At the election of Barack Obama, many touted with glee that America had finally gotten over its racial problems and legacy. The term used by many who were blindly optimistic was “post-racial”. America had finally broken the back of its heritage of slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, and host of other evils pushed upon those who didn’t descend from Europe. However, now we see that the hoods have been completely ripped off and Americans are continually confronted with a barrage of racism, anti-Semitism, anti-immigrant xenophobia which shows its faces with hypocritical pride. All this stems from the election of the first Black president of the US, Mr. Obama.
We know that there has been a rise in racist attacks upon minority populations. In fact, despite the outdated narrative that Islamic extremist poses the greatest threat, we know that the greatest threat to the citizenry of the US is white domestic terrorists. In times like these, we can look toward the words of Martin Luther King Jr. who once stated that is the moderates who we can blame for the lack of action or perseverance in stamping out such evils. We all know or should know that there will always be people who live and operate on the extremes. But who is it who gives those operatives cover? Its those in the middle who refuse to call out the more adversarial rabble-rousers. It is those who live in their nice homes with white picket fences who are very comfortable, who then get suddenly uncomfortable with the idea that their country which they love may not be the fairest of utopias.
So what happens when it’s the seemingly benign persons who live in nice homes, drive nice cars, and have 2.5 kids and dog are confronted with the bubble bursting the myth that racism is over? What if it’s when those who want their children to get the best education chime in and agree with the less savory characters of rabid card-carrying Klansman? It is then that we see the true underbelly of what is going on. We see what America may have always been hiding because of political correctness. We see seemingly good citizens throwing around the N-word and comparing Black kids to animals who should be on a leash and in cages.
On Saturday, Nov 23, 2019, during a high school playoff game in Michigan these forces played out horrifically during a football game. Members of the Denby High School football team decided to take a knee before the playoff game while the national anthem played. Of course, members from the crowd who were supporting Almont High School took offense at the other team’s show of support for what I’m going to call the Kaepernick effect. At this time according to the coach of Denby, Deon Godfrey, said to The Detroit Free Press, “Our cameraman is white and was filming near some Almont fans. During the national anthem, he overheard them saying: ‘Look at these N-words taking a knee and they don’t even know why they’re doing it,’ and they kept going.” Denby’s white coaches also were being called “wiggers,” Godfrey said, and “grown men and women started spitting on our kids as they walked up the ramp. They were throwing food, cups and whatever.” They called my student trainer a little monkey and they were saying: ‘Who let them off their leashes?’ ” Godfrey said. ” ‘They need to be on a leash. They never should have been here in the first place.’
When the game started there was never any turning back from the initial anger felt by the Almont High side. Food items, cups, and other materials were thrown at players and more insults were hurled. The game eventually had to be called early in the fourth quarter due to excessive cheap shots.
Make no mistake about it. It’s the mass of the public which determines the direction of society. Yes, we may have an occupant of the White House who plays with racially coded language. His advisor may have sent over 900 hundred racist emails. His personal feelings certainly play a role in the policies which he advances. But these people are only the symptom of the greater problem, and that is that America still hasn’t completely confronted nor dealt with her legacy.
What’s the natural reaction when people use their constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech and use protest to shed light on perceived police brutality and racism; call them animals, N-words and ask who let them off their leashes. The irony is blinding and hysterically lost on an incident like this. Protest racism, police brutality, and unjust society and the people who claim that they aren’t racist (to be fair I don’t think the Almont people were saying this), call them n-words, monkeys and wiggers. It makes perfect sense.
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