by Earl Smith, PhD and Angela J. Hattery, PhD
One of the strangest phenomena of the last several years is having President Donald Trump, President of the United States of America take direct negative aim at Black athletes. Whether it starts with his obsession of Colin Kaepernick, or not, I am not sure.
What I am sure of is the remarks that Trump made back in September, 2017 that those men (hardly ever has he made these derogatory comments about Black women athletes) are the “sons of bitches” http://bit.ly/2vjzTdT. This brings to the national public his rants. In front of the “Sons of bitches” rant at Alabama rally and more recently going after LeBron “King” James on Friday, August 4, 2018, telling his Twitter followers that
“Lebron (sic) James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon,” Trump tweeted. “He made Lebron (sic) look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!” https://usat.ly/2Mg7POR
With so many social problems facing Americans like home foreclosures, evictions, mass incarceration, deep poverty–some 47 million Americans depend on some form government assistance to make ends meet–why is the called leader of the “free world” taking negative aim at Black athletes?
Here is why. (1) These Black athletes are challenging the basic social order. With the kneeling they are bringing attention to the social inequalities, dedgregation, facing Black Americans daily. (2) He does this, too, because his base likes it. All of this is wrapped into the white supremacy rhetoric that he spews on a daily basis from the White House, on Air Force One and at the Mar-a-Lago Club.
For all the Blacks athletes (male and female) who are taking stands against inequalities, police brutality, white people calling the police on Blacks for being in their perceived notions of where Blacks should be, BRAVO!!
