0:00

Hi, this is Jenny Rerentis.

0:02

I'm here with Connor Or on this week's episode

0:05

of the week Side Podcast. And no

0:07

matter where you live in America, we all

0:09

know this is an important time in

0:11

our country. Last week, we saw

0:13

the death of a Minneapolis man, George

0:15

Floyd, after a white officer held

0:17

his knee on Floyd's neck for several minutes

0:19

while Floyd called out in distress and asked

0:22

for his mother. It was difficult to watch,

0:24

and it highlighted a problem that's existed here

0:26

for four hundreds some years. Now

0:28

we're being asked to confront racism

0:31

in new ways. In the wake of

0:33

Floyd's death, there will have been

0:35

ongoing protests and cities across

0:37

America. And this was of course

0:40

what Colin Kaepernick was protesting

0:42

four years ago, and looking back,

0:45

it's hard to imagine that the country

0:47

did not heed his wake up call. He was not

0:49

the only one speaking up. It was not a new

0:51

problem, but he did so in a way

0:54

that should have commanded our attention.

0:56

Instead, our focus was shifted

0:59

onto the method of the protest rather than

1:01

the underlying problem, which is something I think

1:03

we see all too often and certainly

1:06

have seen in the past several days. Over

1:09

the weekend, the NFL seemed to

1:11

take the opportunity to author a

1:13

sort of revisionist history, still

1:16

not acknowledging the role that Kaepernick

1:18

has played in our social consciousness

1:21

and trying to tone for

1:23

some of the sins of its past. I think Connor

1:27

I wanted to talk a little bit about some of

1:29

those things, some of the things that have

1:31

come up from the NFL over

1:33

the weekend, and a

1:35

little bit of a discussion of those and at the end,

1:37

I think we will seed

1:40

to read some passages from black

1:42

voices that are important. We acknowledge that

1:44

we are both white, we have

1:46

grown up with white privilege, and we

1:48

are not the best people to be talking about this,

1:51

but we have a twice a week platform on the

1:53

week Side podcasts and we want

1:55

to try to spotlight some of those black voices

1:57

and also have a discussion as best we

1:59

can and at what our country is

2:02

facing right now. Yeah. Absolutely,

2:04

um, and you know to

2:06

start there, I guess with with everything that

2:08

happened with the NFL their

2:11

statement aside, I thought that it

2:13

was incredibly powerful to

2:15

see Brian Flores come out and

2:17

make that first step towards releasing

2:19

a statement, and I thought there

2:22

were some good points made over the weekend that

2:24

we should be paying attention to who's

2:26

talking, who's talking first,

2:29

and who's not talking at all during

2:31

this And you know, if you're a football

2:33

player, or if you're just a fan,

2:35

if you're a person wondering whose

2:38

side, UM you're

2:40

on, you know, this is history. We're

2:42

living it right now. And you know, someone

2:45

like for someone like Brian Flores to

2:47

come out and say what he did at the

2:49

time that he did, UM, I thought

2:51

it was incredibly brave. I thought what he had to say

2:53

was incredibly smart. UM. And then

2:56

you have everything sort of filtering in behind

2:58

it, some of it maybe less genuine

3:01

UM, more in search of this elusive

3:03

middle ground that the NFL

3:05

seems to be so fond of familiar

3:08

with. UM. But you know, I

3:10

think that at least we

3:13

can be encouraged in the slightest that there

3:15

are people out there who are willing to

3:18

take that step UM in the league

3:20

and to be that first person out there

3:22

to say, hey, this is not okay,

3:24

and UM, you know, I'm I'm willing to

3:26

come out there and say it. Yeah, that's

3:29

a great put a way of putting a Connor, and I'm

3:31

really glad that you started there. Uh, And

3:33

I agree. I think for a blackhead

3:35

coach like Brian Flores, it's he's going

3:37

into his second season as a head coach. He

3:40

was leading a team that was tinking last

3:42

year. You know, there are a lot of reasons where you could

3:44

have said, I'm not going to throw myself into the

3:46

fray on this issue, but it was too important

3:48

for him not to, And I thought his words were really

3:51

strong, calling the problem

3:53

what it is. I think it's important to address

3:55

directly the way that George Floyd was

3:57

killed and to dress directly the problem

3:59

most the stomach racism and police

4:02

brutality that is unfairly

4:04

targeted towards people of color, and so

4:06

I think when we talk about those issues,

4:08

it's important to be direct about

4:11

them. When the NFL

4:13

kind of entered the scene on this, I felt

4:15

like they weren't direct about it. You

4:17

know, they said they were saddened by the tragic events,

4:20

Uh, the protesters reactions

4:22

and reflect the pain, anchor, and frustration that

4:24

so many of us feel. They then expressed

4:26

condolences to the families of George Floyd,

4:28

Brandon Taylor, and Amada are very which

4:31

were just a handful of people

4:33

of color who were

4:35

unfairly killed in

4:37

circumstances that are rooted in racism.

4:40

Um. The next part, you know, talked

4:43

about, well, these tragedies informed the

4:45

NFL's commitment and ongoing efforts. We recognized

4:47

the power of our platforms, We embraced

4:50

that responsibility, and our committed to continuing

4:52

the important work to address these

4:54

systemic issues. And

4:56

you know, I think that's really what wrong.

4:59

Empty the words And that's

5:01

something of course that people

5:03

of color, black people in America feel more

5:05

acutely. Um. But even as a white person,

5:08

you can see that those words ring hollow.

5:11

Given what happened to Colin Kaepernick.

5:13

You know, their NFL's main

5:16

message when Kaepernick was

5:18

unemployed after he began his protests

5:21

to against systemic racism

5:23

and police brutality in America was

5:25

this protests of progress movement.

5:27

That's how they kept shifting the conversation.

5:30

I think the danger of that is it

5:33

puts one over the other one. I think

5:35

what we know is that you need both,

5:37

right, you need protests and then you need other

5:40

efforts to bring

5:42

about change. But protests is often

5:44

the catalyst. We've seen this in many

5:46

movements for equal rights in our country, that

5:48

you need the protests. And so they

5:50

were basically saying, it's fine for the

5:53

NFL to create a platform to donate

5:55

millions of social justice causes, and

5:57

that's great, that is doing a lot of good.

6:00

But they positioned it as it

6:02

was that instead of the protest,

6:05

it was them tacitly or maybe

6:08

more than tacitly condemning

6:10

the protest, and um, I

6:12

think that was really the error, and that's

6:14

something that they haven't acknowledged, you know, And

6:16

I think one of the more important

6:19

things that could go on right now is acknowledgement

6:21

of errors and a commitment to fixing

6:23

them. Connor, Yeah, and that statement

6:26

was just, you know, I

6:28

think it reflects a little bit of

6:31

what everybody is so tired

6:33

of. It was a word salad.

6:35

It was completely meaningless. And

6:38

this is all we get from anybody

6:41

in charge when anything of

6:43

consequence happens. There are people whose

6:45

job it is to try to say

6:48

something on topic without

6:50

saying anything, and you can

6:52

tell that these are the people who are writing

6:54

these statements. And whether it's the NFL or

6:57

General Motors or you know, any of these

7:00

brands, these giant, mega corporations

7:02

that are coming out now and trying to tell these

7:05

people who are hurting that they understand

7:07

and please still buy our stuff and

7:10

please still go to our games, because we're not the

7:12

problem. It's just all bullshit,

7:14

like you know that it's meaningless.

7:16

And when I saw that statement, you

7:18

know, it just reminded me of what I've

7:20

thought about Goodell in the NFL

7:23

for the last five years. And it's the first time

7:25

that you actually come out and say something from

7:27

the bottom of your heart. It's gonna

7:30

resonate with people because it's gonna

7:32

be so markedly different from everything

7:34

that we've gotten from you since the beginning.

7:36

And you know, it's just infuriating

7:39

and I can't and again, I mean we've

7:42

mentioned this. This is just me as a

7:45

thirty one year old white guy who's lived

7:47

a life of privilege. It's infuriating. I can't

7:49

imagine hearing that from

7:51

somebody who actually has to experience

7:53

this stuff on a daily basis. And it's just

7:57

like, for once, when any of this happens,

7:59

just an ounce of humanity doesn't

8:02

take that much, but apparently is just

8:05

a quantum leap for some of these people

8:07

and it's it's remarkable to me. It

8:09

seemed like a lot of statements being released

8:11

by leagues or teams were more of a box

8:13

checking move, more concerned

8:15

with the optics rather than

8:18

actually addressing the root of the problem,

8:20

and I think the NFL statements certainly

8:22

fell under that category. Also

8:25

over the weekend, Joe Lockhart, who worked

8:27

in the Clinton administration and was

8:29

also the NFL's former head of communications,

8:32

while the Kaepernick situation was unfolding

8:35

in the league, while he was not

8:37

getting job opportunities from teams,

8:39

while thirty two clubs at the

8:41

same time decided that they would not employ

8:44

him. And you know, nobody is saying

8:46

that there was the collusion case was always

8:48

okay. Yes, maybe there wasn't a concerted

8:50

effort, but they were all making this decision

8:52

and no one was holding them accountable to it.

8:54

So he writes, you know, signing Colin Kaepernick

8:57

owner thought was bad for business. He

8:59

says that one team told him they projected

9:01

losing of their season ticket holders

9:04

if they did, and they didn't want to take

9:06

that business risk. They

9:08

were willing, though, he writes, to spend those millions

9:10

to help address the problem of racial division in

9:12

the country for me. While I was uncomfortable

9:14

with Collin not being signed, I told myself we were

9:16

righteous and doing the hard work of making progress.

9:19

I was mistaken. Now. I said

9:21

earlier that there is a value in admitting

9:23

that your actions didn't help or or wrong.

9:26

But this is a different category because he

9:28

doesn't work at the league anymore. So he's not taking

9:30

any of the flak. He's not taking

9:33

on any of the consequences I guess

9:35

for making this admission. In fact, it's just the opposite.

9:37

You know. It seems as though he is in search

9:40

of some kind of absolution for the

9:42

role he played, and he continues

9:44

to detail some of the things that change has changed

9:47

his mind, and it's, uh, it's

9:49

somewhat stunning to think that only at

9:51

this point hearing, you know, an account

9:54

of Curtis Martin, who was stopped

9:56

by police while looking for homes in Long Island,

9:58

would be the thing that changed his mind. But a

10:00

lot of my thoughts in the Lockhart piece were said

10:02

much better by our former colleague

10:04

Jonathan Jones, who now works at CBS

10:06

Sports. And I just was going to read a couple excerpts

10:08

of his Sweet Connor because I think Jonathan's voice

10:11

on this was a really good one, definitely. Um

10:13

he wrote the only point of Lockhart's pieces

10:15

to absolve himself of his guilt from his role

10:17

in this. His inactivity, along

10:20

with his hope that the problem would go away if they threw

10:22

money at it, was very much a part of Colin's effective

10:24

blackballing. There has never

10:26

been anything controversial or political about

10:28

peacefully protesting racial inequality.

10:31

Many people, most of them black, were saying

10:33

this exact same thing years ago, people

10:35

like Lockhart apparently did not want to

10:37

listen. His absolution request

10:39

is blanketed by the ending, which publicly asks

10:42

the Vikings owners to do something here only

10:45

now after yet another unarmed black man

10:47

has been murdered at the hands of law enforcement,

10:49

that something must be done. Yeah,

10:53

that's a great way to put it. And so

10:55

often throughout history, and

10:58

you know, when people

11:00

become aware of how

11:03

they're going to appear in history,

11:06

make moves like this, right, and

11:09

I think that this was one of

11:11

those, Like there are no

11:13

more original ideas, especially

11:15

when it comes to you know, old

11:18

white people trying to get out of taking

11:21

the blame for certain things. But this is straight out

11:23

of the historical playbook. This is,

11:25

you know, um, let me try

11:28

to pivot this into making it

11:30

seem like I was doing the right thing,

11:32

when in reality, this was

11:34

a business decision all along. I mean, Jonathan

11:37

put it perfectly. And I think that, you

11:39

know, had we had any ounce

11:41

of leadership at the league

11:44

level during that time, any

11:46

person to go into that meeting and check

11:48

these owners and just put

11:50

a mirror in their face and say, what do you guys really

11:54

saying? You know, I mean, just listen to yourselves

11:56

for thirty seconds. Um. But nobody

11:59

was brave enough to do it, and so now you have to

12:01

do that sort of wriggling,

12:03

personal twisting and gymnastics

12:06

to try to make it seem like, well, what I

12:08

was actually doing is trying to fix the problem, which

12:10

is is ridiculous. And I think that one

12:12

of the values of this

12:15

weekend of people encouraging people

12:17

who were leading the peaceful protests

12:20

and encouraging us to listen, was

12:22

that it gave us time to reflect

12:24

and to read and and we're going to get to some of

12:26

that in a little bit, but I think one of

12:28

the things that really stuck with me was,

12:31

you know, the people who had

12:33

the chance to do something about this and didn't,

12:36

especially at that level. Um,

12:39

their punishment is living with this forever. And they

12:41

can put out a statement saying whatever

12:43

they want, and they can try to convince people they

12:45

were trying to do the right thing and that

12:47

they had all these you know, high

12:50

minded ideals in their mind, but only they know

12:52

in their heart what they were really trying to do. And

12:54

you know, I think that a lot of us can probably

12:57

take a guess at what that really was. So

13:00

I think that that's the most in

13:02

a lot of ways. Living with that, I imagine

13:04

would be much more painful. So yeah,

13:08

absolutely, Connor. And you know the way

13:10

the column ends with this request to the Vikings

13:12

to employ Kaepernick, that to me felt

13:14

like really one of those moves. First

13:16

of all, it wasn't something that they were willing to

13:18

do. Call out owners for not signing Kaepernick,

13:21

wasn't thing the league was willing to do, or while

13:23

Lockhart was employed there that he was willing to

13:25

do. Um. But also

13:27

to say that the team that's in the city where

13:29

George Floyd is killed, that if they signed

13:32

Kaepernick that will make everything better, that

13:34

that felt to me like just a very thin thing.

13:37

And also like why would Kaepernick accept that,

13:39

right? You know, he's been trying to get back into

13:41

the league and he hasn't

13:43

been given an opportunity. You know, Lockhart

13:45

said, now he realizes the value of a

13:47

symbol at attempts at progress, But does

13:50

Kaepernick want to be used in that way

13:52

a way for the NFL to not to address

13:54

the optics rather than the root problem. Now,

13:57

I think that's key for all organizations

13:59

right out, beyond statements or the initial

14:01

show what are you actually doing to hire

14:04

people of color, but also make

14:06

sure they're entering an inclusive culture.

14:08

And maybe inclusive is such a weak word,

14:11

because it's more than that entering somewhere

14:13

where black or employees

14:15

or people of color can feel like they

14:17

can fully express themselves not have

14:19

to pressure to conform to white social

14:22

norms, whether that be hairstyle, clothing,

14:24

or even the way that they express themselves about

14:26

issues that matter to them. You know. And so

14:29

I think it's kind of foolish to say,

14:32

like, let's just throw and offer at Kaepernick

14:34

to make that all better, because he's smarter than that, and

14:36

you know, he's he made a point no one chose

14:39

to listen, and he doesn't want some U

14:42

band aid kind of thrown on the problem.

14:44

At this point in time, It's it's beyond

14:47

foolish. It's like, this is exactly

14:49

like the NFL saying, Okay,

14:51

well, uh, we're going to

14:54

solve this problem by hiring Jay

14:56

Z and it's all gonna go away. We're

14:58

going to solve this problem. But by having the Vikings

15:01

signed Colin Kaepernick, that just illustrates

15:05

the level of blindness at which

15:07

people are operating, that that this

15:09

would cause any sort of uplift

15:12

in anybody's spirit right now. I mean, holy

15:14

crap. You know, it's just again,

15:18

I there's nothing else I can do but feel

15:21

awful for the people who have to experience

15:23

this every day and then try to be immediately

15:26

pacified by people who

15:28

are worried that they're on the wrong side of history. It's

15:30

just this really gross cycle,

15:34

and you know, it really is.

15:36

And you know how any

15:39

of those people

15:41

in power in particular sleep

15:44

at night. I don't know, especially

15:46

when you try to do something like that and you say, hey,

15:49

Vikings just signed Kaepernick and everything will be

15:51

better, Like my god, it and

15:53

it was written you weren't on TV, had a

15:56

chance to go and look that over and make

15:58

sure it didn't sound stupid. But

16:00

yeah, this is make sure, yeah,

16:02

make sure that was really what you wanted to say. I

16:05

know it's yeah, it's

16:07

um. It's disrespectful to the

16:09

experiences of black people in our country.

16:12

Another thing that I was thinking a lot about, Connor

16:15

is a lot of the discussion over the past

16:17

several days from sports teams and leagues

16:20

has centered on, well, we have a very diverse

16:22

locker room with everyone working together,

16:24

and we want that to be the way our country

16:27

is. UM And I don't want to discount that. I mean,

16:29

I think you do learn a lot from

16:31

being around people with different life experiences.

16:34

I know that I have learned a lot about race

16:36

from covering sports and

16:39

interviewing people and listening to their experiences

16:41

who are different from mine. But I also

16:44

think that idea minimizes

16:47

the fact that people can come together for

16:49

a common interest, often out of self

16:51

interest. Right, you know, you're uniting with teammates

16:54

to try to win a championship. You can

16:56

do that and still have racist tendencies.

16:58

So I think looking at it in this context of

17:00

I've seen people of all races work together

17:02

in the locker room can deter white

17:05

people from doing the self examination

17:07

that's needed. You know, it's inevitable

17:09

to all of us who are white, that racist

17:11

tendencies seep in, even unconsciously,

17:14

in a country that has prioritized the white

17:16

experience above all others. And I

17:18

think that's why we need to all educate

17:20

and self examined regularly. And

17:23

being on a team with black players

17:25

doesn't eliminate the need for that. It doesn't mean

17:27

that racism doesn't live in those locker rooms.

17:29

I mean, and I think Kaepernick illustrates

17:32

that once he began protesting

17:34

against police brutality, the league

17:36

suddenly viewed him as toxic. Some

17:38

of the same people who played with him against him

17:41

among him. While he was a quarterback

17:43

who led the team to a Super Bowl, he fit right

17:45

into a locker room. When he asked our country

17:47

to un confront the uncomfortable

17:50

issue of systemic racism

17:52

and to confront their own role in that,

17:54

they said he did not fit into a locker room.

17:56

So that to me says all you need to know. It

17:59

does. And look at all the other players

18:03

who teams have contorted

18:05

themselves painfully to excuse

18:07

the signings of after myriad real,

18:11

horrifying issues, you know what I mean,

18:13

like like stuff that should

18:15

harm uh an owner's pocket, but apparently

18:18

doesn't because our priorities are so

18:20

asked backwards here that we're more

18:22

upset about somebody just saying, hey,

18:24

this is going on than I

18:27

don't know. I don't want to go I don't want to start going down

18:29

the line here. But I think everybody knows it.

18:31

Can you know, sadly, there's probably

18:34

one player on all thirty two teams that

18:36

fans can immediately point to and say that this

18:38

person, probably in the perfect world, makes

18:40

me more than uncomfortable, you know, having

18:42

there, and our team has done some

18:44

sort of backflip or somersault

18:46

to defend the fact that we've signed him,

18:48

and you know, meanwhile, all this other stuff

18:51

is happening. I don't know, it's it's it's

18:53

uh, it's maddening to say the least, you know.

18:56

And the idea also that owners were making

18:58

a business decision, I think is

19:01

um a little giving um

19:04

what's the right word I'm looking for. I feel

19:06

like that's a little bit too favorable.

19:09

Uh. You know, the idea that if

19:12

you signed Kaepernick, you went, as Lockhart stated,

19:14

you know, lose twenty percent of your season ticket

19:16

holders. Well, first of all, you don't know that, but

19:18

second of all, you also don't know. I

19:20

mean, certainly there

19:23

was so much support

19:26

for Kaepernick being signed by

19:28

a team, Like both of those things

19:30

existed in our country. Who's saying one

19:32

is bigger than the other? You don't know? Like, how

19:34

can you know that calculation? I think a lot

19:37

more of it came down to not

19:39

wanting to fall out of favor with the president, who

19:42

many owners have donated money too. So

19:44

I think saying it's a business decision really

19:46

minimizes to what it was. Yeah,

19:49

I mean, and that's what so

19:51

many people have privately or

19:53

publicly um leaned

19:55

on. And it's such a crutch during

19:57

this time because everybody

19:59

in a edition of power, you know, it's

20:03

it's irresponsible to say that there used to

20:05

be some sort of morality and and

20:08

code, because clearly if there was, we wouldn't

20:10

be in the position that we were in now. But I feel

20:12

like we used to be a little bit more driven

20:14

by something other than

20:17

a bottom line. And it's just become a

20:19

default setting for anybody, um

20:21

who's in any position of power. And

20:24

all these all these teams, all

20:26

these leagues are just run by

20:28

these just you know, it's just this faceless

20:32

entity. It's not even a human being anymore.

20:34

And I feel like that's part of the ultimate

20:37

frustration, is that when any of

20:39

these criticisms are lobbed at

20:41

them, it's not even they're not even getting

20:44

a real response in return or

20:46

a real consideration. It's just run

20:48

through this magic machine that tells you, well,

20:51

the numbers are this way if we're going to do this, and the

20:53

numbers are that way if we're going to do that, and so

20:55

this is our decision, and then we're going to

20:57

hire some crisis community

21:00

cations firm to pull all the numbers

21:02

and try to find a way to say it to you

21:04

that makes it feel a little bit better. And

21:06

it's just, you know, it's

21:08

no it's no wonder that people are so

21:10

frustrated, you know, and uh, you

21:12

know, it's uh, I

21:15

don't know. It's a sad state of affairs. And I wish that

21:17

the NFL and its position um

21:20

and thankfully, you know, like we talked about

21:22

at the top of the show, there's been some coaches, i

21:24

think in some players who have really taken

21:26

a hard step forward when

21:28

other people wouldn't. But man, I

21:30

mean this, the NFL is a Titanic

21:33

of society. I mean, they can

21:35

do a lot with their

21:38

platform and their voice. Um, and

21:41

coming out and just offering

21:44

some human glimpse here would have been really

21:46

special. And I think it was a huge opportunity

21:48

missed. And it's something that you know, what they're gonna

21:50

do is they're gonna come back six months later when

21:52

it's politically safe to do so, right,

21:54

and they're gonna have cover and

21:56

they're gonna say, well, you know, we honor

21:59

these people and blah blah blah. And if

22:01

you do, you would have done it now. You would have done it yesterday,

22:03

you would have done it three days ago, and you would have done it four

22:05

years ago. And Colin Kaepernick started because

22:08

it was a real thing back then too, and it was a real

22:10

thing in the hundreds of years before that

22:12

too. But um, I just think it's ultimately

22:15

sad that they missed a great

22:17

opportunity to enact

22:20

some real change. And I hope that they I really

22:22

do hope that they feel that. And you

22:24

know, I'm We're

22:26

two people, and you know I could say the same

22:28

about myself too. I mean, you know, what have

22:30

I really done? What have you

22:32

know, have I done enough? And you know, I think that

22:34

there's certainly that aspect

22:37

of it. But when you're a billion dollar

22:40

corporation that is

22:42

a societal tent pole, um,

22:45

you can do something really special

22:48

during these times and meaningful, or you can

22:50

choose to sit out, and

22:52

they for the most part have sat out. Yeah.

22:55

Yeah, and you know, the idea of making

22:57

a million dollar contribution, like, okay,

22:59

that's great for known Er to do that. But then

23:02

at the same token, you're saying it was a business decision

23:04

to not sign Kaepernick really comes

23:06

down to greed. But you know, you're saying you weren't

23:09

willing to take a small skim off the top potentially,

23:12

which again we don't even know if that's true as

23:14

a billionaire um to sign

23:17

a player who deserves to be on a roster. I

23:19

mean, so it's just a lot of things that don't add

23:21

up. And I think also kind of what you were getting to Connor,

23:23

there's a lot of people who have taken this

23:25

issue on. You know, Kenny Stills

23:28

called called bus on Goodell statement.

23:30

You know, we saw, um, we saw what Flora

23:32

said. I mean, there are a lot of people who are

23:35

willing to talk about these issues head on.

23:37

Um But again, you know, the

23:39

onus is on unfortunately,

23:42

on people of color to talk about

23:45

this and to make us consider this, and it shouldn't

23:47

be that way. You know, this is not a problem

23:49

of their own making. And Kaepernick

23:51

obviously paid a steep price, He paid

23:54

the price of his career to try

23:56

to force us to confront a problem.

23:58

And you know, this

24:01

is just the latest example of how

24:03

America turned a blind eye to that wake

24:05

up call. Absolutely,

24:08

um So, I think, Connor, let's move

24:10

into I think we each selected

24:12

a couple excerpts of black

24:15

voices that are important to consider. It's

24:17

something that we took something from and learned

24:20

something from, and we thought it would be just a

24:22

nice way to read a couple of excerpts, um

24:24

to share some black voices on our podcast,

24:27

people whose perspectives are valuable

24:29

and meaningful and eye opening, and

24:31

we hope they are for our listeners to um

24:34

So, Also, I'll start with the first one. I

24:36

picked part of an essay from The New Yorker

24:39

in November two thousand and sixteen, right

24:41

after the election by the great Tony

24:43

Morrison Prophetic Voice that we lost

24:46

too soon. Um, it's called making

24:48

America white again. So

24:50

I'll start reading just a couple of paragraphs

24:52

that she wrote. Under slave

24:55

laws, the necessity for color

24:57

rankings was obvious, But in America

25:00

today this is a serious project.

25:02

All immigrants to the United States know

25:05

and knew that if they want to become real,

25:07

authentic Americans, they must reduce

25:09

their fealty to their native country and

25:11

regarded as secondary, subordinate in

25:13

order to emphasize their whiteness. Unlike

25:16

any nation in Europe, the United States holds

25:18

whiteness as the unifying force here.

25:21

For many people, the definition of American

25:23

nous is color. Under slave

25:26

laws, the necessity for color rankings

25:28

was obvious, But in America today,

25:30

post civil rights legislation, white

25:32

people people's conviction of their natural

25:34

superiority is being lost, rapidly

25:37

lost. There are people of color everywhere

25:39

threatening to erase this long understood definition

25:42

of America. And what then, Another

25:44

black president, a predominantly black Senate,

25:47

three black Supreme Court justices. The

25:49

threat is frightening. In order

25:51

to limit the possibility of this untenable

25:54

change and restore whiteness to its former

25:56

status as a marker of national identity.

25:59

A number of white America Cans are sacrificing

26:01

themselves. They have begun to do

26:03

things they clearly don't really want to be doing,

26:05

and to do so, they are abandoning their sense

26:07

of human dignity and risking the appearance

26:10

of cowardice. Much as they may hate

26:12

their behavior and know full well how craven it

26:14

is, they are willing to kill small children

26:16

attending Sunday school and slaughter

26:18

churchgoers who invite a white boy to pray.

26:21

Embarrassing as the obvious display of cowardice

26:24

must be. They are willing to set fire to churches

26:26

and to start firing in them while the

26:28

members are at prayer, and shameful

26:30

as such demonstrations of weakness are, They're

26:33

willing to shoot black children in the

26:35

street to keep alive the

26:37

perception of white superiority. These Americans

26:39

tuck their heads under cone shaped hats and American

26:42

flags and deny themselves the dignity

26:44

of face to face confrontation, training

26:46

their guns on the unarmed, the innocent, the scared

26:48

on subjects who are running away, exposing their

26:51

unthreatening backs to bullets. Surely,

26:53

shooting a fleeing man in the back hurts the presumption

26:56

of white strength, the sad plight of

26:58

grown white men crouching beneath their better

27:00

selves to slaughter the innocent

27:02

during traffic stops, to push black woman's

27:04

faces into the dirt, to handcuff

27:07

black children. Only the frightened would

27:09

do that, right, These sacrifices

27:12

made by supposedly tough white men who

27:14

are prepared to abandon their humanity out of

27:16

fear of black men and women, suggest

27:18

the true horror of lost status and

27:22

of the excerpt. So I

27:24

thought that was that was really powerful.

27:26

And I had also read other interviews where she sort

27:29

of talked about the in America,

27:31

the country is built on this unifying force

27:33

of being whiteness. Um.

27:35

And I think that if you start considering

27:38

that, that's how the fabric of our country

27:41

is stitched. I feel like that is

27:43

a helpful starting point of understanding

27:46

where black people are coming from. Yeah.

27:48

Absolutely, UM,

27:51

I can take I have two short

27:54

ones, um from

27:56

Tanahasi Coates's book Between

27:58

the World and Me really stuck

28:01

out, I think today, uh, and over

28:03

the weekend in particular. Uh. The first

28:06

is just one sentence that

28:08

he says, I would not have you descend into

28:10

your own dream I would have you be a

28:13

conscious citizen of this terrible

28:15

and beautiful world, um, which

28:18

to me, you know, really embodies the fact

28:20

that you know, I think we had a president who

28:22

was elected in part because he sold

28:24

people on this dream

28:27

of this past that wasn't even true.

28:29

And you know, we all kind of have a tendency to retreat

28:32

into our own realities without um

28:35

any consciousness. UM. And

28:37

I think this weekend was one of those

28:39

times where it peeled

28:42

the peeled the layers back a little bit

28:44

and forced people to look and

28:46

uh and see what's actually happening beyond

28:48

sort of these little worlds that we create

28:51

for ourselves. Um. And

28:53

just the other was um,

28:55

all of our phrasing race relations,

28:58

racial chasm, racial

29:00

justice, racial profiling,

29:03

white privilege, even white supremacy,

29:06

serves to obscure that racism

29:08

is a visceral experience that

29:10

dislodges brains, blocks

29:12

airways, rips, muscle, extracts

29:15

organs, cracks bones, breaks

29:18

teeth. You must never look away

29:20

from this. You must always remember

29:23

that the sociology, the history,

29:25

the economics, the graphs, the charts,

29:28

the regressions all land with

29:30

great violence upon the body. Um.

29:34

Just you know, again, I mean this is uh.

29:38

I think watching that what

29:41

happened um in Minnesota, UM

29:45

just kind of brought that to mind. In particular,

29:47

it's that, you know, there are real world

29:50

consequences for only

29:53

a certain segment

29:55

of society, and we find

29:57

these ways to call it something

29:59

else or to kind of lump

30:01

it into a chart. But you know,

30:03

this was this was a good

30:05

person. This was somebody that we

30:08

you know, we should be taking

30:10

care of as a fellow citizen, and you

30:12

know this shouldn't have happened. So I thought

30:15

that was that was valuable and it

30:17

kind of really struck a chord with me and

30:19

hopefully somebody else that listened today

30:21

too. Yeah, thanks for sharing

30:23

those Connor, those are really good selections

30:27

and the I just had two more paragraphs

30:29

from an essay called black Riot

30:31

from the New Inquiry online magazine by

30:33

Raven Raikia. Most

30:36

resistance is non violent, but those who

30:39

choose to be non violent should not dismiss

30:41

or distance themselves from others who use violence.

30:43

Strategically when demanding

30:45

change, all tactics must be brought to the table.

30:48

Selective historians consider this unnecessary.

30:51

They will use the civil rights movements non violent

30:53

resistance as an example, they will

30:55

demand that you stand perfectly still as you get

30:57

sprayed by water hoses and attacks by pulled

31:00

these dogs. They'll conveniently forget

31:02

to mention that while m l K was leading non

31:04

violent resistance in the form of sit ins and marches,

31:07

quote unquote, riots were raging through America's

31:09

black ghettos. It was the potential for

31:11

more riots like those that exploded in Birmingham

31:13

in nineteen three. Is the Free Freedom

31:16

Writer's campaign grew increasingly resistant

31:18

to police violence that had Robert Kennedy

31:21

convincing his brother to pass civil rights legislation

31:23

less the whole country follow suit. In

31:26

a world where blocks are forced to where their perceived

31:28

violence on their skin, many will see violent

31:31

tactics is moving backwards. Some will

31:33

caution the masses against using violence

31:35

towards property as a tactic. They

31:38

will ask everyone to stay calm and collected, pay

31:40

attention to where they are yelling from their luxury

31:43

apartment. Perhaps the state and the elite

31:45

are counting on this, the notion that all black

31:48

violence is uncivilized or barbaric.

31:50

But what is more realistically threatening than moving

31:53

backwards is staying right where we are in

31:55

a society where black people are always already

31:57

guilty pleading for change instead of demanding

31:59

it will do just that. So

32:01

I thought that was helpful context

32:04

too for some of the protests that we're seeing across

32:06

the country and and how they're being framed,

32:08

um, and perhaps make some

32:11

people who don't know what to make of the protest

32:13

kind of consider them from that

32:15

perspective a different lens. I

32:17

thought that was a really good thing

32:19

to share as well. Definitely,

32:24

well, I think that's all we

32:26

have for today. Connor was obviously

32:28

it was an important subject to address,

32:30

and like I said at the top of the show, you

32:33

know, we're we're both white, and it's you

32:35

know, it's not an experience that we've had in our

32:38

lives, and so we know that our voices are inadequate,

32:41

uh, you know. On Friday or are guilt

32:43

at Sports Illustrated tweeted out the

32:45

sad reality that we have no black

32:47

writers on staff at Sports Illustrated

32:50

and and that's a really disappointing failure,

32:52

um, and that's something that we

32:55

have been pushing and will continue to push

32:57

to resolve. That was not something that

32:59

we just knowst um, but I we

33:01

felt it acutely when uh,

33:04

important cross roads

33:07

of our country come up and we're unable

33:09

to have the gift of

33:11

black voices on our staff to share

33:13

their perspectives. Um, we're worse

33:15

for that. We're worse for not

33:18

being able to have that depth of coverage

33:20

of systemic racism leading up to that point.

33:23

UM. And I hope that's something that our organization

33:25

takes fairly seriously moving forward,

33:27

and we'll work together with the employees

33:30

that so desperately want to change this absolutely.

33:33

Yeah, and uh yeah, hopefully

33:36

you know, again, like we said, there's there's nothing

33:38

that we can say or at

33:40

this point should say. It's you know, it's

33:43

our turn to listen,

33:45

you know. And I hope that by at least

33:47

passing along some voices

33:50

of influence, UM, we

33:52

can help at least contribute

33:54

to that conversation in some semi

33:56

meaningful way. So yeah,

33:59

on that note, I think we'll sign off. Thanks everyone

34:01

for joining us, and we'll see you again later this

34:04

week.