So, wasn’t this NFL kneeling crusade about creating change?
DAVIE — The Shakespeare of our time to many has already laid out the for this journey, hinting at what was to come, and how we’d react in the prophetic way we’ve become so accustomed to deciphering his messages.
It was part of his revealing 13th studio album a work of art where Jay-Z was vulnerable enough to talk about the growth he experienced seeking therapy, discussed homosexuality in the black community, and detailed the journey towards entrepreneurship and generational wealth.
Jay-Z has served as hiphop culture’s Yoda for more than two decades, but last week it became open season to criticize the rap mogul — the billionaire businessman — because of his decision to form a social justice and entertainment partnership with the NFL.
The man who set the hip-hop culture’s agenda for for decades all of a sudden sold out, and needed to lose his credibility because he hadn’t sought Colin Kaepernick’s approval before partnering with the 32 owner’s who blackballed the former NFL quarterback from the league because of the political stance he took. “We all lose when the family feuds,” Jay-Z rapped on a song on
Jay-Z, which is one of the many nicknames Shawn Carter has used during his musical career, is right.
Why must we pick a side?
Too many people have worked too hard to steer this conversation from a lack of patriotism, which is where President Donald Trump wants it, to where it is now, staring race-relation issues in the face. And it’s been an uncomfortable journey to get here.
Now, three years since this journey began, it’s Kaepernick and the kneelers versus Jay-Z?
“I felt like he really discredit Colin and myself and the work that’s being done in our communities,” Miami Dolphins wide receiver Kenny Stills said Monday while adding that he’s taking a wait and see approach.
“I think he could have handled the whole situation differently,” Stills continued. “If he said I see the work Colin and these guys are doing and I want to partner up with the league to further that work, it would have been totally different than the way he answered some of these questions.”
But wasn’t Kaepernick’s goal to pave the way for awareness and activism, and steer this generation on its path of empowerment and social consciousness?
Isn’t that what Jay-Z has done for decades in other areas? But now that the NFL’s involved — paying him to steer their Inspire Change Initiative, he’s a sellout?
So Jay-Z’s not given the benefit of doubt before his first act, his first commercial, and all because he didn’t consult Kaepernick and company, who began this journey to create awareness and attention to social injustices that have plagued this country for decades?
That sounds a bit contradictory, and hypocritical, which is the same way many labeled Dolphins owner Steve Ross, the man behind the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE), an organization dedicated to fighting racial discrimination through sports — who held a fundraiser for the President’s reelection campaign that reportedly helped raise $12 million earlier this month.
While I understand it would have benefited Jay-Z to loop Kaepernick, and the two remaining kneelers from the initial batch — Carolina safety Eric Reid and Stills — in on his thought process and possibly have them explain their journey to this point, why is it necessary?
Those who knelt have served as an inspiration, and the work people like Stills have done in the community on a grassroots level make a difference.
Kaepernick has become a martyr in the same vein as Muhammad Ali, especially after the NFL settled with him, paying him — and Reid — an undisclosed amount of money for being blackballed from signing with a team.
But it is time to take this crusade to the next level, to gain a greater reach, one that the NFL can provide through their millions of viewers and the money they’ll put behind the campaign, and I’m comfortable with Jay-Z steering this based on his track record.
Jay-Z is right. This is the time to move past kneeling, and stop the bickering that it creates, and push towards finding solutions.
It would have healed plenty of wounds if Kaepernick had an offer to continue playing in the NFL, but that’s just as unnecessary as Jay-Z seeking his approval to do business with the league. Was this movement about Kaepernick, or the lost lives that inspired him to do something bold that could benefit the next generation?
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