American Thinker . . . "Shelby Steele has an interesting take on the "Take a Knee" protest by African-American NFL players, "Black Protest Has Lost Its Power"
"Steele writes that protests have been an effective tactic for black Americans from the Montgomery bus rides to Selma through the massive 1963 March on Washington. Two aspects of such protests were that they 1) involved risk and great sacrifice and 2) were aimed at real injustices. They were also highly effective in advancing freedom, a critical point we'll come back to.
"None of this holds true for the Take a Kneers. There was no risk involved to these millionaire sportsmen. Some may have had their feelings and sense of entitlement bruised by the negative reaction from fans, but the money kept rolling in. So did the adulation in the mainstream media." . . .
. . . "The mandate that freedom leads to accountability is what causes the black community to believe the lie that white racism hovers over it like an all-encompassing fog and that freedom for blacks, if it exists at all, then it is at least severely curtailed. As Steele puts it:
That's why in the face of freedom's unsparing judgmentalism, we reflexively claim that freedom is a lie. We conjure elaborate narratives to give white racism new life in the present: systematic and 'structural' racism, racist 'microaggressions,' 'white privilege,' and so on. All these narratives insist that blacks are still victims of racism, and that freedom's accountability is an injustice.
"The NFL protests are not about injustice. They are 'genuflections to today's victim-focused black identity.' ' . . . "Steele sees the antics of Black Lives Matter as people literally aspiring for black victimization, longing for it, as a way of confirming their self-identity and excusing their shortcomings. " . . .
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