Brief And Obvious Points About Athletes Talking About Unarmed Black Men Dying By Cop

Don't Want To Be An American Statistic

As we have case after case of Unarmed Black Person being killed by Armed White Police, without any subsequent punishment of said police by police, it's been leaking into sports, and upsetting consumers of said product, because, well, that's Not Sports.

And I feel you on that, because Not Sports drives me up the goddamned wall, especially when it's done in the middle of Sports. Interviewing Ex-Player Who Happens To Be At The Game is a pointless waste of time in the best of executions, and an active kick in the cojones in the worst, which is when you are actually interested in the damned game. The annual October Pinkwash is grating when you know how very little of that money goes to actually help an actual charity. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, including it in the leisure choice of people who might not agree with you is rude.

And, well, you know what? There's a time to be rude. There's a time when rudeness isn't wrong. There's a time when not being rude is more or less taking a political stand by itself, because silence is compliance, and enables the perpetrators. It's high time for rudeness here.

Oh, and yeah, that perpetrators word applies. If you're going to kill unarmed people, in front of people and cameras, you are a perp. If you get away with it, you're just a very successful one. Own it.

And if the more clear knowledge of that causes some people to make dangerous or unfortunate choices in the stress of an intolerable situation...

Well, folks, we reap what we sow.

Or, in a more high faluting way of saying it, the people get the government -- and by extension, the police -- they deserve.

And if you are willing to judge a group of truly wronged people by the actions of a few that have reacted to breaking point stress by making generalizations of how an entire group is...

Well, you've just finished Chapter 1 of How To Be A Racist. And I suspect you don't really need to read the rest of the course materials to pass the class.

Finally, there's this.

Why, exactly, are we hearing more of the opinions of black athletes and ex-athletes about this, rather than black academics, historians, or international observers?

Because, well, they are the people who are allowed to be on TV. With an opinion.

Anyone still want to make the case that we live a post-racist age?