White we’re ever going to get.  That’s it.  They were celebrating being welcomed into White society and leaving Blackness behind.

Visualize White football players taping a similar toast.  Everyone would question if they were a part of the Alt Right.  These young Black men are pretty much a part of the Alt Right whether they realize it or not.

If you think a person with one White parent and one Black parent is more attractive than a person with two Black parents then you probably think a person with two White parents is superior to everyone.  That is racism in a nutshell folks.  And the NFL has been feeding us images of  men of African descent putting fair hair White women on a pedestal for decades now.

As time goes on I think that fewer things are organic and most things in the media, even social media are intentional and put in front of the public in order to manipulate the masses.  That’s especially true when you’re talking about a money making juggernaut such as the NFL.

It’s not hard to see that the NFL uses their space in American culture to promote certain agendas.  It’s also clear that they pander to a White audience.  It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to think that they would want to reach out to White women in a way so they feel as if they have a place in the NFL.  This may seem far out to some of you but when I look at the media and other sources of information and apply some objective and critical thought it’s amazing to me how White people affirm themselves.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Europeans do not tolerate not being the center of, well everything.  Even if something markets itself as a Black organization or event they end up putting a White or at least the Whitest, non Black American face to it that they can find.  If the majority of Black ball players were married to wholesome Black women and created wholesome Black families I have a feeling some White people may resent the NFL and see it as a vehicle for Black prosperity.  White people have a history of destroying anything that brings about Black affluence.  If you don’t believe me search Rosewood, Florida, Black Wall Street or even labor unions.

I’m not even angry at the young men that made that toast to light skinned kids on Snapchat or the Bears player that proposed to the borderline racist woman on the field after winning a game that sent them to the Playoffs.  I’m really just embarrassed for them.  They are brawn and no brains, heart or pride.  They are puppets desperately trying to gain acceptance from mainstream culture.  It’s very sad to watch.

It’s like when you see someone doing something to make themselves look foolish and every knows they are being foolish except them and it’s hard to look them in the eye.  The kindest thing to do is to look away and act like you don’t see what’s going on.  That’s what I may have to do with the NFL which is sad because we have had some great times and I thought I would always be a fan.  I’ve stood by the NFL through a lot but this is a bit too much to bear.

 

 

 

 

 

The Legacy of Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King is being honored today across the US.  MLK is a trending topic on social media, news outlets are rehashing stories about the Civil Rights movement and publicizing community events to honor the fallen leader.  Martin Luther King’s story is amazing and absolutely heroic.  But I feel like his legacy is being tarnished and Whitewashed.

Martin Luther King was a man that was beaten and imprisoned because of his protests against a tyrannical White supremacist government.  He was a Black man that fought for the rights of Black people and was surely motivated by concerns about the future of his own Black family.  He put everything on the line and died for his people. His movement was successful and created real and positive changes for Black Americans.

But we in America still live in a White supremacist, European centered culture.  Everything has to be not only accessible to Whites but centered around them.  That is made very clear by the historical retelling of MLK’s life.  He is said to be a man that wanted to bring the races together and bring about harmony in America.  He is also portrayed as a Confucius like figure.  I think that narrative is a lie to get White Americans to buy into his legacy.

First of all when you talk about race relations in America you need to think of hammers and nails.  Whites are the hammers.  Blacks are the nails.  The hammers like to act as though there is an ongoing disagreement between two parties on equal footing.  That has not been the case.  Blacks have been getting hammered since the origins of this country and the Civil Rights movement just asked to give Blacks a break.  Give them a shot at the chance to pursue happiness.

When mainstream media talks the accomplishments and goals of Dr. King they act as if he simply wanted Black and White people to hold hands and sing kumbaya together.  He was not the simpleton that history and the mainstream media make him out to be.  He was a freedom fighter for Black American people that had suffered centuries of oppression in the US.

He fought for displaced people that did not truly have a country of their own.  He fought for descendants of African slaves that were prisoners of this country.  Dr. King did not fight and die simply so Blacks could have White friends or land a date with a non Black person which is the story that is being sold across the world today through the American media and American public schools.

The same thing has happened to Nelson Mandela.  He was a brave freedom fighter that fought for Black people in South Africa and won basic rights.  Mandela is also being marketed as a Black man that dreamed of a rainbow nation and wanted to bring about so called racial reconciliation.  This version of history is a lot easier for White people to digest because they are not confronted with their own past.

Since Donald Trump was elected as president in the US I have observed that the media sympathizes with racist notions that affirm White supremacy.  The media typically portrays Whites as heroes or victims.  The stories of the Civil Rights movement can not be accurately told and still portray Whites as heroes or victims.  So the truth is being rewritten.

This disingenuous retelling of history is damaging to all Americans.  There is no way that White supremacist ideas will ever change if they are not confronted.  White Americans refuse to do the soul searching necessary to bring about the cultural changes necessary to bring about the racial reconciliation that they pay lip service to every year.

It’s also dangerous to Black people because it gives them the message that your prosperity lies in other communities.  Most African Americans do not really want to be independent from White tyranny and they don’t believe that Black communities can be self sufficient.  The bogus retelling of history reinforces the notion that Black people need other communities, especially Whites to survive.

I’m very unsure of what is being taught in American schools today.  But I urge everyone to seek out information on the American Civil Rights movement.  Remember to focus your attention of the Black community because those are primarily the people that stood up to American authoritarianism and made modest gains in order to improve their lives, communities and the futures of their children.  As a Black American woman I am grateful for their struggle.