The marriage of sports and social injustice isn't going away soon. So, please, just listen.

https://www.nola.com/sports/saints/a...4c3e678ac.html


The marriage of sports and social injustice isn't going away soon. So, please, just listen.

BY ROD WALKER | Staff writer
Published Aug 27, 2020 at 4:05 pm | Updated Aug 27, 2020 at 5:44 pm

If you already understand why Black Lives Matter, and why NFL players take a knee during the national anthem, you can stop reading now.

This column really isn't for you.

It's for everybody else.

If you're not sure if that includes you, ask yourself these four questions:

• Have I ever said I'm going to stop watching (pick a sport) games because I don't want to see any form of protests?

• Have I ever seen a person express the pain and hurt they feel from racism, then immediately began to respond with "Yeah, but ..."?

• Have I ever watched an athlete protest for the voiceless and then wondered why someone who makes millions of dollars is doing so?

• Have I ever uttered the words "stick to sports"?

If you answered "yes" to any of those, keep reading.

Chances are, you have loved sports since you were a kid. There is no need for you to give up on that lifelong passion just because of a sheer unwillingness to budge on issues that will someday land you on the wrong side of history.

It's OK to listen.

The conversation isn't going to be easy.

But it isn't going away.

It can't, as Sean Payton reminded us Thursday.

"There is an old adage: 'The obstacle is the way,’ ” Payton said. “It's not going around; it's understanding and going through it and addressing it — even if it means uncomfortable topics and conversations that may make people somewhat uneasy."

But don't just listen to Payton. Listen to his players, too — especially the Black ones on the roster who have lived their whole lives experiencing the very same issues they protest.

Just because you don't share similar experiences doesn't mean those experiences don't exist.

They do, just as they did four years ago when Colin Kaepernick first took a knee.

"It's exhausting," Saints receiver Emmanuel Sanders said. "To keep having the same conversations over and over and over and really not seeing any change and it keeps happening is exhausting."

It's exhausting for me, too.

If it were up to me, I could stop writing about it. If it were up to Sanders and his teammates, they could stop talking about it. But the issues remain, a never-ending cycle of racial incident, hashtag, protest and repeat.

You should be tired of it, too — especially if you are familiar with the stories of people like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd or Jacob Blake.

"We all know that emotionally, we are drained," Sanders said. "We are drained of talking about it. We're drained of it happening over and over again. We are drained of trying to make a change but change is not coming. We're drained of it happening over and over again. We are drained emotionally, and it's sad to see it. Why are you drained? If you are in the same situation, you know that could easily be you."

So when you hear a Black person sharing that pain or that fear, just know that it's real. It's not just the incidents captured on cellphone video. It's also the ones that aren't.

When we say Black Lives Matter, we're not saying Only Black Lives Matter. We're saying Black Lives Matter, Too.

And because of that, the marriage of sports and social justice won't be divorcing anytime soon.

It's why the Saints chose to wear Blake's name on their helmets during Thursday's practice. No, just wearing his name won't solve the issues. That can only come from changes in laws and policies. But it brings awareness to the incident that occurred just four days earlier when Blake was shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

It's why the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, based in a city just 40 miles from where Blake was shot, didn't play their scheduled playoff game Wednesday against the Orlando Magic.

And it's why Joe Burrow, LSU's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback last season, tweeted these words Thursday morning:

"How can you hear the pain Black people are going through and dismiss it as nothing?"

That's the question athletes are asking.

Now, please, just be willing to listen.

When "sports" dies there may be a change of heart.

When "sports" dies there may be a change of heart. Originally Posted by LexusLover

the sports writer is right about one thing.

we're tired.

we're tired of their bullshit!

I think they should consider that spectator sports were an escape from the politics that society is immersed in all the time.

Without it being an escape and something to look forward to then people will pursue other things.

Considering how fat everyone in the country is perhaps people should participate rather than watch.

Alternatively, get another hobby or activity.

Looks like yous better stop killing people for being black, then, eh? Maybe elect a national legislature Representative of the whole country, not just the WSNDs that Trump sucks.

Or watch knitting, baking and Tigers King.

Fucking WSND’s!

"All Lives matter"- A concept considered "Racist" by the marxist, gay -only - masters of OBLM organization.

And some refuse to see the Racism of the OBLM and other plantation racial identity politics enablers of violence against people who agree with Equality for All under the law.



It is not about Equality for All - it is about promising a racial group free goodies - reparations, free houses, free land and a segregated state reserved for OBLM - and some refuse to see the Racism of teh DPST's enabling and fomenting the violence.

Not to mention the Hypocrisy of DPST mis-managed shithole tenement cities the DPST have kept millions of black peoples subjugated to the Racist, marxist policies for decades.



The DPST party is truly the enemy of 'all Lives matter" and equality for all under th Law!!!

I keep hearing the same old adage "we can't be afraid to talk about race". Never have been afraid to have an "honest, open conversation about race and so called police brutality".


So I'll start the conversation with the most recent event. "Would the situation have changed if Blake had heeded the police request to stop fighting, resisting arrest"? If the answer is YES! Then we are down to Ms. Taylor and the no knock warrant which Rand Paul has called for an end to in which I agree completely.


My second question to anybody wanting an open, honest conversation about what is going on with police is "what happens if everybody decides they don't have to do what police tell them to do"? Chaos, right?


So what is the solution? The solution is stop resisting arrest. This will eliminate 99% of shootings.


But do Blacks ever want to address that idea? Never heard it brought up even once.


Open and honest conversation my ass.


What if Blake had accepted there was a warrant for his arrest and allowed police to put him in cuffs and take him in? There can be no "conversation" if you are un-willing to answer that question Lebron James.

Looks like yous better stop killing people for being black, then, eh? Originally Posted by HoeHummer

You need to spend a month or two in Chicago ... aka The Killing City!

But you won't.

You're just a know-nothing internet loudmouth!

Have you gotten your mail-in ballotS for Bitten yet?

The Chicago "Killing Fields" - racked up more shootees this weekend.

and teh racist, Marxist DPST party and mayor lightfoot are secretly licking their chops of the deaths.

they play a long-term game - and refuse to address the issue - they want more gun murders, and more, and more!!


Why - the racist marxist DPST's plan to confiscate all weapons in america from Law-abiding citizens - which leaves criminals and drug gangs with lots of weapons, They will Defund, disarm, and disband police - leaving Amric at the mercy of their racist marxist OBLm and antifa thugs - who will , of course, have weapons for their own 'self-defense' against" Right wing white supremacists" - a Bugaboo for teh racist marxist DPST's/





They play the long tem game to disarm America - and that puts the poeple at teh mercy of teh racist marxist DPST's - and they have no Mercy for those they think 'Offend' them.

Like che' and Castro - they will run th streets red with blood of those they execute - terror as Lenin and Stalin taught them - is their modus opeandi.



If biden iselected - it is submission to the racist, marxist , tyrant DPST's - and a likely wall against which they will shoot millions in 'reparations' for 'black slavery' .



Never give up your weapons. Cache your ammo.

Civil War - is being forced on America by the racist, marxist DPST's. It may well be the only way to defend ourselves against the tyrants plans. They learned well from Lenin, Stalin, mao, Kim, and PolPOT.

Looks like yous better stop killing people for being black, then, eh? Maybe elect a national legislature Representative of the whole country, not just the WSNDs that Trump sucks.

Or watch knitting, baking and Tigers King.

Fucking WSND’s! Originally Posted by HoeHummer

Well, maybe the black people could set an example and quit killing each other at 100 times the rate the police kill them!

I keep hearing the same old adage "we can't be afraid to talk about race". Never have been afraid to have an "honest, open conversation about race and so called police brutality".


So I'll start the conversation with the most recent event. "Would the situation have changed if Blake had heeded the police request to stop fighting, resisting arrest"? If the answer is YES! Then we are down to Ms. Taylor and the no knock warrant which Rand Paul has called for an end to in which I agree completely.


My second question to anybody wanting an open, honest conversation about what is going on with police is "what happens if everybody decides they don't have to do what police tell them to do"? Chaos, right?


So what is the solution? The solution is stop resisting arrest. This will eliminate 99% of shootings.


But do Blacks ever want to address that idea? Never heard it brought up even once.


Open and honest conversation my ass.


What if Blake had accepted there was a warrant for his arrest and allowed police to put him in cuffs and take him in? There can be no "conversation" if you are un-willing to answer that question Lebron James. Originally Posted by HedonistForever

Excellent points.

You need to spend a month or two in Chicago ... aka The Killing City!

But you won't.

You're just a know-nothing internet loudmouth!

Have you gotten your mail-in ballotS for Bitten yet? Originally Posted by LexusLover

He is also gay and likely couldn't find Chicago on a map - he sucks at map reading. He also sucks [redacted].

Well, maybe the black people could set an example and quit killing each other at 100 times the rate the police kill them! Originally Posted by friendly fred

They are angry because their political party didn't pick a Black woman to run for President or Vice-President. Snubbed again!

Whatever they are kneeling about....statistically they have no argument

They do have feelings that get periodically reinforced as news reporting is inordinately focused and blm and antifa seizes on anything possible to bring us down

all which makes dialogue difficult and sense to be placed at risk

If blacks lives do really matter the witnesses to black murders shouldn’t always claim they didn’t see nuthin’

I think blacks are suffering from the stockholm syndrome due to decades of police abuse and brutality of the Jim Crow laws implemented in a number of states.

they cry phantom racism where there is none to be seen.

and theres the trust factor which plays into the parental teaching of what to do in presence of a police officer.