In a radio interview, Mike Ditka, former NFL tight end and coach for the Chicago Bears, gave his thoughts on players kneeling during the anthem. He said that oppression has suddenly “become a big deal.” “Maybe I’m not watching it as carefully as other people.” He also said that oppression ended in 1917, which is an embarrassing lie. The fact that Ditka thinks that oppression ended a long time ago is precisely why the players are kneeling. They are kneeling to make people more aware of the mistreatment that black people go through in America.
Ditka’s opinion on the NFL protestors is sadly a reflection of the ignorance about United States history infecting much of the country. Ditka was 16 when Rosa Parks was arrested. He was 23 years old during the March on Washington in 1963. When Mike Ditka played for Chicago, Martin Luther King was there protesting against housing discrimination. Ditka’s final all-pro season as tight end with the Bears was the same year that the Civil Rights Act was passed. He was 29 when Martin Luther King was assassinated. NFL players protest to bring attention to the injustice of black people in this country that people don’t pay attention to. It is absolutely ridiculous that the Civil Rights Era was happening while Mike Ditka was alive and he didn’t even acknowledge it!
Most people don’t acknowledge the mistreatment of black people in our current times. 1 in 3 black men will spend time in prison at some point in their lives. 1 in every 13 black men aged 30-34 was in prison in 2011, versus 1 in 90 white men in the same age group. Black people are 3 times as likely to be searched than white people during traffic stops and twice as likely to be arrested. Of the population under 18, African Americans made up 17% of the total, 30 % of those arrested, 62% of those tried in adult criminal courts. Being tried as adults leads to longer and more severe sentences.
Despite studies that show black and white people use and deal drugs at equal levels, black people make up 37% of the people arrested for drug offenses. Once they get out of prison, black people are 3 times more likely to be disenfranchised than white people. White men with recent criminal records are far more likely to receive callbacks for job interview than black men with no criminal record at all. In this way, we already treat black people like felons. Black people are twice as likely as white people to be unemployed. This was also the same in 1954. The median wealth of white families is 13 times more than black families. A contributing factor is that white people are almost twice as likely to own a home, one of the country’s best paths to building wealth.
Just because you are unaware of the injustice in this country, doesn’t mean it’s not taking place.
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