D Watkins — about the Washington Redskins and Colin Kaepernick

© 2018 Peter Free

 

10 December 2018

 

 

Who's he?

 

D Watkins is editor at large for Salon.

 

He teaches at the University of Baltimore.

 

 

What did he say?

 

Watkins confronted the subject of the quarterback-challenged Washington Redskins and Colin Kaepernick, the Muhammad Ali of our time:

 

 

[N]egative people ignored the good Kap did by speaking up — just as they ignored the time he donated his suits in front of a parole office to people who were looking for jobs, the donation of his sneaker collection to the homeless, the time he raised and donated over a million dollars for 10 charities in America.

 

All they saw was a black guy kneeling during the anthem and decided to demonize him for it.

 

As if scores of people of all races and ethnic groups don't stay seated during the song, or use the time to make a run for beer and popcorn and hotdogs at the concession stands that don't stop selling snacks during the anthem . . . .

 

The president even joined in the hate, referring to Kap as a “son of [a] bitch” . . . .

 

The Washington Redskins, a team that bears an offensive name and logo, has the opportunity to put a dent in their racist history by employing arguably the most progressive quarterback in NFL history.

 

Over the last four weeks, Washington quarterbacks have been shattering like cheap wine glasses.

 

Kaepernick has had a far better career overall, and unlike those guys he has led a team to the Super Bowl.

 

Kap . . . is still being snubbed by the NFL at large, and Washington specifically — a team that just happens to be establishing itself as a very forgiving team, for signing Reuben Foster.

 

The former San Francisco linebacker, currently being investigated for domestic violence against his estranged girlfriend Elissa Ennis, will now be receiving paychecks from Washington's NFL team.

 

© 2018 D. Watkins, NFL fail: Why won’t the Washington Redskins hire Colin Kaepernick?, Salon (10 December 2018)

 

 

The moral? —  Because the NFL pretty much represents what it is to be American . . .

 

. . . we can infer that being "black" — and resisting deadly oppression — is not American.

 

I am impressed how these United States have learned nothing at all, in the 52 plus years after Muhammad Ali's (personally costly) protest against the racism that sponsored the Vietnam War.

 

Evidently, the only good black hero is — in our USA-chanting lexicon — a dead one, who can (therefore) be happily ignored.

 

If you are soulful, the American Establishment is your spiritual enemy. If you are black, it's also deadly.