Lewis: Dear America
"I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do." - James Baldwin
Dear America,
Hey it’s me, Lewis, I wanted to speak with you today about the NFL. See, we have a problem in this country and the NFL has become the microcosm for so much of what ails us. Ugh, where do I begin? First, I think I need to explain why I’m in the position to speak about this. I love sports. Like, I am obsessed with sports and have been for as long as I can remember and football, especially the NFL, has been like a member of the family. I grew up watching Joe Montana throw touchdown passes to Jerry Rice. I remember being at 49ers games and cheering the brilliance that was before me on the field. I grew up playing football at the park with the local kids, back when kids played outside with each other. As I got older, and being a girl meant I could not longer play the game, I began to study the game, the stats, and the greats. I watched college football, searching for the players that would help my team get back to the Super Bowl. For years I knew the starting QB and/or best player on every team. I still know every team and it’s mascot, in particular the racist one still celebrated by our nation’s capital team.
But things changed for me these last few years. The sport I loved to watch, no longer appealed in the same way it had. Life took over and shit got real. The movement for Black lives, most notably in the form of the social media phenomenon, #BlackLivesMatter, began to bring attention to the issues of police and vigilante brutality, the prison industrial complex, and the continued oppression of Black Americans living in a white supremacist nation. Folks of all different walks of life, joined Black Americans in the streets of Ferguson, New York, Baltimore, and right here in the Bay Area (Oakland and SF), to protest against the killings of unarmed Black men, women, and trans folks, (Please know that the folks who started #BlackLivesMatter meant ALL Black lives), specifically those who were killed by police officers. Then, MY QB on MY team, decided to speak up and sit down, then kneel, because of it. It’s important that you know why Colin Kaepernick, at the time a quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, decided he would no longer stand for the National Anthem as a way to protest current and historic systems of oppression and to call attention to the lives lost at the hands of police officers. His protest continued as did the killings. And our response as citizens granted unalienable rights? Well, that usually depended on which side of the color line you lived. Most Black Americans, and Americans of color who understand systematic oppression, celebrated his stance. Most white Americans never took an opportunity to listen to the issue and instead turned the issue into a debate on patriotism and what it means to be an American.
What has transpired, calls by 45 to fire the, “sons of bitches”, idiotic responses, like booing Americans exercising their right to free speech, pleads to “stick to sports,” and even a fake reactive counter-protest by 45.5, lil Mickey Pence, has far too many of you showing yourselves. It’s is unbelievable how protesting the unnecessary death of Black people has led to this. Or is it? In fact, it’s not unbelievable at all. It is what the U.S. is known for, dehumanizing Black people. It’s as American as apple pie, the Statue of Liberty, and football on Sundays.
If you understand the history of this nation, you understand that what is happening in football is America. Let’s break it down, football is a violent sport that most of us watch with enthusiasm, hoping that we see amazing plays, and debilitating hits. Until those hits actually debilitate people. Then we are supposed to act like it’s not happening and instead focus on something else to keep from focusing on what’s real. In the same regard, capitalism (the economic system of the U.S) works best in violence and hostility: think the institution of racism and Indigenous extermination. Yet, we America, celebrate capitalism like we have no understanding of the oppression that comes with every purchase we make.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. Football is a sport where people hit each other, in the head, virtually every play. We are literally watching these, predominantly Black men, kill themselves, their brains for sure, for entertainment. CTE is a huge problem in the NFL. An explosive study came out over the summer about the CTE results of former players brains basically says that if you play the game, to the level of being in the NFL you are more than likely, 112/113 chances, you’ll get it. But the NFL doesn’t want to talk about that and those who watch the NFL don’t want to think about it. Instead, the NFL has ignored the results and focused on something else, the Black athletes, or as the Texans owner called them, “inmates,” running the prison, and their protests of social injustice.
The NFL is sick and needs help.
Julie Keiffer-Lewis (she/her/herself or Lewis) nerd. educator. feminist. scholar. activist. thinker. blatina. spots junkie. humble, with a hint of kanye. bay area native. co-creator: black leadership collective. You can follow Lewis on twitter: @profjalewis
