How Long? L-O-N-G

While I’m no football historian, I do know the game and a few stats, I’m not a betting man so all bets aside, GO CHIEFS 2023! I’ll be parked in front of my flat screen on Sunday like millions of other football fans getting my fill of hot wings, trash-talk, and hyperbole, that’s just what we do. And there’s always that moment of deep side conversations, they don’t last long because nobody wants to engage in a deep and wide conversation that can’t be wrapped up by the fourth quarter or any quarter. And nobody wants to be taken from highs to low lows, the game in itself is enough. The conversation is almost like a game play, shoot that gap and be out. That’s how the subject of race in America is played.

Go Deep! Black folks have been going deep for a while in hopes that one day they’ll catch equality and justice. Go Long! I can hear Dr. King’s speech in which he poses the question “How long? Not long.” Some would disagree, some would even say enough is enough, but I say hold on. Hold on to the hope and the dreams of our forefathers. Hold on to the vision and the promise because a handsome ransom was paid for a people left blind, deaf, and speechless through years of attrition. Put on your athletic prowess for which you are known by and endure the course of the race. This race isn’t given to the swift, but to those who endure.

Basketball legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, asked the question “What took so long?” in regards to former NFL coach Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL for racial discrimination.  It’s no secret that racism knows no boundaries and rears its ugly head whenever it wants. Caught on camera, caught on tape, caught on
“hot” mics, caught on old transcripts, just plain caught red-handed. And yet racism goes free, it’s as if racism wears a blinding armor and makes a deafening shrill that makes people run in the opposite direction with blinded eyes and ringing ears, and too fearful to ever speak against it.

This may be the final round before racism is captured, stripped, and placed in eternal chains. Football, America’s favorite pastime, superseding baseball, is on the hot seat. It was the game that said to the State of Arizona in 1991, no MLK Day – no Super Bowl. It was the game that said to Colin Kaepernick, kneel if you must, but you will not interrupt this great game. And now, here comes the game changer, allegations of not only racism, but the fix. Oh, I think it’s game on! I wonder how this will be deflated?

Stay tuned and enjoy the game.

Best regards,

Clifton Campbell
Executive Director & CEO