Ba-beeeeeeeeeee, White men haven’t been this angry since they learned Michael Jackson, a Black man, was screwing Elvis’ daughter. The protests by many of the NFL players this past Sunday has White males enraged enough to chew up nails and spit out a barbed wire fence.
Consider, Robert Williams, who set fire to all of his Pittsburgh Steelers clothes, including a $450 leather jacket. He stated, ”We ‘have morals in this country — my great uncle’s bones are lying in the bottom of Pearl Harbor, for this country, for this flag, for your freedom to play in the NFL and say whatever you want to say. But you do not disrespect the flag and country and the constitution and why we are here and why we have our freedoms. So watch this stuff burn’” as he lit his pile of fan wear on fire. Reportedly, many others are following suit.
Some are taking a different approach to displaying their dismay. Erich Nikischer, a part-time employee at the Buffalo Bills stadium became so offended and irate when many of the Bills players knelt during the anthem that he quit his job on the spot. “I waited until the national anthem ended, I took off my shirt, threw my Bills hat on the ground, and walked out,” Nikischer relayed.
Evidence of White male anger is constantly updated on Twitter, FaceBook, and particularly in the comments section following online news articles.
To put the level of outrage that White males are experiencing in perspective, we must consider that the President of the United States (arguably the most powerful man in the world) has written over 20 tweets and 2 statements lambasting what was only a handful of NFL player silently kneeling on the sidelines, while hundreds of thousands of Americans are suffering the aftermath of major hurricanes; there is a threat of war with North Korea, and the GOP is attempting to repeal Obamacare. Trump said that NFL owners who see players “disrespecting the flag” should “get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he’s fired.”
From the President of the United States to the part-time stadium worker, the anger from White males is evident. It begs the question: Why are they so angry? Of course, these men, most of whom couldn’t sing all of the words of the anthem, are unfamiliar with the true history of the song, would fail to tell you the author of the song, and typically would be ordering pizza, grabbing a beer, or scratching their unmentionables while strewn across the couch when the anthem is being sung aren’t angry about the protests during the anthem. They aren’t in a patriotic-fueled tizzy.
No, their anger is fueled by the same fear and racism that went into the writing of the National Anthem. The connection between White men and the Star Spangled Banner isn’t patriotism; it’s racism. Francis Scott Key was as fearful of the power of Black men when he wrote the Star Spangled Banner as the White men who are insisting that Black football players honor it today.
Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star Spangled Banner strongly believed that Black people were inferior to White people. His belief was shaken when the Colonial Marines, a battalion of former slaves who joined the British Army in exchange for their freedom, beat Key’s troop, in which he was a lieutenant, in the Battle of Bladensburg. He then watched as the victorious troop marched into Washington D.C., Key’s hometown, and burned down the Capitol, White House and Library of Congress in celebration. 3 weeks later, Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner and dedicated the 3rd stanza to that night:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Key, was so incensed that Black men, whom he considered inferior, could fight in an army and that army went on to out-smart and out-maneuver him that he wrote that the “hireling and slave” would wipe away the blood and pollution left by the British. Key could not accept that Black men, instead of being mute slaves were having a voice and an impact in the war. And that those men beat him, shook his feelings of superiority.
The same is true for every White man who is angry today about Black football players kneeling during the racist song penned by Key: they are fearful of the power of Black men. They are fearful of losing control.
Very rich White men buy football teams as a hobby. They (with their staff) examine the body measurements and physical capabilities of mostly Black men until they are auctioned off (or rather drafted) by an owner. Once these Black men are drafted, they are expected to keep their bodies in the best physical form so as to perform for the owner, allowing him to make a lot of money. These players are owned by the team (team owner) and wear the owner’s brand on them. They are not expected to speak unless it’s organized and directed by the team and promotes the team brand.
Black people have followed this program for the most part because for a long time it has been one of the few ways a Black man could earn his way out of poverty (though the average player makes approximately 1.9 million per year, he only has an average of a 3-year career (leaving them soon penniless as the only job they trained for was to play was football. Only 57% of college football players earn their college degrees). Since 2009, Black men have stood up and placed their hands over their hearts as they sung to and/or listened to the National Anthem sung as their owners directed them to do, without question… until . . . Colin Kapaernick didn’t. Colin Kapaernick didn’t follow orders, so essentially received a public whipping so that the others wouldn’t disobey orders. Every owner refused to hire Kapaernick, though several clearly less talented Quarterbacks were hired, so as to send a message to every football player (read Black man) out there: if you want to play football, earn money, you betta’ sing this racist song like you are happy (though this has nothing to do with football or your technical job as a football player).
This public “whipping” worked for the most part. Not many players knelt. Not many realized that they, being in a business that is 70% Black had power; they could shut down the plantation – the league – simply by uniting.
I hope that after this past weekend, when 200 football players and their owners knelt in protest– the players realized of what they are capable–their potential and their power. A realized Black man is unstoppable, incomparable, and inimitable. And that’s what has scared the hell out of White men like Francis Scott Key, Donald Trump, and these angry NFL fans. They are acutely aware of our unleashed greatness–now it’s imperative that we do too.
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.