Dear Sauce Gardner, Black People Cannot Afford to Be Apolitical — Andscape

Dear Sauce,

Before I get to you Latest Posts about politicsI need to share a quote you could not have heard. No, it is not from Amber Rose, whose appearance on the Republican National Convention gave the look of a cynical attempt to win over young black voters. But on the opening night of the convention Monday, Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina — the one black Republican within the Senate — said:

“America is not a racist country.”

He pressed this rhetoric for years. An enormous round of applause from the predominantly white crowd signed the statement — not since it was historically accurate, but since it soothed their senses. But Scott disparaged black people so as to gain the approval of those that actively work to curtail our rights (just Google Project 2025). While Scott’s statement is simple to refute, it’s also incredibly rude considering how much blood has soaked American soil due to racism. Without turning this right into a full-blown Tim Scott roast session, it’s an ideal jumping-off point for explaining why I’m writing to you in the primary place, Sauce.

It’s great to be right in life. It’s okay to be improper — so long as you learn from the mistakes you inevitably make. But it’s completely unacceptable to be willfully unaware. Scott is willfully unaware. Or possibly he’s just calculating. Or possibly it’s a mixture of each. But Your tweets made an impression on me. It’s not because I believe you lack reason, logic, or mental curiosity. In fact, it’s quite the alternative. You’re young. You’re still finding your way on the earth, as I’m, and you do not know what you do not know. But feigning ignorance is not enough when it comes to matters of life and death.

First of all, nothing said here is supposed to be taken as finger wagging. And I’m not here to let you know how to do your job, since you already do it the most effective within the NFL on this. But as requested In my tweets I try to “get you started.”

I’m not here to ask you to vote Democrat or Republican, because even that’s tied to the long, complex, and ridiculously complicated history of the American political system. But it’s crucial—even for those who don’t vote—to educate yourself about politics, especially as a black man in a rustic that never intended for individuals who seem like us to even sniff at the method. Awareness is a way of survival.

After the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, you tweeted a photograph of the previous president raising his fist moments after a gunman in Butler, Pennsylvania, tried to take his life. Your caption read, “Ladies and gentlemen… President Donald Trump.” At first glance, you said nothing improper. He’s a former US president who could return to office in a matter of months. But Sauce, you have got to understand who Donald Trump is as an individual and as a politician.

At 23, you might be just a number of years older than the Central Park Five, now the Exonerated Five, a bunch of teenagers who were wrongly convicted and served several years in prison for the brutal attack and rape of Trishi Meili. Trump called for his or her execution in 1989 and has refused to apologize since 2019. He can be a person whose ties to racism, sexism, xenophobiaa seemingly limitless list sexual assault and rape allegationsand straight blatant rules come from the years before we were born.

That’s not to say President Joe Biden is ideal, because he’s not. He’s old (like Trump) and prone to slip-ups. The 1986 and 1994 crime bills Biden championed have devastated black communities by skyrocketing incarceration rates. He finally apologized, calling on the law “a huge mistake” that “trapped an entire generation,” however the damage stays. His administration’s handling of Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign against Gaza is one other mistake. My point is that this: politicians are human, and humans are inherently flawed, irrespective of how sincere their actions could also be. found similar attitude. But politics and politicians are two completely different conversations.

In my eyes, politicians are messengers. Politics and policy are the things that actually move the proverbial needle and have legitimate impact on our lives. So whenever you tweeted, “I think it’s weird to judge people based on who they vote for,” that resonated with me. It seems reasonable, especially for somebody who has admitted to being “politically unknown.” But people vote for politicians based on the policies they support, and never all of those policies are good or helpful, especially for black people.

Second, politics isn’t only a conversation that happens every 4 years after we vote on who gets to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Politics and the policies that associate with it affect every second of our lives. It affects the economic conditions in neighborhoods across the country. It affects the whole lot from local school board policies to highway funding. Politics governs police departments—how they’re funded and the way they operate. You’re a Detroit native, so please consider in things like Flint Michigan Water Crisis, supervision of public schoolsAND the role of your city in determining the end result of the 2020 election have their roots in politics.

Sports, consider it or not, are also a basis for political discussion. As an athlete, you understand the worth of your “prime period.” Boxer Muhammad Ali lost the prime years of his profession after taking over government and refusal to take part in the Vietnam War. This is what we all know in regards to the expansion Women’s sports stems from a single piece of laws called Title IX. Pools, and more importantly who could use them, were once a political issue. In 2020, WNBA players helped turn the tables on a U.S. Senate seat. The decision to allow college athletes earn money from their name, image and likeness is directly related to the economy, the employees’ movement and politics.

In short, when it comes to black life in America, politics are at all times involved.

Sauce, I hope you have got a protracted, successful profession that features winning a gold jacket in Canton, Ohio, someday. But you are going to spend most of your life off the sphere. And politics will play a task in your life whether you ever step foot in a voting booth or not.

I do not believe you have got to be one other sports legend like NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Ali. You do not have to be an activist. I’m not even saying you have got to speak out on the problems of the day. But what you (or any black person) cannot afford to do is act like these issues don’t affect you or the people you care about. We live in a rustic that had to pass anti-discrimination laws in all areas of life, including on the ballot box, just 60 years ago. What we’ve now could be what we were never meant to have.

I return to a quote from a person who has had more influence on my life than I can truthfully express. In April 1964, Malcolm X gave a speech—probably probably the most famous of his life—titled . I suggest you look it up when you have got time. On the political philosophy of black nationalism, Malcolm X said, “…(it) only means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community. The days when white people could come into our community and make us vote for them, so they could be our political leaders and tell us what to do and what not to do, are long gone.”

Unfortunately, those times are still very close.

Sauce, you possibly can be anything you wish to be in life, and I’m rooting for you to do great this season. I’m not expecting you to be like former quarterback Colin Kaepernick who became a civil rights activist, or to develop into the following great outspoken athlete. I’m just asking you to pay attention to the world we live in. Being apolitical just isn’t an option. You cannot be willfully unaware of the history of political power, political repression, and political violence in America when it comes to black men, black women, and black children.

Most importantly, you definitely cannot be Tim Scott—a black man who would quite live a lie than ever acknowledge the reality. I don’t desire that to be a part of your legacy, Sauce. And you definitely should not be either.

The better of what

Justin Tinsley