HOW CHRIS LONG BECAME THE ONLY WHITE NFL PLAYER TO JOIN NATIONAL ANTHEM PROTEST

FROM THINK PROGRESS

"Long’s gesture came a day after Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett urged white athletes to get involved.

Bennett, who has been sitting during anthems, said on SportsCenter that that “it would take a white player to really get things changed.”

“It would change the whole conversation,” he added. “Because when you bring somebody who doesn’t have to be a part of [the] conversation making himself vulnerable in front of it, I think when that happens, things will really take a jump.”

After Thursday’s game, Long — a native of Charlottesville, Virginia....

“I’ve said before that I’ll never kneel for an anthem because the flag means something different for everybody in this country, but I support my peers,” Long added. “If you don’t see why you need allies for people that are fighting for equality right now, I don’t think you’ll ever see it… Malcolm is a leader and I’m here to show support as a white athlete.” " 

Read More: 

https://thinkprogress.org/chris-long-becomes-first-white-nfl-player-to-participate-in-national-anthem-protest-36d8fa2803b1/

If Long has children right now, they may see him as mildly brave or very brave right now. Who knows? But it will likely be his grandchildren that will find his history heroic because I'm guesstimating that it generally takes 30 to 40 years for white people, as a group, to look back at obvious white supremacy and call the problem "white supremacy"

And that's if they don't erase the white supremacy of the past with "that's just the way it was back then."

Yet, 30 to 40 years from now when he's seen as hero for standing up and away from 98% of his own tribe, that tribal white majority who failed abysmally by not seeing why people of color "are fighting for equality right now" will not be seen as zeros.

And that irks me.

It makes me itch that the old white people running around here right now who failed to be on the right side of the Civil Rights Movement were never identified as "zeros" like they should be. 

And the zeros I'm talking about are not just the Kluxers  and Aryan Nation and such. I'm talking about the zeroes at home who angrily wondered why the black and brown folks were leaving law and order behind and causing a ruckus by participating in a sit-in.

These white zeros represent a significant slice of those who voted for Trump and have been the majority of those who voted for Trump if most them weren't (likely) dead already of old age.

I'm not a sports watching person. I don't know Long at all. And I was reluctant to even imply that Long is a "hero" for basic decency. And that's all I think he's done here -- execute basic decency. But it takes some real courage to pull away from your own demographic, your own tribe, and maybe even portions of your own family.

Pulling away from the normalcy of everyday white supremacy that most white people don't even see due to a fairly deliberate and comfortable apathy is not nothing. That takes courage. That takes a lot of heart. 

And heart is what's missing in 95% of the white folk people in this country.

So I'll call Long "a hero" for now.

And I'll call Michael Bennett "a hero" for now too.

Bennett pulled away from the vast majority of black people --even black women-- by asking for help outside our race. Black folks have been burned so many times by "good" deliberately apathetic white people that we are afraid to trust anyone with our vulnerability. And I do mean "afraid." 

We are afraid of even considering --even CONSIDERING-- for even a moment that we might have a few true allies outside our race.  

A bell tolled announcing a New Civil Rights Movement on the day of THE TRAYVON MARTIN VERDICT when three black feminists named Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors created BLACK LIVES MATTER. May there be more white heroes than zeros this time around.