Birmingham to Minneapolis
Reviewing the recent events in America in the context of MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Those words were penned by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther Kng Jr. during his time in a Birmingham jail in 1963 after being arrested amidst his peaceful protest.
Over the past 72 hours, there has been a mixture of protests and riots in nearly every major American city in response to now ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd while three other officers stood by doing nothing.
For eight minutes and 46 seconds, Chauvin drained the life out of George Floyd just as America has drained the life out of black communities for centuries.
As Dr. King Jr. pointed out this racial tyranny has not continued thanks to White Supremencist groups, but rather the White Moderate.
Dr. King Jr. wrote:
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice…”
What sort of world do we live in where we would actively push for the oxymoron of ‘negative peace’ so we can keep with the status quo?
For too long, the White Moderate has thought that silence would be the answer. That somebody else will inevitable solve what has turned into an unsolvable issue. There is no urgency as we are held hostage by “the myth of time.”
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Dr. King Jr. wrote in his jail cell. “This "wait" has almost always meant "never."
Generations of the African-American community have gone through the vicious cycle of having the goaline of freedom moved back, modified and erased while being told to wait, that they will get theirs in due time.
Dr. King Jr. observed that “human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.”
At that point, the word wait has empty meaning and is filled with false promise. Especially when it comes from those in a position of legal power and economical prosperity.
Dr. King Jr. asked for understanding as to why non-violent protest could not just wait:
“I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say "wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity… when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodyness" -- then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.”
That sense of ‘nobodyness’ is most likely what Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and so many more felt like in their last moments. In every instance, there were excuses, rationalizations or justifications from countless high profile individuals asking for all to ‘wait’.
In spite of everything, many people gathered facts, engaged in negotiation with prominent leadership and had acted with non-violent protests. LeBron James and other NBA players wore ‘I Can’t Breathe’ shirts during warm ups in 2014. WNBA superstar Maya Moore has not played in two seasons as she has dedicated herself to fighting for criminal justice reform.
Colin Kaepernick began taking a knee during the national anthem in 2016–he sacrificed whatever was left on his six-year, 126 million dollar contract and he was blackballed from the league for doing so. If flag burning has been deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court, then certainly taking a knee is a just protest.
President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence strongly voiced their disagreement with players who protested. NFL owners even attempted to make it a league policy that you cannot do anything other than stand for the anthem. That was tabled with the NFLPA in 2018.
Billionaires and the highest executive officials representing the White Moderate were again oppressing the minority in order to keep order and trust that time will take care of the future.
Dr. King Jr. predicated, however, that “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come… If his repressed emotions do not come out in these nonviolent ways, they will come out in ominous expressions of violence.”
The tipping point for violence was in Minneapolis. The murder of George Floyd, a black man who despite begging for his life and saying he could not breathe was deemed a ‘nobody’ by four policemen, triggered protests and riots in cities throughout America.
The cup has overflown, the urge for freedom is again overwhelming. Now what? How do we work together to change the system?
The first step is for the White Moderate to stop being complicity silent in each tragic aftermath. That is why LeVelle Moton, the head basketball coach for North Carolina Central has lambasted white coaches for not speaking out despite profiting on their black athletes.
Some coaches have, although not nearly enough. Perhaps that changes in the upcoming days, but again, the question posed is why are we waiting?
The UConn women’s basketball team issued a statement that ‘Racism is not getting worse, its getting filmed.’
It was the same in 1963, as Dr. King Jr. explained that the Birmingham police should not be commended:
“I don't believe you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its angry violent dogs literally biting six unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I don't believe you would so quickly commend the policemen if you would observe their ugly and inhuman treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you would watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you would see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys, if you would observe them, as they did on two occasions, refusing to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I'm sorry that I can't join you in your praise for the police department.”
We have been living in a dystopian society, not for just this past weekend, but since the President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in the Civil War and Reconstruction in the South and the Civil Rights Movement.
We cannot let time go by and look back on 2020 as just another history lesson and think that we have improved through silent inaction. People may think that racism does not exist in America anymore, but it is clearly present and just hidden in plain sight as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar described in his recent Op-Ed for the Los Angeles Times:
”Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible—even if you’re choking on it—until you let the sun in. Then you see it’s everywhere.”
That includes the White House. With an opportunity last Friday to address the ongoing events in the nation, President Trump held a press conference where he spoke only on a trade agreement with China and fielded no questions.
Instead he stayed silent. Silent on the race riots in every corner of the country. Silent on the corruption inside the police force. Silent on his own tweets filled with racial imagery to promote violence. Silent on the unjust arrest of CNN reporter Omar Jimenez that morning in Minneapolis. Silent on any strategy to change the ways of a historically racist nation.
And silent on George Floyd.
I am part of the White Moderate. It is irresponsible for me to stay silent as a sports journalist, an American citizen and a human being. I was in Minneapolis just over a year ago for the Final Four, I lived in Atlanta to begin my career, and I grew up in Washington D.C. Literally overnight there was carnage in the streets of all those cities and more as they burned in another chapter of American history.
That is the reason for this newsletter, even if the audience is small.
But even if every coach, athlete, commissioner and government representative who have significantly larger platforms spoke out on these issues, I am fearful that nothing will actually happen. That a mere bandaid solution of verbal rhetoric will block out the sun shinning on racism in the U.S.A for only a brief period of time before the next cup overflows.
We need civil protest and action at a grander level. Not in the form of Tweets and memos from the likes of Adam Silver and company. Soon enough that will be the new silent.
My proposal would be the following. Have professional athletes form an association to temporarily boycott the NBA, NFL and other leagues. Work with government officials to create and ratify an amendment to the United States Consituion addressing police brutality and all around equal rights of all Americans.
If everyone wants change, have them put their money where their mouth is. Work with sponsors to help pay them in their efforts. Work with television stations to fund the effort. And yes work with the billionaire owners to help subsidize this effort.
Tell the nation, that we aren’t participating in sports until we get immediate change. Tell the American people that we can go back as soon as specific benchmarks are hit. There are elections forthcoming; make this an issue for the politicians to address now with urgency.
Sports have always been a unifying factor in America. The Dream Team in ‘92, Michael Phelps winning eight golds in Beijing and the return to sports after 9/11.
Maybe the absence of sport will be a catalyst for progressive national change to help unify America more than simply playing the game ever could.