In all honesty, I am not sure what I expected from Drew Brees. He is an amazing quarter back for the New Orleans Saints. But what I was clear on years ago when he initially responded to Colin Kaepernick’s peaceful protest is he was determined misunderstand him.
Drew Brees is the perfect example of a person choosing to misunderstand you because their privilege won’t let them hear you.
Colin Kaepernick and countless other NFL, NBA and NCAA players stated the way in which taking a knee was a peaceful protest for injustice at the hands of police targeting Black people. Interview after interview black person after black person said we are peacefully protesting the disproportionate murders of unarmed black men and women by police with no justice resulting from “investigations” and trials. And in fairness, to the backlash in the last 24 hours Drew is only doubling down on his comments made at the time.
Drew doubled down on those comments almost 2.5 years later knowing these facts:
⁃ George Floyd was murdered in what could have been a simple arrest.
⁃ Since Colin started his peaceful protest, we’ve seen at least 20 incidents in the news reflecting the reason why he protested.
⁃ International protests were taking place and protests in all 50 states in the country he lives in with the focus on murder at the hands of the police. You cannot turn on a news channel or scroll social media without seeing a brand, public figure, or athlete sharing the why.
⁃ He lives and works in a city with one of the highest populations in terms of the percentage of black people. A town that would not be the same without black culture.
⁃ He works with a large group of black people.
Drew Brees values black contributions, black culture, but he does not love the black experience. He gets to grow and he gets to change, but if you can watch countless people be murdered on tv with no justice and then tell people how they should protest, you are part of THE problem. At this point, it is ok for everyone who enjoys the NFL to say they like the NFL so much that there isn’t much they can do that would stop them from watching.
Colin and the numerous others did not loot; they respectfully explained their position and they did not burn down a thing. Yet they’ve all been slandered, riddled with death threats and in Colin’s case denied employment. Black Lives do not Matter to Drew Brees because HE thinks his privilege trumps (no pun intended) black humanity.
iamjoecarnell 