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What I Don't Know

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I'm frustrated.

In the past days, I have been reading Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon. The book enumerates the crimes committed by Southern states, planters, and industry that effectively re-enslaved newly emancipated black Americans in the decades following the Civil War. A substantial portion of the book communicates the key defense used by attorneys representing white men who participated in this slave trade: that while the 13th amendment declared all slaves free, it did not make it illegal to hold slaves. The implication was clear: the federal government has no jurisdiction to punish anyone for holding individuals in a state of involuntary servitude. Queue the "Civil war wasn't about slavery, it was about states' rights" argument. Can everyone who believes the state of Alabama in the late 19th and early 20th century would actively prosecute wealthy white men for holding slaves please raise their hand? Anyone? Anyone at all...?

In the past weeks, California passed the Fair Pay to Play act. This bill rather simply forbids California universities from punishing student athletes for profiting off of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) and hiring agents. This stands directly in contrast to the longstanding NCAA tradition of forbidding athletes to monetize their skills as the same lines the bulging pocketbooks of universities and the NCAA alike. A couple of asinine ways these rules meant to preserve the integrity of the amateur college game have been enforced: A football player fined because an agent purchased him groceries, a placekicker forced to quit his team because he had a monetized YouTube channel about health and fitness where he identified himself as a college athlete, NCAA stopped permitting the creation of college sport video games because EA Sports wanted to compensate athletes for use of their NIL (as they do with all games they make). The majority of college athletes are black with no recourse to challenge the system in which they work. A bunch of fabulously wealthy predominantly white men profiting off the physically demanding labor of young black men sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it?

So this morning I am frustrated.

Frustrated that challenging transparently discriminatory and racist institutions is somehow "controversial."
Frustrated that the trio of elite, progressive schools I attended in and around a progressive metropolis never taught me that slavery persisted for decades after emancipation.
Frustrated that a younger me would have vigorously and ignorantly argued NCAA athletes needed to be happy with their lot in life.
Frustrated that had I lived in Alabama in the years after emancipation I would probably have been just as horrifyingly racist and oppressive as the abhorrent men I am reading about.
Frustrated that God created a world where this happens.
Frustrated that slavery and colonization was a vehicle by which Africans and black Americans alike were introduced to Christianity.
Frustrated at my ignorance of the things I'm learning.
Frustrated that I don't even know what other atrocities I don't know.

Frustrated that when I'm done with this post, I can go back to work and can live my privileged life and forget about all these injustices at my leisure.

I'm frustrated.

Comments

  1. JacarandaOctober 31, 2019 at 10:11 AM

    On a side note, it appears that the NCAA has reformed its rules on collegiate athletes profiting from their own name, image, and likeness. Have you looked into this change much? I have not had the chance to yet.

    ReplyDelete

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