Kaepernick. Photo–Twitter.
Very many Americans are upset that professional athletes who are well paid are taking public positions on social and political issues. It must be that all of them haven’t lost their humanity and concern for the public.
If Black office-holders, starting with former President Barack Obama and former attorneys general Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch had made an honest and open effort to halt summary executions by local police authorities the problem would have received the attention which circumstances demand.
However Black political figures acted as if the problem would go away by itself if we just gave it a little time, with some condemnations. Police terror in Black communities is not an aberration that can be left to solve itself. It is a policy and practice that occurs consistently, all the time, all over the United States. During the era of the slavery regime the criminality of enslaving Africans was written law.
Today the criminality of police abuse while not formally written law is enforced by a system that exonerates the police offenders.
This crime must be addressed. But who will dare to rock the boat and run the risk of reprisals like unemployed quarterback Colin Kaepernick? Politicians tend to play it safe when controversy arises because they have other interests other than the public good.
So we see many athletes stepping up and taking humane positions on things office-holders rather not see or be willing to face backlash for.
