Early (or LATE) Black History
This past weekend, the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears both won their divisional championships, earning the honor of playing each other in one of the world's greatest sporting events (they don't call it the Super Bowl for nothing). As I watched the games, I realized that this would be the first time that both Super Bowl coaches were Black. Then I thought about it a little longer and realized that this may very well be the first time than ANY Black coach has taken a team to the big one.
Any doubts about this were quickly confirmed by virtually every sports media outlet after the late game (the Colts), and throughout the next few days to follow. It will be the talk of the nation for a while. And maybe that's why people are trying to downplay it already, on some "character over color" equation. Like this one I read today... I see where dude was trying to go with this, but it just doesn't sit right with me. It reminds me of something that Tavis Smiley said following the government's failures during Hurricane Katrina. Smiley said that "Black people have a very short memory." Maybe it's a product of so much past pain in American history. Maybe we want to forget. But why are WE the ones trying to minimize THIS moment? Yes, Smith and Dungy are great character guys, but a few years ago, all the character in the world wouldn't have gotten them a job in the league. A whole bunch of great character folks were enslaved, beaten, raped, lynched, disenfranchised, and treated as subhuman, second-class citizens in an unspoken caste system. Look around. We still live under the same basic rules. We act like just because a few brothers have a Bentley now, whether they got it from Wall Street or a 4.4 40, that race shouldn't be a factor. The Voting Rights Act was 1965, not 1865. Yeah, we've come far, but don't get it twisted. One of the reasons we haven't progressed further as a society is because we still don't have honest conversations about what's going on, and what our past represents.
Like, how's this for an honest question: Why the hell is this the first time a Black coach is going to Super Bowl? (Honest answer: Because white people think Black people are stupid. They've written books about it. And we all know, it takes a very smart man to tell people how fast to run, and who to throw a ball to. (No, I'm not belittling anyone, because I do believe that smart coaches have an edge, just as smart players. I'm just saying that when you have a systematic equation that becomes socially acceptable, it dangerously promotes typically unchallenged spoken and unspoken practices that simply make no sense. The limits on Black coaches and the complete lack of Black ownership is not a question of ability, but of power.))
Black people do have short memories. But I say, never forget. We need to remember our stories and tell them proudly, rather than change the subject. Why do you think Black History Month is only 28 days long? Because we barely remember enough now to fill up that slot.
posted by Brian Peterson @ 9:13 PM
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