Sports owners show how stupid they are Economic Letter
The life of black Americans has never been easy. For the first two-and-a-quarter centuries of their existence on the North American continent, they were treated no different than livestock. The children of their illicit relations with their owners were treated no better and while a few obtained their freedom, the overwhelming majority remained in slavery until the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 declared all slaves freed for now and evermore.
But, in the century following, especially in the south, but elsewhere as well, black Americans were treated as second-class citizens, denied their rights and frequently killed in violent lynchings that were de facto condoned by the ruling whites.
Yet, in spite of this ill treatment and the denial of basic civil rights few, if any, blacks engaged in violent protest or adhered to causes that sought to overthrow the oppressive social behaviour that was state enforced.
It wasn’t till almost a century after the end of the Civil War that young blacks began to exert pressure to end the policy known as Jim Crow and, with great reluctance, fuelled in large measure by the excessive reaction of whites trying to maintain the status quo, that things really changed.
But, that change was slow and half hearted and blacks are still treated as second-class citizens even though one of them became president.
Recent examples of police brutality in black communities across the nation have engendered reaction from blacks demanding an end to such blatant action.
The role models in much of the black community are professional athletes particularly in football, basketball and baseball. And those athletes have felt the pressure to speak in support of their people.
Two novice players who were top picks in the football draft, Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid, former San Francisco 49ers players began in 2016 a movement of kneeling during the playing of the national anthem as a sign of protest against police brutality.
President Donald Trump, a man with an unblemished record of consistent discrimination against black tenants in his various building projects, seized on this action and urged the NFL owners to fire the kneeling players who, in his opinion, were “exhibiting disrespect for both the flag and the national anthem.”
The owners, in response to continued adverse comments from the president, finally decided at their recent meeting to unanimously support a ruling that if players of any team knelt during the playing of the anthem the team would face a fine, but players could remain off the field during the playing of the anthem and the team would suffer no fine.
The league’s commissioner commented on the owners’ action by saying… “we are dedicated to continuing our collaboration with players to advance the goals of justice and fairness in all corners of our society.”
But just how this capitulation to racism would help is not obvious. Now consider the following. The 32 owners are all extremely rich and conservative in their politics. They obviously don’t want criticism from the president. The fans really are more focused on the quality of the game than on the behaviour of individual team members. The players, the vast majority of which are black, are trained to function as a team but most, if not all, have experienced racial discrimination and undoubtedly as evidenced by their widespread support of kneeling during the anthem, have now been denied the right to protest in an open fashion.
The owners, in my opinion, have demonstrated their myopia regarding racially motivated public opinion and decided capitulation to the inane remarks of Trump should be respected.
That decision will cause dissent within teams and ferment problems in both the draft and in signing black players in the future. It will detract from the essence of the game, which is teams trying to win a game.
The owners by their action have shown just how stupid they are.
David Bond is a retired bank economist who resides in Kelowna. This column runs Tuesdays in The Daily Courier.