Source: Joe Robbins / Getty
As a lifelong Eagles fan, I was bred to view the Dallas Cowboys as our rivals. But as a black man, I now dislike them even more, thanks to the hypocritical reaction of Cowboys leadership to NFL players who protest racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who has since been asked by the NFL to avoid talking about the anthem while the league tries to negotiate a solution with the players union, recently stirred the pot. He did so by declaring that the team’s players must stand with “toes on the line” during the anthem, regardless of the NFL’s policy.
Ironically, Jones once knelt with his players before the anthem in what was widely viewed as fake solidarity after President Trump criticized the protests. But Jones’ latest statements reminded me that team owners sometimes think and behave like slave owners. And when black Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott essentially backed Jones’ views by saying the anthem was not “the time or the venue” to protest, it reminded me that blacks sometimes adopt the mindset of our oppressors. Therein lies the problem.
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