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Black football players should strike: The one move guaranteed to bring about immediate change
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/25/black_football_players_should_all_strike_the_one_immediate_move_guaranteed_to_bring_about_immediate_political_change/A couple of weeks ago, the African-American members of the University of Missouri football team managed to accomplish in a matter of hours what months of concerted activism failed to: they forced the school’s racially ignorant president to step down. It was a stunning example of the audacious power wielded by football players in our culture....
What if all African-American football players—at major college programs, and in the NFL—refused to suit up until their demands were met? What would happen in states such as Alabama and Texas and Florida, where football is essentially a religion, if African-American players—who represent about two-thirds of every squad—went on strike to protest (just for instance) laws meant to disenfranchise voters of color?...
We giddily consume a sport that is sustained by the grace and valor of young African-American men, then turn a blind eye when this same population is politically disenfranchised, underpaid, harassed by police and mass incarcerated.
As radical as it might sound to fans who regard the viewing of football as some kind of inalienable right, a gridiron strike is actually the most logical response to the perverse power dynamics of America, circa 2015, in which football is—pathetically, but undeniably—the most potent cultural leverage held by the African-American community. What a strike would do is convert this cultural leverage into raw political force.
What if all African-American football players—at major college programs, and in the NFL—refused to suit up until their demands were met? What would happen in states such as Alabama and Texas and Florida, where football is essentially a religion, if African-American players—who represent about two-thirds of every squad—went on strike to protest (just for instance) laws meant to disenfranchise voters of color?...
We giddily consume a sport that is sustained by the grace and valor of young African-American men, then turn a blind eye when this same population is politically disenfranchised, underpaid, harassed by police and mass incarcerated.
As radical as it might sound to fans who regard the viewing of football as some kind of inalienable right, a gridiron strike is actually the most logical response to the perverse power dynamics of America, circa 2015, in which football is—pathetically, but undeniably—the most potent cultural leverage held by the African-American community. What a strike would do is convert this cultural leverage into raw political force.
Hmmm... we survived the strike and the
