In a video appearance with what appeared to be his entire team standing next to him and behind him, Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill said that the “United States of America was founded upon racist ideas.”
The video was made to explain the Titans decision to not hold practice on Thursday in the wake of the officer-involved shooting of Jacob Blake. The opening comments are made by the Titans’ Kevin Byard, who spoke about a litany of “injustices” that he believes black people face in this country. However, at about 1:50 mark of the video, Tannehill begins speaking and makes it clear that he believes the United States itself was founded “upon racist ideas” and that those racist ideals are alive and well today.
The Titans were one of several NFL teams that chose not to practice on Thursday, in response to the Blake shooting. Though, Tannehill’s butchering of American history and regurgitating of extremely liberal talking points stand apart from the relatively mild statements that most teams released.
As Miami Herald columnist Armando Salguero said in response to critical sports writers, “ideas upon which America was founded…freedom of speech, religion, peaceable assembly, right to bear arms, all men created equal. Now you name the racist ideas upon which country was founded.”
The country was not founded on slavery because slavery was already present when America was a colony of Britain. In fact, there were a large number of people in Southern states – where nearly all the slaves were – who preferred continuing life as colonists and had no interest in fighting a war for independence.
Therefore, America did not need independence from Britain to preserve or secure an institution that was already in place and not, at least at that time, under serious threat. Instead, as Salguero rightly says, America needed independence so its citizens could have freedom of speech, religion, the right to bear arms, and all the other essential rights a citizen of Great Britain did not have.
Though, despite the colossal ignorance of Tannehill’s critique of America’s founding, it’s his criticism of America’s present and near past that deserves the harshest rebuke. By saying “those (racist) ideas of slavery have persisted throughout the last hundreds of years,” Tannehill eviscerates the legacy of Martin Luther King and dozens of other civil rights leaders who gave their lives to conquer segregation and improve opportunities for blacks. People who sacrificed to make sure America lived up to the ideals of its founding.
And now, here comes this millionaire moron to soil that legacy while he takes the “courageous stand” of skipping a practice?
The image of Tannehill talking about how racist and unfair America has been to black people while standing in a room packed with black millionaires is beyond absurd. The National Football League has likely created more black millionaires than any other country or institution in world history, and, prior to the coronavirus, blacks who didn’t play professional sports were enjoying historically low unemployment and record opportunity under the very president so many of the players -black and white – claim to dislike.
It’s unclear what these millionaire jocks think they’re going to accomplish towards fixing racism by skipping a practice. What’s becoming more and more clear, however, is that there will likely be less fans in the stands watching them when they play their games.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn
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