CLUELESS, USA — On friday everybody and their Uncle LeRoy saw Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott dancing the jig for the press. Ole boy followed a long line of black folks that have benefited from the sacrifices of those that have come before him to literally spit on their graves. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people both black and white have died in this country in an effort to bring equality for all people.
In an interview at training camp on Friday Prescott had this to say, “I never protest. I never protest during the anthem, and I don’t think that’s the time or the venue to do so. The game of football has always brought me such peace, and I think it does the same for a lot of people—a lot of people playing the game, a lot of people watching the game, a lot of people who have any impact of the game—so when you bring such controversy to the stadium, to the field, to the game it takes away. It takes away from that, it takes away from the joy and the love that football brings a lot of people.”
Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott: I’d never protest during the anthem, and I don’t think that’s the time or the venue to do so pic.twitter.com/2xbb2NnhIJ
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) July 28, 2018
Without protests that angered the masses, Dak Prescott wouldn’t be playing in the NFL today. He wouldn’t be playing in an integrated league and he darn sure wouldn’t be the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys in TEXAS of all places. It was protests that eventually allowed him to attend Mississippi State University. Let me say that again, he started quarterback at Mississippi State University in Starksville, Mississippi. You don’t think that was as a result of somebody protesting and losing their lives for him to even attend Miss State?
While he’s standing in front of the media giving Fox and Friends something to circulate to their audience to try to show people, “Here’s a black man that gets it and agrees with us about these players disrespecting the flag.”
Ole Dak must not know his history and that on September 30, 1962 a riot broke out on the campus of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) as James Meredith, a black man, became the first to integrate the school. That was before Miss State allowed folks that looked like him to get in.
It has been protests that have opened the doors of opportunity in a country that, by law, kept black folks from advancing in all walks of life. It was protests that sped up the process of getting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. It has been the art of protest that forced the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and many more laws and regulations granted opportunities in this country for black folks.
So to stand in front of cameras and act like protesting for the betterment of his own people is something to look down upon is asinine. Sure, if he doesn’t want to be the guy that does it (protest) that’s his decision. But to act like there is no place for it is crazy. He sounds like he’s been to the “Clarence Thomas School of Selling Out.”
Justice Thomas got all the way to the Supreme Court as a direct benefit of affirmative action that he later tried to denounce once he made it to the Supreme Court. Dak is acting like he got to the NFL without many of the same protests that he’s speaking out against.
It took people like, the Black 14, Colin Kaepernick and others over the course of our history to make the necessary sacrifices so that guys like Dak could play the game that they love and live in a society that treats them fairly. Sure, there have and always will be casualties of war in the fight against injustice. Kaepernick has essentially given up his career in an effort to make life better for others coming behind him.
It may not seem like it at this moment but years from now there will be a lot of people thanking Kaepernick for at least bringing attention to the issue of police brutality, racial and social injustice.
Keep in mind that America hated Martin Luther King Jr. for leading protests all throughout the south during the Civil Rights Movement which ultimately got him killed. Now he’s one of the most loved martyrs our country has ever known. People told him to protest on his own time and to get out of the streets etc. However, if the players protested on their own time it wouldn’t be a protest now would it?
My respect for Dak Prescott has disappeared because his comments lead me to believe that he thinks that he’s beyond facing police brutality, racial and social injustice in this country. He believes that people being happy at the game is more important than people dying at the hands of the police and having to deal with racial and social injustice and he’s a black man.
How is it that we can spend the entire month of October bringing awareness to breast cancer, do commercials all over the NFL on the issue of Domestic Violence. However, when it comes to discussions about police brutality, racial and social injustice everybody and their baby’s momma wants the NFL to concentrate on football and football only? And the quarterback of America’s team is trying to get us to believe that all of that makes sense. Stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.
2) Ole boy: noun – the person that I’m currently talkin’ about.