Actually, I kinda liked what Rodney Harrison, whom I love, had to say about Colin Kaepernick. Don't ...
Actually, I kinda liked what Rodney Harrison, whom I love, had to say about Colin Kaepernick. Don't get me wrong: Harrison's view that Kaepernick's "blackness" matters, at all, in whether his protest is legitimate, is wrong. It's an argument that cannot possibly be true, by definition. Many people have used that argument over the years, and it's simply false.
I also hate that in American society, "white" people have to be pure white, and if a small part of you is black, then you are "black." Traditionally, it was used as though your whole self was tainted by a little bit of "black" genetic material; now, it's often the opposite, where if you have some "black" genes, then you are in the "cool kids" club.
Either way, it's intellectually offensive and socially damaging. Barack Obama is exactly as much "white," as "black." Kaepernick may be more "white" than "black." And neither of these facts actually matters at all, except in our minds ... and that's a problem we should fix.
Race is a social construct, and it's fine in itself, but when we use it as a club against others -- like when Randy Newman asserted, during an Apple keynote, that Clarence Thomas isn't black, because he's not liberal -- it's awful. Stop it.
And I like that Harrison's comments, as silly as they were, help bring this to light.
I also hate that in American society, "white" people have to be pure white, and if a small part of you is black, then you are "black." Traditionally, it was used as though your whole self was tainted by a little bit of "black" genetic material; now, it's often the opposite, where if you have some "black" genes, then you are in the "cool kids" club.
Either way, it's intellectually offensive and socially damaging. Barack Obama is exactly as much "white," as "black." Kaepernick may be more "white" than "black." And neither of these facts actually matters at all, except in our minds ... and that's a problem we should fix.
Race is a social construct, and it's fine in itself, but when we use it as a club against others -- like when Randy Newman asserted, during an Apple keynote, that Clarence Thomas isn't black, because he's not liberal -- it's awful. Stop it.
And I like that Harrison's comments, as silly as they were, help bring this to light.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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