by Aubrey Bruce, For New Pittsburgh Courier
Super Bowl LVI was just played and it was a great game. Thank God that there were no Black head coaches to profile, because that almost always assures that the commentary from the game’s announcers for the most part would be positive.
The underlying storyline for the game was the racially insensitive practices regarding the miniscule numbers regarding the employment or should I say the non-employment of Black coaches, being chosen to fill vacant head coaching positions of the NFL. Was it a mere coincidence that the NFL chose this particular Super Bowl to feature the hip-hop genre of music?
Was the choice of performers prompted by the fact that many of the successful hip-hop performers and their fan base are from urban and inner-city environments? One could also theorize that at this juncture in history the public relations fiasco regarding failed attempts at creating racial equity has dogged the NFL because of the decision of ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick to take a “knee” when the National Anthem was played or sung before the game rather than to continue to sit on the sidelines and witness the unjustified murders and incarceration of people of color.
The acid and race-based attacks on the patriotism of Kaepernick’s efforts were relentless and continue to be led to this day by the former president of the United States, Donald J. Trumpf (the authentic spelling of his name, not Trump) and his disciples.
Does anyone consider these observations false? If so would you care to explain to me and to the world how a president of these United States insisted that the NFL terminate any player that refused to stand for the playing of the national anthem while simultaneously sanctioning and inciting villains and domestic terrorists to pillage, burn and desecrate the sacred ground of the United States Capitol while refusing to give an executive order to cease and desist their acts of violence instigated by him in a failed attempt to overturn a legal election to retain power?
No Black, White or Brown NFL player that took a knee before an NFL game was part of “Team Trump” on Jan. 6, 2021. These thugs didn’t take a knee…these “trained and domesticated terrorists” were led by “agent orange” to take the United States Capitol and in the process void the United States Constitution.
To most of the Black demographic, the entertainment presented during the intermission of this year’s Super Bowl was all that and a bag of “poker chips” but if you peel back the layers, you may discover the performance may have been just a covert distraction to kick off a new greasy, slick and back alley public relations campaign initiated by the NFL. The powers-that-be may again be in the process of reconfiguring and refining their past and present policies to disenfranchise the efforts of people of color to evolve and advance in their rigid and Eurocentric systemically racist system.
If you take a poll of how many White Americans over the age of 55 like or listen to hip-hop, out of 1,000 respondents I can almost guarantee it will be less than 50 that will offer a positive review. Presenting almost any form of modern urban entertainment reinforces the notion as to why Blacks should not ascend to positions of power in the NFL. Many people criticize the effectiveness of the “Rooney Rule.” Let’s not forget if not for the “Rooney Rule,” there would be no rule at all.
That powers-that-be will always attempt to rewrite history. They will almost always try to sculpture the “clay” of truth into a statuette of lies and harden those lies by casting the perverted object into the fiery furnace of deceit: making sure that the final product is hardened and totally unrecognizable from the original piece.
For example, let’s take a look back at the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott spearheaded by Ms. Rosa Parks. The protest began on Dec. 5, 1955 and concluded on December 20, 1956. For decades this important event was regarded as the first historically important and so-called relevant African American demonstration against racial segregation. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was far from the first African American citizens to refuse to bow under American apartheid.
On July 6, 1944, eleven years before the Montgomery Bus Boycott and protest initiated by Rosa Parks, and three years before his major league baseball debut, Major League Baseball great and pioneer Jackie Robinson refused to move to the back of a military bus he was riding in, when directed to do so by the White driver. Robinson later wrote: “The Army recently issued orders that there is to be no more racial segregation on any Army post. This is an Army bus operating on an Army post.”
Robinson was later court marshaled and acquitted.
Jackie Robinson would have never had the support that Ms. Parks received regarding his quest for social equality in his workplace. Why? Well with the wound of World War II still fresh and open, no group of African Americans would be permitted to get close to any United States Army base regarding any form of protest, passive or not.
We must also never forget the murder of Emmett Louis Till. Till died for violating the ear space of a White woman with a mere whistle. Professor Clenora Hudson-Weems said many years ago: “Emmett Till’s murder was the authentic beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.”
There are many Black scholars, including yours truly, that are in concert with dogma created by Professor Hudson-Weems. However, many Black athletes that are married or in a relationship with a White person may oftentimes be viewed as a badge of honor.
So, whether situations occur in the present or the future, people of color must not allow the prospect of money to create a tolerance regarding the deeds of inhumanity and injustice endured by any race, age or gender.
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