Jennifer Moore

So Cam Newton showed his behind this week.  He told a reporter that he found her question about running routes funny because she’s a “female.”  I will allow Twitter and other forms of social media to drag him accordingly (as he should be dragged) given that nonsense of a statement that not only left his brain, but traveled through his lips and out his mouth via a chuckle.  Nor am I paying attention to his insincere apology.  The Internet has already said what needs to be said about his commentary including calling out the racist comments made by the same reporter who went to the Internet and called foul on Cam…I see you too girl.  I am both black and a cis-woman.  Intersectionality is a thing.  Look it up.  

I, however, am reserving my continued beef and read for the NFL and their shenanigans.  They quickly put out a statement through their spokesperson Brian McCarthy that Cam’s words, “are just plain wrong and disrespectful to the exceptional female reporters and all journalists who cover our league. They do not reflect the thinking of the league.”

Clearly, the NFL is batting clean-up with these statements.  Yet their batting average is .000.  Their past and current actions do very little to support their belief that gender inequality is “wrong” and “disrespectful.”  Rather its more of a PR stunt to distance themselves from sexist behavior by one of their employees.  Its easy to drag a player when hoards of folks are already doing so.  Just likes its easy to take a knee as a team of players, owners and coaches when 45 tries to challenge an owner’s power to do as they like with their players.  (I can’t even with this…I just have to leave this commentary for another day). 

“The NFL like so many other institutions become complicit in maintaining sexism as a system of oppression…”

Here’s what seems clear.  The NFL is only about their paper—women be damned, black people be damned.  Because there are many incidents of public record that involves sexual assault allegations (see: Ben Roethlisberger) and domestic violence situations in which the NFL Commissioner gives players either a slap on the wrist or a harsher punishment when folks cry foul (see: Ray Rice).  From 2012-2014 alone, there were 33 incidents that occurred that included domestic violence, battery and murder, with half the victims being women.  Yet even POST the NFL’s updated policies to combat violence against women, including domestic and sexual violence, the NFL has failed to pay attention to its own updated language.  Language that unequivocally states its a “privilege to be part of the National Football League” and that “everyone who is part of the league must refrain from conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the NFL.”  Because somehow wonders and coaches still recruited and signed individuals with incidents of domestic and sexual violence on their records just this past year.  

The NFL like so many other institutions become complicit in maintaining sexism as a system of oppression by willfully ignoring or responding in ways that are problematic that ultimately sanctions this messed up behavior due to their weak response.  Behavior that has its roots in patriarchy which deem identity markers like cis/trans women, femininity, feminine, and femaleness as “lesser than” simply because of one’s sex and/or gender expression.  It makes it socially acceptable that anyone within these identity categories are targets of verbal, psychic, physical and/or sexual abuse and violence— a notion built into cultural, institutional, and structural fabric of society.  And to those who want respond with the counter argument that women are violent and target men too, #stopyourself. Then do your homework and review the CDC’s report that homicide was the number 1 killer women nearly half of homicide victims were killed by a former or current male partner.

Yet the NFL is not about truly ending sexism and the violence that helps to maintains it; any more than are they committed to addressing racial inequality, criminal justice reform and police violence.  Rather owners and coaches are about ensuring capital keeps rolling their happy behinds into the seats and cheering on their respective teams.  Once again, women be damned, Black folks be damned. Therefore this Black, multi-racial feminist is not here for more false platitudes about sexism having no place in the NFL.  Clearly it has a place.  A special reserved place, center field, on the 50-yard line.  

Today marks a major event. Solar eclipse 2017 is occurring across the continental United States. When listening to mainstream media reporters discuss this moment, I heard someone (ignorantly) suggest that it offers the chance for unity and for us to come together. Before I get into that let me be unequivocal in my support of the sciences and the pursuit of knowledge, especially in a country that now prides itself on ignorance in the form of #alternativefacts and #fakenews. As an educator it makes my heart sing to see children (and adults) excited to see our cosmos at work. However, we can certainly walk and chew gum at the same time, and this event CANNOT replace the very real unity work that people are doing to fight against systemic racism and its roots in white supremacy.

The media’s and society's desire to move on to a more positive story and call for “unity” certainly feels good because it allows us to the escape the ugly past and present of this country, to turn away from its blinding reality because it’s too painful to watch. It allows us to turn away from the fact that just a week before the eclipse, in Charlottesville, white terrorists marched through the streets and a woman who was protesting was murdered (I know that “murdered” is a legal term but I’m using it here intentionally). It allows us to ignore the vicious beating Deandre Harris experienced by avowed white supremacists. Calls for unity ignore how this is an opportunity to teach ourselves and our children – because our educational system did not – about the history of white supremacist groups in America. Great number of resources exist for educators to teach about the history of the KKK and to contextualize the march through Charlottesville. Examples like, “Violence, the KKK, and the Struggle Equality,” “Birth of the Ku Klux Klan,” “History of the Klan,” “Testimonies Leading to the Ku Klux Lean Act of 1871,” and “Why I Quit the Klan” are lesson plans educators can use—all of which are included in Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development.

Emphasizing the eclipse as a unifying moment allows us to have a Pollyanna view of the world – the view that if we just “unite” it will end the physical, psychic, institutional and structural violence against people of color and other marginalized communities committed in the name of white supremacy. It ignores the fact that racist and racist-adjacent behavior is sanctioned by our current government, and that white supremacist violence remains white folks’ response to advancement by people of color. For more evidence of this check out Dr. Carol Anderson’s well documented book White Rage.

As we revel in this solar eclipse, why not use it as an opportunity to learn about and celebrate the unsung heroes who have contributed to our ability to participate in this moment? Who are all the scientists that helped get us here—in particular, the Black and Brown, differently abled, working class, intersex, immigrant, and/or queer scientists? Their stories are not mainstream, but they exist. It’s important to acknowledge that the work of folks from a wide variety of backgrounds contributed to our ability to know the exact time that the full eclipse would occur in South Dakota or Oregon or at any of the other watch centers (some of which are CHARGING money for tickets <insert side eye to #capitalism here>). Movies like Hidden Figures teach us that some stories are indeed erased and therefore we must mine for them. It’s important to acknowledge the range of people who have contributed to this moment so that we do not continually hold up examples of cis-gendered white males, such as Bill Nye the Science Guy, as the only examples of “real” scientists (but no shade to Bill; he played an integral role in my understanding of science as young child).

This eclipse is a teachable moment to do more than offer weak platitudes of unity. It is an opportunity to offer concrete examples of real unity equity that include challenging white supremacy by acknowledging the collective contributions of people from diverse backgrounds to the discipline of science.

Otherwise we will have ignorant politicians like Steven King touting on MSNBC that only white people have contributed to civilization (yup, you read that right). Let’s know better, so that we can do better and be better.