The O.G.’s always said, “Don’t talk about it, be about it playboy! Shut up and put up! If you’re gonna be around you better be ready to throw down.” The young thunder cats on the block gave it to us like this, “Don’t run up on your momma’s porch and talk a big game come down on the side walk and say that. Then the real homies put it where the goats could get it when they spit, “It’s easy to talk a big game when you never have to play it.”
Well playas…the U.S. Hockey World Cup coach, John Tortorella, made news this week for tellin’ boyz that if a player on his team tried to sit for the National Anthem they would sit for the entire game. Not only did the dun say it but he tried to get jiggy with it! When boyz asked him if he would back off of that stance his response Wednesday was, “I’m not backing off!” He went on to say, “I’ll tell you right now. Try to understand me. I’m not criticizing anybody for stepping up and putting their thoughts out there about things. I’m the furthest thing away from being anything political. No chance I’m involved in that stuff.”
Then the dun got comfortable tellin’ boyz how he feels when said, “Listen, We’re in a great country because we can express ourselves. And I am not against expressing yourselves. That’s what’s great about our country. We can do that. But when there are men and women that give their lives for their flag, for their anthem, have given their lives, continue to put themselves on the line with our services for our flag, for our anthem, families that have been disrupted, traumatic physical injuries, traumatic mental injuries for these people that give us the opportunity to do the things we want to do, there’s no chance an anthem and a flag should come into any type of situation where you’re trying to make a point. It is probably the most disrespectful thing you can do as a U.S. citizen is to bring that in. Because that’s our symbol. All for [expressing] yourself. That’s what’s so great. Everybody does. But no chance when it comes to the flag and the anthem. No chance.”
Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! It’s real easy to talk that strong game when you never have to put on a uniform and play. His entire roster looks like him. There isn’t a single brother on the team. So therefore, he doesn’t have to worry about a boy jumpin’ off of the deep end of the pool and makin’ him back his words up. So it’s easy to get jiggy with the press. If 70 percent of his roster were black and understood the real issues at play he wouldn’t be talkin’ so strong.
He knows that not one person in that locker room is goin’ to protest anything that doesn’t directly effect them. Why would they? I wouldn’t. They aren’t goin’ to jump into a cause that would create resentment among other players and fans because most players and fans look like them and don’t have a dog in that fight. It’s easy not to care when it doesn’t directly affect you.
So for this dun to talk strong is nothin’ but a boy show boatin’ for the cameras. He’s tryin’ to get some TV time out of the deal. He’s no different than the cat on the block that always shows up after the fight talkin’ about “Man I wish they were still out here! I’ll put my foot in their butts!” Funny thing is, he’s never around when the fights are goin’ on. He ALWAYS shows up after the fact. That’s Tortorella bruh.
I bet none of these NBA or NFL coaches would say some mess like that. Why? Because it’s completely disrespectful to the people that have been directly effected by the very racism Kaepernick is protestin’. That same symbol, same song, same anthem that Tortorella is givin’ props to is the same symbol, same song, same anthem that said that it was permissible to enslave human beings, kill those same human beings in the second verse of that song in which we don’t sing and literally and lawfully deny the survivors of those same human beings the right to live, eat and be educated freely in this country for most of this country’s history. When the United States Constitution was actually signed on September 17, 1787 everybody that looked like Colin Kaepernick were considered 3/5’s of a man and they were slaves.
So if Kaepernick is protestin’ the very substance of that symbol, song and anthem because he’s got the constitutional right to do so then this jack leg coach is the one that’s being utterly disrespectful. Now a whole lot of boyz will read this joint and holler that I’m bein’ racist because I simply told you that this coach is out of order. Here’s the problem playboy. You first have to understand what bein’ racist actually is. Stop bein’ ignorant. You’re too old not to know the difference.
Bein’ racist is to use the power that you have to keep someone else for progressing because of their race. To deny opportunities that include employment, housing, education, the ability to vote that has huge ramifications on policies that shape our legal system etc. When the power of people are denied because of race the laws are drawn up unequally because that group of people aren’t fairly represented in a supposedly democratic society. That’s racism bruh. Me tellin’ you that things aren’t fair and that there should be changes made to make things equal isn’t racism bruh. That’s simply bein’ conscious of what’s goin’ on and callin’ a boy out on it. Keep in mind that people called Martin Luther King Jr. and duns like Muhammad Ali racists too.
Racism is me havin’ to grow up in the middle of the ghetto in Gary, Indiana when my parents could have easily afforded for us to live in the suburbs. My father was a registered pharmacist that was the Assistant Director of Pharmacy at the local hospital and my mother was an elementary school teacher. However, in the early 1970’s we weren’t allowed to live in the suburbs because of the housing discrimination laws that existed. Don’t talk to me about racism playboy. I know it all too well.
All people want is to be treated fairly. So if Kaepernick and other athletes decide that in order to increase the awareness of the injustice that is continuin’ to happen in this country is to sit or kneel for the National Anthem, then that’s what it is. Why? Because the 1st Amendment says that they have that right. And will somebody tap this ole dull hockey coach on the shoulder and tell that dun to read the constitution and then find out what FREEDOM OF SPEECH actually means. Then have him go talk to some real veterans and ask him why they put their lives on the line? And he’ll find out that the reason they all fight is to make sure the very freedom Kaepernick is exercisin’ is available to him! Stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Spit: verb – to say
2) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.
3) Put it where the goats can get it: verb phrase – to make it as elementary as possible. To put it at ground level so everyone can understand it.