NFL’s shallow virtue signaling
During the racial unrest caused by the George Floyd police killing there has been a trend among many well-known businesses to pander to the organization Black Lives Matter (BLM). These mainstream companies, whether wittingly or unwittingly, have extended their financial largesse, moral support, and commercial prestige to BLM even though that group is dedicated to transforming our country into one that reflects its far left views. BLM is committed, among other things, to disrupting the traditional nuclear family structure, eliminating our free market economy in favor of a socialist model, and diminishing the influence of American values around the world.
The National Football League (NFL) is a sports industry behemoth that is willingly genuflecting in front of BLM to persuade the public and the NFL players, 70 percent of whom are Black, that it is fully engaged in the battle against racial injustice and police brutality. The league’s obsequious attitude is reflected in its widely reported decision to allow the Black national anthem (BNA) to be performed in addition to “The Star-Spangled Banner” at this season’s Opening Day games. This decision patently illustrates how desperate pro football is to appear “woke” and avoid a backlash from players who support BLM.
The League, many of its players, and some members of the public mistakenly conflate the sentiment that Black lives matter with the goals underlying the BLM organization. That sentiment and those goals are not aligned. Surely African Americans support the NFL’s opposition to racism and condemnation of unjustified police violence. Most of them, however, presumably prefer that the NFL take concrete measures to eliminate racism and police brutality rather than waste time on meaningless symbolism. The NFL’s decision to allow the BNA performance is precisely that — meaningless symbolism. It will do nothing to strengthen Black families, employ Black people, close the racial wealth gap, better educate Black children, dissipate inner city crime, or reduce violent police misconduct.
Not only is the decision an empty gesture primarily designed to make the NFL look good while simultaneously mollifying BLM and the players, but it is detrimental because it implicitly endorses BLM’s disgraceful goals. One of the worst BLM aspirations, in addition to the outrageous goals already mentioned, is to defund police departments across the United States. BLM clearly does not care about improving police training or properly holding bad cops accountable for their misdeeds. It primarily wants to weaken or even abolish the police. If this absurd desire comes to fruition, it will decimate the people who need good policing the most — the law-abiding people living in the ghetto. Affluent people who can afford private security will not suffer harm if BLM gets what it wants, but poor folks living in the slums will continue to endure murders, robberies, and rapes if they cannot get the police protection they deserve.
In the short run the NFL decision regarding the BNA may win it some public accolades, appease BLM, and pacify the players who see the police as oppressors bent on indiscriminately killing Black people. In the long run, however, NFL virtue signaling will only encourage BLM and the players to demand more and more concessions from the League. There is no credible evidence, despite what BLM or the players assert, that in general the police are intentionally targeting African Americans for death. The documented facts, based on government statistics and well researched academic studies, show that Blacks are far more likely to be murdered by other Blacks than they are to be murdered by white police officers. If BLM really believes Black lives matter, then it is counterproductive for it to focus on the relatively small number of Blacks unjustifiably killed by the police rather than focus on the relatively large number of Blacks unjustifiably killed by other Blacks. If “Black lives matter” is more than a vacuous slogan, then BLM should be just as outraged when Black criminals murder innocent Black victims as it is when rogue cops murder innocent Blacks victims. Everyone who commits murder should be held accountable regardless of his race or status as a police officer.
If the NFL wants to join the fight against racial inequality and police brutality, it should spend some of its cash to fund programs that keep Black nuclear families intact; improve the chances that Black youths graduate from high school or develop marketable work skills; improve cooperation between the police and the Black community; and train people to resolve their disagreements without resorting to violence. The
The NFL’s decision to allow the Black national anthem performance is precisely that — meaningless symbolism. It will do nothing to strengthen Black families, employ Black people, close the racial wealth gap, better educate Black children, dissipate inner city crime, or reduce violent police misconduct.
League, however, has not specifically said it will spend money on these particular initiatives. What it has said is that it will spend $250 million over the next 10 years fighting systemic racism. That sum is chump change compared to the billions in revenue the NFL rakes in. Moreover, the NFL plan to address the abstract notion of systemic racism, when coupled with its plan to allow the performance of the BNA on opening day, shows that the League simply has caved to the political extortion of BLM and the players who support that group.
In the United States “The StarSpangled Banner” is traditionally performed at the beginning of sporting events because it reminds fans that we are one people regardless of race, religion, team loyalties, and other differences between us. The NFL, in allowing the BNA to be performed together with “The Star-Spangled Banner,” is essentially saying that Blacks are in a separate category from other citizens. That message should be unequivocally rejected. African Americans have the same rights and responsibilities as all other citizens of this country. They should not be singled out for better or worse treatment. Sixtysix years ago in 1954 the acceptability of racial segregation in American culture began to slowly recede after the Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” public schools are illegal. This country is better because separate but equal is no longer tolerated here. Given that fact, the craven NFL and its BLM master should not reinvigorate segregationist practices by allowing a performance of the BNA prior to the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” even if the claimed motive for doing so is to fight racism and police brutality against Black people.