It is past time for a national television and internet boycott of our pastimes. These leagues offer abundant vocal and financial support of anti-American and pro-Communist causes. Here are just three examples: Colin Kaepernick’s adoration of the murderous Castro regime, the entire NBA’s tacit approval of China’s totalitarian suppression of freedom in Hong Kong, and solidarity with Black Lives Matter (more anon). Why should we pay to watch and cheer on people that denounce us and our country as racist losers while simultaneously uplifting the worst of humankind?
A little history is in order.
Toward the end of 1955, the Jim Crow laws of the South allowed for segregation on public transportation. As they should, every American knows the name Rosa Parks. After the famous incident where she bravely stood up, by sitting down, as it were, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began in earnest.
As an historical aside for Parks, she was the first woman, second black, and first non-government employee to lay in state at the Capitol rotunda. Ever. Wow, this country really hates women and black people. Can you imagine a more sexist and racist country that would celebrate her legacy by conferring on her the highest honor upon death?
The Montgomery Bus Boy was a year-long effort to change a necessary evil. Jim Crow was codified racism. It was terrible. Through peaceful means and a commitment to God, Martin Luther King, Jr. was able to rally his cause all the way up to the Supreme Court. Moreover, his methods eventually earned him greater sympathy among supporters of all races and creeds when they were able to hear both his suffering and rationale for the Civil Rights Movement.
That is not the case today. Suffering in terms of the legalized oppression under Jim Crow? Peaceful in terms of protest outcomes that result in burning or commandeered city blocks? Rationale in terms of the unfalsifiable charges of racism that accompany each scream? We are truly going backwards as a society.
There is a long history of boycotting in the United States. American colonists boycotted, although the term hadn’t been coined yet, British goods when the burden of taxation became too great. In current times, there is a call for a boycott of Facebook because it, gasp(!), allows for free speech vis-a-vis paid political advertising. And they say conservatives are intolerant.
There have even been calls for a boycott of the NBA in the not-so distant past. In 2014, Los Angeles Clipper owner Donald Sterling spoke undeniably in racist terms when he chided his mixed-race girlfriend about posting social media pictures with black people or bringing “them” to games. As a society we expect better. So, how did our racist country respond? Was there a nationwide outreach of support for his commentary? You know the answer.
After the comments went viral, rather than condoning his ugly behavior, there were universal condemnations and a strong push to have him forced out of the league. Articles, like this one, were written regularly calling for one of two things to occur: Either he sells or the fanbase should boycott to show that we don’t put money above racial progress. He sold soon after. Again, does this sound like a country that supports racism?
That brings us back to the current crisis. In light of this American tradition of standing up to wrongs, evils, and systems of oppression, it is therefore time to do the same with the NBA and NFL. We need to unite in our cause against the NBA and NFL for using their platform to disseminate damaging and hateful rhetoric. Make no mistake, Black Lives Matter is the new front for systemic oppression and silencing of free speech and basic rights. To believe that whites still hold any cultural cache or currency in 2020 is delusion of grandeur. This is not a complaint or lament, merely an observation. Put differently, Black Lives Matter - not the nebulous white patriarchal institutions - is the power structure that poses the biggest threat to American individualism and freedom.
Consider what happens to anyone who dares to speak publicly against BLM in either the public or private sphere. What happens? Now, consider what happens when someone supports them in the public or private sphere. Is the response commensurate? We all know the answer. In the former people lose their livelihood and in the latter people are celebrated as brave heroes fighting the system. Newsflash: You are the system.
The stepmother of Garret Rolfe, the police officer outrageously accused of murder in Atlanta, was fired from her job for even being associated with him. There is no shortage of individuals who speak up and share online that “their views were not compatible with the values of” Company X, Y, Z. Values, indeed. Are you kidding? Just so I understand this correctly, your side can throw bricks and other detritus that seriously hurts police officers or stop ambulances transporting moribund victims to a hospital by blocking entire freeways, but my side can lose their entire ability to support a family simply because you don’t like their opinions? Got it.
The league officials and players comprising the NBA and NFL are guilty of perpetuating the dangerous myth of black oppression. It is dangerous because lives and livelihoods are lost in the moment, and black lives specifically suffer the consequences when police efforts subside. Ironically, the leagues’ demographics are made up of primarily privileged blacks, but no matter.
#notmysports is the response to the over-dramatized, over-sensationalized, and over-censorious existence of the left in general and Black Lives Matter specifically.
There are other trending hashtags online. #BoycottNBA and #BoycottNFL are just a few, but we need a universal message that speaks to why we will be boycotting. In 2016 and 2017, many people decided that Donald Trump was “not my president.” As a response, we are declaring that what we are witnessing are “not my sports.”
These are not my sports that place politics above performance (for which they are generously rewarded).
These are not my sports that annually produce hundreds of black millionaires and want average white Americans to believe they are oppressed and kept down by them.
These are not my sports that want to call me a racist and then expect me to cheer them on as if I have no pride or dignity.
These are not my sports that decry statistically invalid claims of brutalized systemic oppression while simultaneously taking money from a truly oppressive Chinese regime. These are not my sports that support a communist platform that, among other things, says they want to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure” or incites violence by blatantly lying that there is “rampant and deliberate violence imposed by the state.” This communist organization seeks to “engage comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts,” whatever that means. Still, the use of comrade is not a mistake.
Communism, by the way, this supposedly community- and love-centered ideology, is responsible for 100 million deaths in the 20th century. Facism rightfully gets a bad name for systematically murdering 12 million Jews and other minority ethnic groups, but those numbers are a drop in the bucket by comparison. In our democratic republic police killed nine unarmed, still unpredictable and potentially dangerous, blacks in 2019.
These are not my sports that place a purely political agenda ahead of concern for life. When Black Lives Matter willfully ignores the 90% of black victims killed by other blacks or the millions of black babies that have been aborted against their will, it is not a cause dedicated to all black lives.
These are not my sports that elevate moral monsters like Colin Kaepernick, who tweeted this on the Fourth of July: “Black ppl have been dehumanized, brutalized, criminalized + terrorized by America for centuries, & are expected to join your commemoration of “independence”, while you enslaved our ancestors. We reject your celebration of white supremacy & look forward to liberation for all.” Does he realize we celebrate a country that enabled people like him to be free and not enslaved? This guy sucks.
Right now, there are two options.
We can continue watching, paying, and cheering for people that openly despise us, thus condoning, encouraging, and empowering their messages of hate.
Or…
We can silence these pampered activists, who are among the most blessed human beings in the history of the world - in terms of wealth, health, fame, opportunities as a minority culture, and so much more - and yet in their ingratitude and delusions see only what is wrong with America.
There are only two choices in the present moment. Either we watch and pay, or we don’t. By watching and paying, even if you disagree philosophically and morally with their cause, you are abetting it. “But I just want to watch sports” isn’t going to cut it anymore. You are enabling people with at best misguidance and at worst malintention.
We have gone three months in quarantine, right? In that time, sports have been absent and life has gone on. Do we really need people who excel at recreational activities, and making millions off it, telling us what to do?
When the NBA and NFL start, keep your television sets off. Don’t stream on your tablets or phones. Show these ingrates what matters. You, your freedom, and your voice.
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