For time immemorial, the definition of racism was concise and straightforward. If you felt superior over someone because they were of a different race, that was racism. Racism is rooted in tribalism, which has a fear in otherism, which itself is rooted in evolution, so the practice is at least understandable. There is a survival element to racism - me or you, buddy. It is also how we ended up with heinous institutions like slavery throughout human history, including in the United States.
None of this excuses racist tendencies today. They are wrong and should be called out wherever possible. I’d say social media has even made it too easy. No doubt, as Americans, we have unquestionably and morally evolved beyond the wildest hopes of anyone in the past and most contemporary societies in the present. Think about it. In just 150 years, especially the past 50 years, Western societies have seen more rapid deconstruction of inherently racist tendencies and the elimination of practices that unfairly target people based solely on their race. Human history is filled with examples of the opposite, from the first major civilizations like those in ancient Egypt to even modern-day China, which egregiously singles out its minority communities, most prominently manifested in its treatment of an independent Hong Kong, but to a worse extent in its treatment of Uygher Muslims, Tibetans, and other ethnic groups.
Racism was and is the human norm, yet the United States and the West paved the way to end it all in a blip on the historical radar. Nevertheless, superstar athletes and entire sports leagues will obediently shout obscenities at police and other hardworking, values-oriented Americans, and turn a blind eye on Chinese totalitarianism in favor of a payday. Add that to this already long list of why we should boycott professional sports.
Moving past race as a defining issue really is an astounding feat if you think about it. Moreover, can you imagine a time or place anywhere in the world where allegedly oppressed people could assemble in the streets and “protest” (i.e. loot and riot) their “oppression” (i.e. entitlement) without fear of repercussion? Ah yes, one easily recalls seeing those black-and-white photos in the Holocaust museum where, after Kristallnacht, Jews continued razing and looting one another’s stores, as well as the stores of German-owned properties. Take that, Auschwitz. Then there were those grainy photos of the Chinese demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. The tanks practically parted for ease of movement among the assembled. Incredibly, most people actually just think of Tank Man, and how he stopped the column of tanks from proceeding. For the record, the Chinese Communist government sent in A LOT of soldiers and tanks, eventually firing upon their own citizens and killing thousands of college-age kids who were just asking for basic freedoms. And no doubt, if the Russian middle class, in protest of the Gulags and mass political imprisonments under Stalin, had engaged in self-serving looting of Das Target or practiced arsonist tendencies that left entire city blocks in Moscow consumed by self-righteous conflagrations, old Uncle Joe would have asked his advisors how else to appease them.
You’ll have to excuse my asking this question, but who is the bad guy here? Me? You? Trump? Is there any sanity left in this world?
Rather than celebrate America’s momentous accomplishments, we find ourselves in the crosshairs of being the worst offenders ever to exist. Ungrateful jagweeds like Colin Kaepernick rail against American values and capitalism while cashing in handsomely on the very system they decry, most recently depositing millions of dollars in the bank thanks to a deal with Disney. His message? Telling the rest of us how oppressed he is. Goodbye, Disney! The second season of the Mandalorian was supposed to be excellent, too.
It isn’t just Kaepernick, though. The entire sports domain has been overrun by zealous ingrates who gleefully cash in on childhood game talents and then lecture us from their mansions and luxury sports cars about their oppression. Defining irony would be appropriate, but I am afraid it would miss its target; they don’t teach literary technique in schools anymore, just social justice. (And no, that’s not a knock on black athletes. That’s a knock on the public school system.)
The NBA and NFL are the worst and loudest offenders in this regard. Spoiled, entitled, and brainwashed doesn’t begin to cover it. Far be it from me to ask a simple question, but how do the 1% - the .1% in many cases - get a megaphone and, with no apparent self-awareness for their great fortunes, yell at regular white Americans for being hateful? Whites must really hate blacks if they hand over $500 million while grinding out a living. It is truly the Twilight Zone.
What are they crying about? Racism. Recall that the old definition of racism was a belief of superiority based on skin color. To be sure, racism used to be a big problem in America. Here’s the thing, though. No one denies it. It happened. It was bad. The traditional definition of racism manifested itself here in America in slavery, lynchings, Jim Crow, Plessy v Ferguson and “separate but equal,” and iconic photos of drinking fountains and restaurant entrances. That’s just the surface of it. People literally died to overcome these challenges, and finally, we did. Then, the lords of our culture war switched gears and said we had to advocate for segregated college dorms, graduation ceremonies, and increasingly in the workplace, affinity groups for just people of color.
How did this happen?
In short, the definition of racism has changed. Today, according to the scholarly work of our generation’s greatest thinkers - Ibram X. Kendi (whose middle and last names are like the people that get tattoos from every culture to show how board their horizons are) and Robin DiAngelo (whose ability to profit off self-loathing is unique to American capitalism) - now declare that racism is evidenced through a disparity in outcomes. Intent is unimportant. You read that correctly. Anytime an outcome along racial lines is unequal or disproportionate, it is the result of racism.
There is no shortage of purported examples of white-on-black racism. White students achieve at a higher rate in schools; cops interact with more blacks than whites proportional to their representation in the population; COVID kills more blacks; whites earn more than blacks; and, more blacks are in prison.
It’s a quite superficial reading of data, to be sure. But, if you try to explain the objective factors that generally lead to academic outcomes regardless of race, or that blacks commit more crimes and therefore interact with the justice system at a higher frequency, or that the black population is statistically more vulnerable to COVID because of underlying health issues (obesity, heart disease, etc.), or that not all college degrees produce the same outcomes. This shouldn’t be hard to understand, let alone controversial, but no rational explanations are allowed in the new universe; indeed, objectivity, personal responsibility, and individualism are hallmarks of white oppression. Previous generations got John Locke and Rene Decartes; we get Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo. Talk about unfair.
So, according to the new rules, a disparate outcome reveals some underlying racist tendencies. Those are not my words; those are the esteemed cerebrations of the aforementioned authors.
By that logic, the NFL and NBA are huge offenders of racism. Am I wrong? According to projections based on the 2010 US census, the white American population is about 60% and the black American population is about 15%. However, in each of the leagues, fully 70-75% of athletes are black. That’s a staggering disproportionality.
Consider that the prison population is criticized as racist by the left because 33% of federal inmates are black; our sports leagues have more than double the representation of blacks as do prisons. If the judicial system is racist, and racism can be measured quantitatively, then the sports leagues here are twice as racist.
Again, according to the left, there is proof of police brutality because 25% of fatal police encounters include a black victim despite blacks representing less than that amount in the overall population. Well, here again, if that rate is double the percent of blacks in America, then how do they reconcile the fact that fully six times their population is represented on professional sports rosters in the NBA and NFL? One can only conclude it is racism, too.
When there is racism working against blacks, more accurately the perception of racism working against blacks, here are immediate redresses. Affirmative action, subprime lending, police being told they have to do their jobs differently in certain communities are just a few ways that the legal system works in favor of the black community. This is not to say they were not appropriate at one time or are not still appropriate today in some capacity; it is simply an objective reality.
Based on all of this, what do you say, NBA and NFL? There has been underground social commentary for years about the racist practice of employing a disproportionate number of black athletes, at the expense of not only white, but Hispanic and Asian athletes, too. It was kind of a joke because as believers in a meritocracy, conservatives accepted the best athletes however they came. John Stockton and Karl Malone were both Utah Jazz greats; no one cared that one was white and one was black. Still, there is a reason Linsanity took off; he was the only Asian baller! Same with Eduardo Najera. Or the annual “Mokeski Award.” That won’t do.
If the NFL and NBA are ready to be woke, then it is time to end their discriminatory practice of excluding whites, Asians, and Hispanics from their rosters. Goodness, it is the year 2020 after all!
How will we solve this dilemma?
For starters, there will need to be lowered standards and racial quotas. Standards inhibit forced outcomes, and that won’t do. We must lower the bar, maybe even the literal rim, so that white dudes and shorter Asians can compete at the glass. Quotas, too, are a terrific way to guarantee admission into the ranks. It could be a tiered implementation, perhaps a 5% increase per annum per racial group. Then, the NFL could emulate the equitable system it established for interviewing black coaches under the Rooney Rule. This could also be utilized to ensure that white, Asian, and Hispanic athletes are invited to the workouts and practice squads. If each group is not invited to each team’s facilities, that will result in a loss of draft picks. Or something - I am open!
It would also behoove the leagues to invite Kendi and DiAngelo to the preliminary discussions, considering how much expertise they bring on the matter. No one spots and disarms racism like these two.
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