Real Men in the NFL Stand Up
Finally! NFL players across the country took a knee to protest the systemic racism and unjustified deaths that have plagued black communities for decades. Using their broadcast platform, socially-conscious athletes showed the world that they would not stand for the injustices done by those in power. Players, black and white, displayed solidarity against the killing of unarmed black lives through state-funded violence. They declared an end to Planned Parenthood.
Oh, wait. Nope. That wasn't the story splashed on every #fakenews front page or the endless dialogue of sports commentators and liberal pundits. Planned Parenthood kills nearly 270 black lives every single day, but sure…let's talk about the "systemic racism" of police (both black and white I might add) who kill more white people than black people every year.
In 2016, 963 lives were killed by police (whether justified or not). That's 32 less deaths than in 2015. The Washington Post database provides the racial breakdown: 466 were white (or 48.3%), and 233 were black (24.2%). Of those killed 690 (or 71.7%) were armed with a deadly weapon. Only five percent, or 48 people, were determined to be "unarmed."
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I know, I know! It's about percentages! Yes. Context matters. (Of course, the Obama administration made sure we couldn't see clarifying data on crime and race. His DOJ removed the tables of data that, until 2008, reported the race of those who committed crimes. So, all we have to go on is the last time the DOJ reported such data.)
In 2008, black individuals committed 22.8% of all (single-offender) violent crimes (Table 40 which includes rape, sexual assault, robbery, as well as aggravated and simple assault). Whites committed 58.4% of them. In that year, whites comprised 75% of our nation's population; blacks comprised 12.4%. Violent crimes among blacks were twice as high as the representation in the population.
We're dealing with a systemic issue, but it has far less to do with racism and much more to do with…let's call it governmentism. Big government is a horrible replacement for fathers…for families. Fatherless communities are far more vulnerable to violence, lower employment rates, lower educational opportunities, higher levels of neglect and sexual abuse, higher drug usage, and higher abortion rates…just to name a few of the issues caused by the predominant threat facing the black community.
I'm black. And I'm white. And I'm a father. I want to see everyone rise above their circumstances, not be held down by this media-hyped tripe from evangelists of victimhood.
Any loss of life is tragic. Any police officer who abuses the position of power and causes the unjust death of another, regardless of the victim's hue of skin, should be held accountable. Justice must always be our pursuit. It's honorable for friends and colleagues to support each other, but there's no value in kneeling for a lie. Professional athletes, like Colin Kaepernick, should be held accountable for deliberately spreading dangerous misinformation. Athletes, sadly, have more influence than pastors. Welcome to the post-civil rights era.
President Trump gets slammed (and sometimes, rightfully so) for his frequent, reckless and often unPresidential words. In some moments I love that Trump can circumvent mainstream media via Twitter, and in others, I cringe at every one of those 140 characters (soon to be 280).
Of course, defenders of the NFL's (selective) free speech, like to pretend that protest is the "highest form of patriotism." I like to think that those who self-sacrificially give their lives, so that some [uninformed/misinformed millionaire] football players can spew #BlackLivesMatter propaganda, is a much higher form. Lost in all of the mainstream media frenzy to daily excoriate Trump is what the actual protest is all about…
BS. Yes. Bogus Stuff.
Let's not forget the NFL-approved 2016 half-time spectacle of "Black Power" brought by #BlackLivesMatter celebrity activist and music superstar Beyoncé. Nothing says racial reconciliation like a tribute to the (violence and venom of) Black Panthers!
In fact, the NFL should just tweak its name to NPL—The National Propaganda League. Apparently battered wives don't matter, blue lives don't matter, military lives don't matter, and unborn lives don't matter. But some black lives matter. The League officially bans "personal messages" on the field (see Rule 5, Section 4), but as long as there's a liberal cause, they'll break their own rules. They have a leftist agenda to run with, and if dishonoring the national anthem and our flag helps to achieve that goal, they'll do it. The NFL is an activist organization launching efforts like NFL Pride through their "Diversity Council." And by "diversity" they mean zero tolerance for anything other than liberalism.
Our Leftist media establishment doesn't want to examine the claims. It doesn't want to fact-check "progressives" pathological compulsion to paint the United States as more racist than during the civil rights era. I wrote about this when Ferguson erupted in violence because of Michael Brown's tragic decisions to put him on the wrong end of a gun. Liberals have been fomenting racial division in the news, in public education, in Hollywood, in our music industry, and in the Party of Slavery and Jim Crow (now the Party of Abortion, the leading killer of unarmed black lives).
I'm all about freedom of speech and even clueless protests. I just wish freedom of the press didn't translate into MSM's decidedly dishonest point of view. As a factivist, I just take the approach that Americans should act once they have the facts. Without facts, without forgiveness, there can be no forward motion. Much of today's so-called "resistance" is a symptom of a much deeper wound that can't be healed without love and understanding. You have to be proactive and want to know the truth. Otherwise, we see the knee-jerk reactions by those who'd rather kneel than stand up like a man.
Originally posted at theradiancefoundation.org
