OJ Simpson is found not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman. Black America celebrated and celebrated hard.
I was a teenager at the time and a white friend of mine who didn’t have a racist or prejudiced bone in his body asked me a question.
“I am confused Rob, if everyone thinks he had something to do with it, why are black people so happy he got away with it.”
In all of my teenage naïvety I gave him an honest answer.
“Black people have been falsely accused, arrested, jailed, segregated against, stereotyped, beat and killed just the way they looked and just held down for so long by white people, even though most black people don’t even like or relate to OJ, it just feels good to see the tables turned.”
From a logical standpoint it makes no sense, you should never want a killer to go free, but you haven’t been discriminated against for centuries.
It is uncomfortable being a black person.
It is extremely uncomfortable being a black man.
I think there is a part of white America that likes it that way, because it allows them to feel superior. That is why law enforcement often targets blacks at a higher rates than whites. There is this fear from white America that black people have to be held down to a subhuman level.
In a country that speaks freely about equality, things aren’t equal at all. It isn’t even close to being equal unless you are white then you are seen on a peer level.
The world of sports mirrors society in many ways, especially in regard to the quarterback position in the NFL.
While the rest of the NFL became integrated, the quarterback position was slow in that process. It wasn’t because there weren’t capable athletes to play the position, the quarterback position was seen as the ALPHA MALE position in the NFL, so of course it could only be held by WHITE MEN.
Any position in America that is considered an ALPHA MALE position white men have tried to corner the market on it and make sure no one else could even get an opportunity. You see how much THEY hate our President, how dare is he in an a position that is supposed to go to an ALPHA WHITE MALE.
Quarterback was no different, it started all the way down at the High School level where black quarterbacks were made into runners or made to change positions, it funneled up to the college level and because of that there simply weren’t many black quarterbacks to choose from. The ones that did excel at the college level, were typecast and never even given an opportunity at the pro level.
The stereotypes about black quarterbacks were similar to how black men in society were stereotype. They weren’t smart enough to play the position, they weren’t “pocket passers”, they can’t read defenses and they were just runners.
White America poisons the mind of the fan by using the media as a conduit to spread their message of ignorance.
Sometimes I don’t even think they realize what they are saying is poison and let me give you a clear example.
During the NFC Championship game on more than one occasion Troy Aikman who I think does a very solid job with his commentary and I don’t think is racist or anything like that continually used this phrase.
“Cam Newton is a running back playing quarterback.”
The proper phrase and the one Troy and anyone else would use for a white quarterback would be.
“White Quarterback is a Quarterback who can run like a running back.”
Troy probably doesn’t even realize what he is saying because they are ingrained societal prejudices that a lot of white people are ignorant about, but helps spread the poison.
For the record Troy Aikman never THREW for more than 23 TDs in a season, Cam Newton THREW for 35 TDs this season and there was no Michael Irvin on his team.
In 2016, your chances of being a successful quarterback in the NFL has nothing to do with your skin color, but your skill set, but how you are judge still has a lot to do with how you look in the mirror.
White people don’t dislike Cam Newton because he dabs, celebrates first downs, had a kid with his girlfriend or snatches banners down. White players do the same things and white people don’t care about any of that.
White people don’t like Cam Newton because he is the one thing that has scared white people since they first brought black people over here in slave ships.
He is a black man who isn’t bowing down to how white people want him to be. He is totally comfortable with who he is, specifically his blackness and that is emasculating to a lot of white people. So, they try to find reasons to knock him. How DARE a black man not fit into the box we want him to be, who do he think he is?
They will use words like “POLARIZING”. The only reason they will use that term is because he isn’t what they want him to be. There is nothing polarizing about Cam Newton, if he was white he would be beloved by the masses. Is Tom Brady polarizing? Because Brady has a lot more controversy surrounding him on a daily basis than Cam Newton.
As far as black people we gravitate to individuals like Cam Newton because that is how we wish we could be, but can’t because our circumstances aren’t the same.
If you are working at a call center supporting your family and you know your boss just passed you over for a promotion because he wanted to hire his cousin, you can’t just get up on a podium and address it. You have to grin and bear it sadly.
When you get pulled over for driving while black or followed in the store because they don’t assume you can afford what you are looking at, if you make a scene what do they say?
“Look at that black person being ratchet and ghetto.”
When we see cops getting away with shooting and killing us, but armed terrorist get fed as they take over government buildings, we have to just grin and bear it.
When white people tell you that YOU are the reason that racism exists and how YOU should feel about being discriminated against, you can’t snap back because that is what they want.
I could give 100 different scenarios where prejudice just forces us to grin and bear it. That isn’t a comfortable place to be.
That is why Cam Newton playing in the Super Bowl is bigger than just a game to some. That is why some black people want Cam to win not because they are football fans or Panther fans, but because he represents something bigger than playing quarterback.
He represents a black man who is not afraid or runs away from his blackness to conform to what someone specifically what white people want him to be.
When I speak on these issues, I know there is a large majority of white people who don’t have a lot of these ignorant views and are either are fans of Cam or truly couldn’t care less if he was green man because they are Broncos fans. There are a large majority of white people, who are great people and aren’t who I am speaking about. Every time I see a protest I see many white people standing hand and hand, because they are disgusted by the things that are happening. This isn’t about them, this is about things we as black men have been dealing with all our lives. We simply can’t ignore the racial element in this Super Bowl and it has everything to do with society and not much to do with football.
Hopefully, one day that won’t matter. Maybe one day when I am walking my dog, I still don’t feel like the police could mistake me for a robber and without thinking shoot me dead. Maybe Cam Newton will help bridge those gaps, never discount how much sports can change the world.
Cam wouldn’t be winning a Super Bowl for himself and Panthers but for the culture, he represents the culture and that is significant on way deeper levels than reading a defense.
You can listen to more of my thoughts below.