• Advertise
  • Donate
  • Subscribe
    • Become a print subscriber
    • Sign up for e-Newsletter
    • e-Editions
Friday, September 29, 2023
No Result
View All Result
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
  • News & Features
    • National
    • Local
    • Special Editions
      • MLK Legacy
      • Black History Month
      • The MSR Celebrates Women’s History Month
  • All Sections
    • Opinion
      • Mellaneous by Mel Reeves
      • Word on the Street
      • Reaching Out From Within
    • Health + Wellness
      • Women’s Wellness
      • Parenting Today
      • Minnesota Cancer Alliance Breast Cancer Gaps Project
    • Sports
      • Timberwolves/NBA
      • Lynx/WNBA
        • 20 in 20
      • Twins/MLB
      • MN Wild/NHL
      • Vikings/NFL
    • Business
      • Small Business Month Celebration
      • Black Business Spotlight
      • Finances FYI
    • Arts + Culture
    • Photo Galleries
      • Photo of the Week
    • MSR Forefront Digital Roundtable Series
      • MSR Forefront Highlights
    • Go Green
    • Education
    • Bulletin
    • Jobs & Notices
      • Legals
      • Announcements
  • Events
    • Submit an event!
  • Obits
  • Sister Spokesman
  • e-Editions
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
  • News & Features
    • National
    • Local
    • Special Editions
      • MLK Legacy
      • Black History Month
      • The MSR Celebrates Women’s History Month
  • All Sections
    • Opinion
      • Mellaneous by Mel Reeves
      • Word on the Street
      • Reaching Out From Within
    • Health + Wellness
      • Women’s Wellness
      • Parenting Today
      • Minnesota Cancer Alliance Breast Cancer Gaps Project
    • Sports
      • Timberwolves/NBA
      • Lynx/WNBA
        • 20 in 20
      • Twins/MLB
      • MN Wild/NHL
      • Vikings/NFL
    • Business
      • Small Business Month Celebration
      • Black Business Spotlight
      • Finances FYI
    • Arts + Culture
    • Photo Galleries
      • Photo of the Week
    • MSR Forefront Digital Roundtable Series
      • MSR Forefront Highlights
    • Go Green
    • Education
    • Bulletin
    • Jobs & Notices
      • Legals
      • Announcements
  • Events
    • Submit an event!
  • Obits
  • Sister Spokesman
  • e-Editions
No Result
View All Result
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
No Result
View All Result

NFL’s actual practices belie gestures of racial healing

by Charles Hallman
September 24, 2021
22
SHARES
437
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on LinkedIn
Courtesy of Charles Matthews Dr. Robert Turner

The Minnesota Vikings, along with the rest of the National Football League this season, are participating in social justice “messaging” such as social justice decals on players’ helmets, on-field signs, PSAs. Even the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” will be played before games as part of the league’s 10-year, $250-millon commitment to combat systemic racism.

Yet this is the same league that Whiteballed Colin Kaepernick in 2016, now going on six seasons, for kneeling during the U.S. national anthem to call attention to racial and social injustices. It’s the same league that historically operates a slave-owner environment where the majority of owners are White men and 70% of its players are Black.

The NFL until recently practiced “race-norming” to keep them from rightfully paying former Black players for concussion-related injuries. Race-norming is a practice that would deem Black players worse in cognitive functioning than Whites and therefore presumed that Blacks suffer less impairment from playing.

“[Race-norming] is an inherently anti-Black form of scientific racism that is evidence of slavery’s afterlife,” co-wrote Notre Dame Professor Tracie Canada and Chelsey R. Carter in a July Scientific American article.

Robert Turner II, a George Washington University assistant medicine and health science professor, wrote in his 2018 book “Not For Long: The Life and Career of an NFL Athlete” that Black overrepresentation in the NFL is problematic, and for its Black players doubly problematic.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

“I have a full chapter around race, in terms of the way athletes either assimilate or take an Afro-centric approach to these issues,” said Turner in a recent MSR phone interview. A former college and pro football player from the 1980s, Turner added, “There’s actually today probably more pressure on the Black athletes than there has been in the past.”

What he didn’t know then, he knows better now, Turner admitted. “I am trained as a sociologist and to see things, to take a critical examination of how do people make decisions. I didn’t recognize some of the issues…until much later, until and well after I finished the game.

“I started playing football in the 70s and played throughout the 80s,” said Turner. “I never saw it from a capitalist lens, from a lens of thinking about how people were perceiving my Black body, or what the Black body meant in all of society. I was just a kid thinking about how much I love the game.

“But once you start to think, you peel the layers back and you start to look at it a little differently,” continued the professor. “You start to understand instead of asking the question about athletes being exploited in football. You start to think about what is football and what it truly represents in society.”

But to expect the NFL to go cold turkey and fully abandon its racist ways is perhaps unthinkable: “We’re going to see an ongoing tension.. The NFL owners are in lockstep—they protect the shield [the league’s logo] and are not very progressive when it comes to racial politics,” stressed Turner. 

- ADVERTISEMENT -

“The fact that…70% of the players in the league are Black, I think it’s going to be a really tough time for the management and owners…to find the right balance with what they’ve always done, and that’s protect the shield.”

Support Black local news

Help amplify Black voices by donating to the MSR. Your contribution enables critical coverage of issues affecting the community and empowers authentic storytelling.

Donate Now!

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...
ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

Social justice commitment graded in NBA report card

Next Post

In-person homework help at Saint Paul Public Library returns

Charles Hallman

Charles Hallman is a contributing reporter and award-winning sports columnist at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

You Might Also Like

Racist attacks against Vikings’ Mattison echo Hank Aaron’s treatment
Sports

Racist attacks against Vikings’ Mattison echo Hank Aaron’s treatment

NFL star Michael Oher’s explosive claim reveals twists in ‘The Blind Side’ movie tale
National

NFL star Michael Oher’s explosive claim reveals twists in ‘The Blind Side’ movie tale

NFL’s sports medicine pipeline taps ‘underrepresented groups’
Sports

NFL’s sports medicine pipeline taps ‘underrepresented groups’

Legendary NFL, movie star and activist Jim Brown dies at 87
National

Legendary NFL, movie star and activist Jim Brown dies at 87

It’s a first—two Black quarterbacks in the Super Bowl
Featured

It’s a first—two Black quarterbacks in the Super Bowl

What the sports media got right (and wrong) in covering Damar Hamlin’s injury
Sports

What the sports media got right (and wrong) in covering Damar Hamlin’s injury

Next Post
In-person homework help at Saint Paul Public Library returns

In-person homework help at Saint Paul Public Library returns

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
ADVERTISEMENT

Upcoming Events

Sep 12
September 12 @ 6:30 pm-December 18 @ 9:30 pm Recurring

Vic Volare Presents MUSIC FOR MARTINIS ft: Vic’s Fabulous Nightclub Academy

Sep 29
7:30 pm-9:30 pm Recurring

Ayodele Casel Rooted

Sep 30
9:00 am-1:00 pm Recurring

Cars and Caves

Sep 30
10:00 am-12:00 pm

dem Blessings for Parents: A Morning of Creative Nourishment with Sharon Bridgforth

View Calendar
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Read our latest e-Edition!

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Subscribe

  • Home/Office Delivery
  • Weekly e-newsletter
  • e-Editions

Support

  • Donate
  • Subscribe
  • MSR Newsstand Locations

Connect

  • About
    • MSR Staff
  • Contact
  • Send a news tip
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms

© 2023 Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

No Result
View All Result
  • News & Features
    • Local
    • National
  • All Sections
    • Arts & Culture
    • Health & Wellness
      • Women’s Wellness
      • Parenting Today
      • MN Cancer Alliance Breast Cancer Gaps Project
    • Business
      • Black Business Spotlight
      • Finances FYI
      • Small Business Month Celebration
    • Opinion
    • Sports
  • Events
  • Obits
  • Sister Spokesman
  • Donate
  • Subscribe

© 2023 Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: