The naughty list
13th November 2017 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
In the midst of the New Orleans Saints’ recent bounce back from the NFL’s lowest rung, there were grumblings from some folks who are still hot about the 10 Saints players who refused to stand during the national anthem before the Sept. 24 game against the Carolina Panthers and their four teammates who stood alongside them to demonstrate their support.
It’s beginning to look a lot like those rebellious Saints players who stood up to “Massa” by refusing to stand for the national anthem are going to be on a lot of folks’ naughty list for a very long time.
While many in the City That Care Forgot are giddy about getting a taste of fall weather, the waning days of a brutal hurricane season and the holiday season on the horizon, none of that was enough to prevent some folks in the Who Dat Nation from taking shots at the Saints players who stood up for justice and equity. And for having the audacity to think that they could exercise their First Amendment rights without causing a major uproar.
So much for that.
Among those who still can’t get past the Saints protest more than seven weeks later is retired U.S. Navy Commander John Wells, who now serves as executive director of the national Military Veterans Advocacy, which is based in Slidell, La.
Wells was so upset with the Saints players who refused to stand for the national anthem in September that he refused to show up to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Nov. 5 to accept his Peoples Health Champion Award.
“Although I am touched and honored to be selected for such an award, the ongoing controversy with NFL players’ disrespect for the national flag forces me to decline to participate in the presentation,” Cdr. John Wells wrote to executives at Peoples Health and the New Orleans Saints organization. “I am unable, in good conscience, to enter an NFL stadium while this discourtesy prevails.
“Since this award is tainted with the dishonorable actions of the NFL and its players, I cannot accept it,” Wells continued. “To do so would be hypocritical. I had hoped and prayed that the NFL would outlaw these disgraceful protests and wanted to give the Commissioner and the owners a fair opportunity to do so. Their failure to act is a slap in the face to all of those who have served in uniform. Men and women have fought and died for the flag that the players are disrespecting.”
The New Orleans Saints responded with a statement that was both forceful and respectful of those who continue to resent the players for taking a stand for what they believe in.
“We respect his decision,” the organization said in a statement. “He has that right, and we thank him for his service to our country and his past efforts on behalf of the military and veterans.
“Our players have chosen to stand for our National Anthem out of respect for the flag, our servicemen and women and veterans in every game since our inception in 1967 with the exception of one game — the Week Three game at Carolina when a few of our players did sit,” the Saints statement continued. “We could not be more proud of the work our players do in the community and with our military, arguably a model program in the league. Our players have been clear and steadfast in their support for our military and veterans — not just with their words but with their actions — including visits with the military at home and abroad.”
The most interesting thing about the Saints statement is that while the Saints organization was founded at the height of the historic Civil Rights Movement, its players only took such a dramatic public stand for social justice once in the Saints’ 50-year history.
But that one stand was a memorable and apparently unforgivable one. Some in the Who Dat Nation couldn’t fathom rooting for a team that allowed its players to believe that they were free and equal human beings whose minds and bodies did not belong to NFL team owners, coaches or the fans who fill the stadium each weekend.
As long as they smiled and grinned and said nothing about social issues, Saints players were treated like rock stars but that all changed when they began to wake up and speak out about what they saw happening around them.
Apparently, there are a lot of Saints fans who think that because they are white or shell out a lot of bucks for Saints tickets they can tell the team’s players how to conduct themselves.
“I want to see football. I don’t want to hear the problems. I want to escape the problems,” fan Joe Handlen told FOX 8 News.
“People want to have their Sunday off, watch old-school football. They don’t want to hear about politics,” fan Jeremy Schreiber said.
“This is not the place for it. I don’t want to see it,” Saints fan Philip Crovatto told FOX 8. “You can voice your opinion when you’re off the field when you’re not representing the NFL.”
In a recent post on Twitter, Saints safety Kenny Vaccaro said that it is clear to him that some fans’ criticism of the Saints players who took a stand against racial injustice and police brutality goes deeper than the issue of standing during the national anthem.
“Our crowd boos us before the anthem therefore it’s not about the flag, it’s about the fact we are bringing awareness to a cause… we already said what we were gonna do so get the picture or don’t come,” Vaccaro said.
For his part, Wells was very clear about why he was offended by the Saints players’ protest. “These folks have a right to protest, they certainly do,” said Wells. “I felt that we’ve gone past the aspect of trying to bring up a just cause to the point of being actual disrespect and a slap in the face to the veterans.”
Perhaps those who agree with Mr. Wells and are buying what President Donald Trump is selling about NFL player protests and what they mean in terms of patriotism and honor should consider that there has not been much hell raised about the fact that white supremacists have been burning crosses in America for more than a century and that the U.S. flag is not always viewed by oppressed groups the way it is viewed by those who enjoy white privilege and white power.
Since Betsy Ross, credited with sewing the first American flag with 13 stars arranged in a circle and 15 stripes in 1776, the flag has provided very little relief or protection for people of African descent.
The “Grand Old Flag,” for example, could not prevent four white supremacists in Birmingham, Alabama from bombing a church in a domestic terrorist attack that claimed the lives of four Black girls. The flag did not prevent white supremacists in Mississippi from murdering three civil rights workers whose only crime was trying to help Blacks to register to vote or from murdering 14-year-old Emmett Till for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The flag had no power to prevent white supremacists in Florida from burning down the all-Black town of Rosewood, Fla.
The “Star-Spangled Banner” certainly could not prevent FBI director J. Edgar Hoover from launching his COINTELPRO initiative which targeted Black groups and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. “Old Glory” offered no refuge to members of the MOVE organization who were bombed to death by the City of Philadelphia or to Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was framed for the murder of a white Philadelphia policeman. The flag didn’t prevent cops across the nation from killing Michael Brown, Sean Bell, Justin Sipp, Wendell Allen, Steven Hawkins, Ronald Madison, James Brissette, Adolph Grimes III or all of the others whose only crime was being Black.
While Black professional athletes who stand up for justice, equity and freedom are treated like blasphemers, heretics and infidels, where is the outrage and public outcry from the larger society and military veterans when white supremacists parade around with Confederate battle flags and Nazi swastikas?
The last time I checked, neither of these symbols reflect the stated goals and principles of the United States Constitution or the Declaration of Independence.
Who would have ever thought that the collective sense of self-worth and power of white folks depended so heavily on the complete subjugation and control of Black professional athletes?
Good grief.
Those who are still feeling salty about the Saints players who refused to stand for the national anthem in September have every right to bust a move. Burn your Drew Brees jersey. Refuse to renew your season tickets. Delete all those selfies you took with Saints players during training camp and at community events. Throw away all your cherished New Orleans Saints Super Bowl mementos. Hold your breath for as long as you can. Go outside and howl at the Beaver Moon. Do whatever it is you feel you need to do.
All of that is certainly well within their constitutional rights as a citizen of the United States of America.
I promise not to even fix my mouth to attempt to tell anyone how or when to exercise his or her First Amendment rights. Even if that means having to watch someone make a complete spectacle of themselves or unknowingly reveal the need for a serious conversation about race relations and a long-overdue intercultural exchange.
This article originally published in the November 13, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
