{"id":39411,"date":"2025-02-09T21:27:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T05:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=39411"},"modified":"2025-02-09T21:27:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T05:27:22","slug":"you-dont-have-to-follow-the-nfls-end-racism-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/02\/09\/you-dont-have-to-follow-the-nfls-end-racism-retreat\/","title":{"rendered":"You don\u2019t have to follow the NFL\u2018s \u2018End Racism\u2019 retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Marc%20Sandalow\">By Marc Sandalow | Examiner columnist |<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Feb 7, 2025\u00a0Updated\u00a0Feb 7, 2025 (SFExaminer.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/d\/e6\/de68f8b4-e57a-11ef-a0c8-ebde77554949\/67a64612bda50.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267\" alt=\"Cardinals 49ers Football\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>An \u201cEnd Racism\u201d sign is seen behind the south end zone as the San Francisco 49ers host the Arizona Cardinals in Santa Clara for an NFL football game in 2020.Scot Tucker\/Associated Press file<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If I can bring myself to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, I\u2019ll be thinking of a particular episode of \u201cThe Twilight Zone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/twilight-zone-its-a-good-life-episode\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201dIt\u2019s a Good Life,\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;which aired more than 60 years ago, features a young boy who has the power and inclination to kill, mutilate, burn or banish to the cornfield anyone who displeases him. When a neighbor defiantly sings a verse from \u201cYou Are My Sunshine\u201d \u2014 offending the child\u2019s delicate sensibilities \u2014 the boy transforms him into a jack-in-the-box, prompting the horrified townspeople, terrified they will be next, to tell the child what a wonderful thing he has done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s good what you\u2019ve done to Dan,\u201d they tell him. \u201cJust swell. That was really good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like the timid characters in Rod Serling\u2019s fictional town,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/google-ends-diversity-hiring-goals-reviews-dei-programs-2025-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">institutions across the country<\/a>&nbsp;are scrubbing any mention of their efforts to combat racism, prejudice and inaccessibility for fear of offending the new president\u2019s sensibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The National Football League is the latest to bow down, announcing the same day&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-attends-super-bowl-ae879e4f0a905b103e9059245f2887e2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">President Donald Trump said he\u2019d attend Sunday\u2019s game<\/a>&nbsp;in New Orleans that it would replace the phrase \u201cEnd Racism,\u201d \u2014 which has been stenciled into the end zone at each of the last four Super Bowls \u2014 with \u201cChoose Love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stenciling any message except team logos in the end zone seems silly to me. The instinct to cram propaganda \u2014 whether it be product advertising or popular groupthink \u2014 into anything that captures eyeballs is an annoyance. And I\u2019ve got nothing against choosing love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, to remove \u201cEnd Racism\u201d weeks after&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/fact-sheets\/2025\/01\/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-protects-civil-rights-and-merit-based-opportunity-by-ending-illegal-dei\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Trump ordered all government agencies<\/a>&nbsp;to end diversity, equity and inclusion policies and remove any mention from websites, reeks of knee-jerk fealty to the president\u2019s worst instincts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite Trump\u2019s innuendos, DEI done properly does not advance incompetence. The Federal Aviation Administration, for example, does not promote blind people or incompetent women to become air-traffic controllers. At the same time, if the applicant pool is two-thirds men, it stands to reason that encouraging more women to enter the field will boost the talent to choose from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A day before the announcement, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league would continue its DEI efforts.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6112317\/2025\/02\/04\/nfl-end-racism-super-bowl-dei-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The league insists<\/a>&nbsp;that the stencil removal has nothing to do with Trump but instead is in response to the California fires, New Orleans truck attack, and plane crashes in Washington and Philadelphia, all of which require love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Put me down as skeptical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if true, taking such a step this week creates the unmistakable impression that the NFL is bowing down to the misguided outbursts of a president who clings to the belief that encouraging diversity \u2014 a fundamental step in ending racism \u2014 is responsible for last month\u2019s tragedy, let alone an inefficient government and weak military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s reminiscent of The Washington Post announcing two weeks before the November election \u2014 with an editorial endorsing former Vice President Kamala Harris ready to go \u2014 that it would&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/style\/media\/2024\/10\/25\/washington-post-endorsement-president\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">no longer endorse presidential candidates<\/a>, only to see owner Jeff Bezos \u2014 whose other companies have&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2024\/10\/30\/bezos-business-federal-government\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">billions of dollars in government contracts<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 sitting just feet from Trump at his inauguration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/abc-trump-lawsuit-defamation-stephanopoulos-04aea8663310af39ae2a85f4c1a56d68\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ABC News agreeing to pay Trump $15 million<\/a>&nbsp;toward his presidential library settle a f<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/story\/media-donald-trump-paramount-disney-meta\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rivolous defamation lawsuit<\/a>&nbsp;many lawyers said they were at no risk of losing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s particularly troubling when it comes from the NFL, a multibillion-dollar enterprise that enriches its overwhelmingly white ownership through the exploits of its majority African American players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the same league that promoted its Monday Night Football games for years with a singer whose hits included \u201cIf the South Wouda Won,\u201d which fantasizes about the Confederacy winning the Civil War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The NFL also instituted a policy in 2018 requiring all players and staff to \u201cstand and show respect for the flag and the anthem\u201d when \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d is played. This was a direct response to the preponderance of players kneeling during the national anthem to protest the murder of Black men by police officers, a demonstration that former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick originated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cEnd Racism\u201d stencil was first displayed in the aftermath of the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd in 2020, and the further rise of the Black Lives Matter movement that year. Some Trump supporters have feigned outrage at the movement, insisting that \u201cAll Lives Matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course they do. That\u2019s beside the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are bumper stickers that read \u201cFight Cancer\u201d offensive? Of course not. They don\u2019t diminish the importance of ending AIDS or other diseases, just as \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d doesn\u2019t diminish the importance of all lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the end of \u201cThe Twilight Zone\u201d episode, the child has turned his family\u2019s pigs into monsters, burned a playmate, killed most of the town\u2019s dogs, and created a snowstorm that will kill half the town\u2019s crops. \u201cIt was a real good thing that he done that,\u201d his father says, as the scared people around him shake their heads in agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are not yet living in \u201cThe Twilight Zone.\u201d Trump won the election and has the authority to eliminate many of the executive branch\u2019s anti-racism policies. However, those outside the federal government are under no obligation to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump does not have the power to turn dissenters into jack-in-the-boxes or banish them to the cornfields. Not yet. We still live in a country where we are allowed to say \u201cEnd Racism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Marc Sandalow is a senior faculty member at the University of California\u2019s Washington Program. He has been writing about California politics from Washington, D.C., for more than 30 years.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If I can bring myself to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, I\u2019ll be thinking of a particular episode of \u201cThe Twilight Zone.\u201d \u201dIt\u2019s a Good Life,\u201d&nbsp;which aired more than 60 years ago, features a young boy who has the power and inclination to kill, mutilate, burn or banish to&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/02\/09\/you-dont-have-to-follow-the-nfls-end-racism-retreat\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39415,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39411\/revisions\/39415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}