The National Football League (NFL) is apparently considering trying to resurrect the failed doctrine of “Separate but Equal.”
“Separate but Equal” was a legal doctrine used in the United States to justify segregation of black people from white people. From public schools to teacher salaries to public restrooms and drinking fountains, this legal theory held that segregation was OK as long as the separate facilities were “equal.”
What turned out to be the case most of the time was that the “separate” facilities were seldom “equal” and usually far from it.
The concept died an ignominious and well-deserved death after several Supreme Court decisions starting in the 1950’s under the leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren.
In the wake of the tragic incident where George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis Police Officers, the cause of which lies somewhere between “criminal negligence” and “First Degree Murder,” and the (very justified) protests and the unjustified illegal looting and rioting, the NFL has decided to play a song known as “The Black National Anthem” (“Lift Every Voice and Sing”) before games this year as some sort of gesture of reconciliation. The same NFL that refused to allow players to display the names and other memorials of Police Officers murdered in the line of duty, now says it plans to allow players to display names and memorials for victims of police violence.
In an earlier Diatribe (http://www.dailydiatribe.net/the-ignorant-usa/#more-828) I pointed out the hypocrisy of players like Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem, and the legal right of the NFL to forbid it. Now the NFL seems to have let their pendulum swing even further in the opposite direction.
Playing the National Anthem of the United States i.e. “The Star Spangled Banner” is a custom that is meant to UNIFY, a reminder to the people of the great Republic we call home. Playing a separate national anthem for a specific, separate group is not unifying but is divisive in the extreme.
I do not agree with this action.
I don’t condone it.
Lest someone think otherwise, “…Liberty and Justice for ALL” is not just a catchy slogan to me. I believe in it to the core of my being, and I recognize we Americans still have a long way to go to achieve this goal but we are working toward it. Actions and policies that are divisive (like this poorly conceived idea by the NFL), effecting discrimination as a means to correct discrimination, violent “protests,” and generally encouraging the breakdown of race relations DO NOT move us closer to this goal.
They move us further from it.
I could go on for much longer but hope I have made my point.
In closing, here is my message to the NFL:
“I’ve been a fan since I was old enough to watch a game (and I’m old enough to remember when Johnny Unitas was considered “the greatest quarterback who ever lived) but your actions are placing that fanhood in jeopardy. I don’t agree with your plan to play the “Black National Anthem” before the Star Spangled Banner during Week 1 games this season, for the reasons I’ve made clear, but if you wish to make a one-time gesture of reconciliation to help bring peace to our people, go ahead. You have as much right to control the content of your show as I do to stop watching it.
But if you continue the practice into week 2, I’ll be finding something else to do on my Autumn Sunday afternoons.
Alternatively, you could produce professional half-time shows, intended to promote racial equality and harmony, that include ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’ speeches by charismatic persons of influence encouraging equality, unity, and harmony, etc. but placing any other song on equal footing with our one unifying National Anthem is a bad idea.
Please promote unity instead of divisiveness.”
The NFL losing me as a fan will also result in the further tragedy of Daily Diatribe readers being deprived of the opportunity to read the upcoming Blog about how the perennial NON-Super Bowl Champion NFL franchise in Minnesota using the name, “Vikings” is disrespectful and demeaning to my Nordic ancestors….
Thanks for reading and…
Don’t let anyone breathe on you.
