Paul Finebaum, a 61-year-old white man from Tennessee, has thoughts about Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest and the motivation for it. Would you guess that the ESPN college football analyst’s opinion is:
A) smart, empathetic and attempts to understand the plight of the average black person in the United States.
B) dismisses the notion that black people are oppressed in any way in current day America.
Of course the answer is B! You read the headline.
The latest Kaepernick take from a skinny Hank Kingsley with none of the charm skips past the standard “respect the flag” and “that wasn’t the proper way to make your point” takes, and goes right to the “black people have it great” take. Awful Announcing captured all the delusional glory from Finebaum’s radio show and appearance on an ESPN show that’s probably on in the middle of the day.
First, the radio show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEzjfGZZHXk
“This country has issues, but this country is not oppressing black people.”
Then on College Football Mid-Day Programming Today (honestly, does anyone know the names of any show on ESPN that airs in the afternoon before Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption?), Finebaum, of course, did say Kaepernick’s protest was disrespectful.
“I think it’s totally disrespectful to sit,” Finebaum said. “And others have said it and will continue to say it, for the men and women that have given their lives for this country. Having said that, I think Colin has every right to do whatever he wants, and that’s what makes America the country that it is. Disrespectful, yes, but well within his rights.”
Former wide receiver and current black person Joey Galloway had just about enough at this point.
“There has to be a platform to create conversation, and I don’t know that Colin Kaepernick could have done a better job of creating conversation to deal with some of the issues that are going on,” Galloway said. “It is very easy to say I disagree with doing it at that time, but I don’t know that there’s a better time that would catch the eye of America and say ‘There’s something we need to talk about here.’ And not just focused on the fact he said that, but more focused on the reason why he did it.”
Finebaum flailed one last time.
“Usually people protest when they’ve been oppressed, when they have a legitimate stake in the action. I don’t know where Colin is coming from. What’s his beef with society, other than he’s upset with how, in his mind, people are being oppressed in this country?”
So it’s bad for Kaepernick to do this, since he is very wealthy and, in Finebaum’s eyes, not oppressed, therefore it’s something that doesn’t apply to him. But it’s okay for Finebaum, who is not a soldier who fought for the freedoms of America, to express displeasure with perceived disrespect toward soldiers?
Anyway, you get it. More bad Kaepernick takes. But during the course of writing this, I may have come up with a way to make these “black people aren’t oppressed by America” stories over the past week tolerable. Someone needs to design a plug-in that changes “oppressed” to “impressed” in these stories to make them read properly.
“Black people aren’t impressed by America.”
“Finebaum: America isn’t impressing black people.”
“Kaepernick, who is not impressed in any way, shape or form, sits for national anthem.”
Someone get on that. Thanks.
