Taking his statements apart, he is concerned about racism and injustice. In America, as everywhere, those things do exists, and we should do what we can to reduce them. Reading through his further expressions, which include phrases like "dead bodies in the streets," it is clear that he is speaking rather specifically about the purportedly unjustified and disproportionate killing of African-Americans by the police.
He avoids saying that as a categorical condemnation, but what else fits his descriptions? He has adopted the narrative of activists, that there is longstanding police oppression, perhaps worsening, of African-Americans.
Except there isn't, and it's not that hard to show if one looks at the numbers rather than the anecdotes. I think Colin Kaepernick is likely to be well-meaning, has some courage, and wants to use his popularity on behalf of others who have none. Nonetheless what he has done is ultimately damaging, because he prefers not to think too hard. Increasing the cultural belief of African-Americans that the police are against them and want to kill them has a certain self-fulfilling nature. At a minimum, it lessens the chance that they will cooperate with police investigations of crimes in their own neighborhoods, which is the theme of Jill Leovy's Ghettoside. Which means more dead black people.
This is why media bias is important, and not just something that is inconvenient for conservative political candidates. At its worst, it means more innocent dead people.
At a minimum, it lessens the chance that they will cooperate with police investigations of crimes in their own neighborhoods, which is the theme of Jill Leovy's Ghettoside.
ReplyDeleteAVI, are you trying to shame me? That has been on my bookshelf for a while, but not read. I recently read Alice Goffman's On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City about a black neighborhood in Philadelphia. Goffman seems to imply that increased police attention to the neighborhood- which even police say is far from the worst neighborhood in the city- leads to more people getting criminal records- can't deal one's dope in peace- resulting in many in the neighborhood being on the run. Some make it, some don't. I can't say I agree with her comparing Jim Crow laws to the War on Crime. I was surprised at how readily Goffman was accepted in the neighborhood, but based on my experience, I shouldn't have been so surprised.
From what I have read, Kaepernick was a good student, but nowadays that probably means facility at rehashing the leftist catechism his profs dished out, at least for non-STEM courses. At this stage, even if he looked at the appropriate numbers, he probably wouldn't change his stance, as that would mean he was backing down.
Furthermore, those who believe in the "killer cop" meme probably would get up in arms if one were to mention murder rates, for example. But 99.99%[whatever] of blacks don't murder, they would reply. But 99.99% of blacks are not killed by cops, the numbers person replies. You are trying to minimize the situation, comes the reply.
It turns out that Mr. Quarterback has a lot to say. We shouldn't write him off so quickly. From the transcript of his conversation with the press:
ReplyDeleteCK: You have Hillary who has called black teens or black kids super predators, you have Donald Trump who’s openly racist. We have a presidential candidate who has deleted emails and done things illegally and is a presidential candidate. That doesn’t make sense to me because if that was any other person you’d be in prison. So, what is this country really standing for?
His "none of the above" stance once described my political stance.
You, good sir, are truly a fine example of Christian charity. To give such credit to CK ('well meaning') when he is so obviously competing to snipe the Village Idiot job away from you is a testament to your bon homme.
ReplyDeleteCK has had plenty of opportunity to avail himself of the facts in this matter, yet he has stuck to his counterfactual narrative. Given the obvious stress this has placed on his teammates, team, and fans, "well meaning" is not a description he deserves.