In the weeks leading up to Brian Williams being given the reins to a full-time show again, MSNBC has been rotating hosts for its 11:00 p.m. Eastern hour. On Monday, it was Chris Hayes’s turn with panelists arguing that critics of 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kapernick are all white and fail to realize that black people aren’t free at all in today’s America.
Right off the start of a segment, panelist and ESPN host Bomani Jones ruled that he’s never seen such a racial divide on a sports issue “in the last couple of years...but not divided in such a way where every white person is on the opposite side of Colin Kaepernick.”
That being said, however, Jones wildly asserted that “all the people who seem to be vehemently opposed to what he said do appear to be white” and ignored the fact that, if you take into account just current and retried NFL players, non-white players like Victor Cruz, Jerry Rice, Tiki Barber, and even Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera seemed uneasy at Kaepernick’s choice.
Fellow panelist and Fordham University professor Christina Greer lamented earlier that Anthony Weiner probably won’t be play Donald Trump in Hillary Clinton’s debate prep anymore, but here she attempted to tie Kaepernick to Muhammad Ali’s stand against the U.S. government in the Vietnam War:
Let's also be clear, modern day athletes don't necessarily speak up the way I think that they could and should, but we come from a long line of black athletes who have chosen to protest in various ways. Jackie Robinson didn't stand up during the anthem. We have, you know, Jim Brown. We have Kareem Abdual Jabar. We have Muhammad Ali who everyone seems to celebrate in death but not necessarily in life[.]
Greer also found a way to invoke Trump in the conversation by going way over the line by suggesting that Trump’s comments on Kaepernick could be extrapolated to mean that all black people should go back to Africa if they’re not satisfied with America: “I mean, listening, Donald Trump, his minor dog whistle was essentially well, said if you don't like it, go back to Africa. That's essentially what I may have heard.”
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Later, Greer worked her way back into the discussion when she objected to this seemingly innocent conclusion by Hayes that Kaepernick is entitled to his opinions: “And my hot take is like literally, it's a free country. Like, you know, I guess I understand there is people and I’ve heard from them and I’ve seen people who feel offended by it because they feel like it's an act of disrespect.”
Before Hayes could proceed any further, Greer cut him off to educate him that the idea of a “free country” doesn’t necessary apply to African-Americans and pointed to the reaction to the Ryan Lochte’s lying scandal by society versus critics of gymnast Gabby Douglas not placing her hand on her heart for the National Anthem:
But this is the tension of America. It's a free country but for whom? So when a black man who makes millions of dollars has the audacity to exercise his right as a black man, as a man in this country, then all of a sudden, we have these conversations of how disrespectful it is. We saw this with Gabby Douglas having a totally different conversation than we had Ryan Lochte who’s a boy at 32 years old and a woman who chooses not to put her hand on her heat. That’s her prerogative.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes on August 29 can be found below.
MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes
August 29, 2016
11:35 p.m. Eastern
BOMANI JONES: Well, I mean, there is some divides on who receives this in what ways, right? Like I think the divide has been as much along racial lines as anything I've seen a topic in sports that I’ve dealt in the last couple of years but not divided in such a way where every white person is on the opposite side of Colin Kaepernick. That's the not case at all, but all the people who seem to be vehemently opposed to what he said do appear to be white.
(....)
CHRISTINA GREER: Let's also be clear, modern day athletes don't necessarily speak up the way I think that they could and should, but we come from a long line of black athletes who have chosen to protest in various ways. Jackie Robinson didn't stand up during the anthem. We have, you know, Jim Brown. We have Kareem Abdual Jabar. We have Muhammad Ali who everyone seems to celebrate in death but not necessarily in life, so I mean, if we’re going to have a real conversation about race and sport and sort of the role of black man, I mean, listening, Donald Trump, his minor dog whistle was essentially well, said if you don't like it, go back to Africa. That's essentially what I may have heard.
(....)
HAYES: There is the fact that, obviously from a branding perspective, the NFL puts a lot on their sort of patriotism and in fact, their what one might say military how they celebrate a specific type of patriotism. They were — there is a lot of controversy in the fact they were charging the Pentagon to do a lot of things that looked like actually just pro bono expressions of gratitude for veteran service, so this is also specific to the NFL puts interesting in that context.
(....)
HAYES: And my hot take is like literally, it's a free country. Like, you know, I guess I understand there is people and I’ve heard from them and I’ve seen people who feel offended by it because they feel like it's an act of disrespect and —
GREER: But this is the tension of America. It's a free country but for whom? So when a black man who makes millions of dollars has the audacity to exercise his right as a black man, as a man in this country, then all of a sudden, we have these conversations of how disrespectful it is. We saw this with Gabby Douglas having a totally different conversation than we had Ryan Lochte who’s a boy at 32 years old and a woman who chooses not to put her hand on her heat. That’s her prerogative.
