Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Barely a week into February and Black History Month is ablaze, be it Beyoncé’s record Grammy wins, LeBron’s record scoring or the unprecedented Super Bowl matchup between Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts.
Good times for sure. Unless we’re talking about enemies of Black history.
Those whitewashers in Florida and elsewhere seek to eliminate — or severely diminish — the story of Black people, places and events. They don’t want any teaching or learning about our long “dark” past, which is merely replete with direct and indirect connections to everyone’s right now.
If we dare mention that, say, Mahomes and Hurts are the first Black quarterbacks to meet in a Super Bowl, the reddest-hot haters accuse us of spreading “critical race theory.” They misappropriate MLK and deny they ever see color, blaming everything on “baiters” who point out racial disparities … like the fact that one of 57 Super Bowls will feature two Black starting QBs.
The haters really boiled in 2007, when Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith coached against each other in Super Bowl 41. A Black coach had never reached the big game, but then two did it in the same season! It took a while because Dungy was just the fourth Black coach in the NFL’s modern era (Smith was the seventh; Art Shell was first, in 1989).
Mainstream media do devote some time and space to report on the NFL’s racial progress and lack…
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