NFL, players doing something to bring about social change
<span>Rodney Harwood</span>
In this day and age of instant access, Americans’ attention span tends to move on to the next thing as quickly as exchanging Smartphones for the newest and shiniest new one.
We can only hope that something good comes from the NBA and NFL players’ subtle and overt gestures to show their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and victims of alleged police brutality.
As we moved through the first weekend of NFL football, several players joined with San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who is speaking out against recent police shootings of unarmed black men, the presidential election and other civil rights issues. Their platform is kneeling or raising a fist during the national anthem prior to the games.
The national anthem stance or in this case, kneeling down, created a national firestorm. But now they are doing more than making noise.
The San Francisco 49ers announced they have pledged $1 million to two Bay Area organizations — Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation — that focus on the type of racial and social inequities that Kaepernick has discussed in the aftermath of his refusal to stand during the national anthem in protest of such injustices.
In addition, Kaepernick went on record saying he would donate the first $1 million of his $11.9 million base salary this season to groups that deal with those issues.
Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall said the loss of two endorsement deals wouldn't sway him in his efforts and that he will continue to raise awareness for social injustice.
Marshall met with Denver Police Chief Robert White, according to the Denver Post, for nearly an hour while the officer fielded questions about law enforcement, police brutality incidents and training methods.
“He acknowledged some of those challenges, and he wants to do something about it. And part of doing something about it is going to the source of where you think some of those issues are,” White told the Post. White said Marshall would have the opportunity to ride along with an officer and also will be able to test the training simulator used for scenarios where a cop might fire his weapon.
Let’s not pretend that Rodney King running from the law is the same as Martin Luther King Jr. marching in a nonviolent revolution to allow blacks to vote are one in the same, because they are not. Some racial issues have changed over the years, some have not.
There have been a lot of good causes over the years to feed the needy, help the farmers pay off the mortgages on their family farms, raise awareness for AIDS. We can only hope that racial tension can be erased from the national memory. No matter how unorthodox the method.
To borrow a line from Dave Mason, “... There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy
“There's only you and me and we just disagree … ”
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