The NFL is racist, part 400

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January 18, 2023

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in an October 2021 file photo at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

Editor’s note: The following article is an editorial, and the opinions expressed are those of the authors. Read more reviews on theGrio.

As the NFL playoffs rage on, I’m constantly reminded that there are so many reasons not to watch. An example is when the NFL treated black people as less intelligent than white people. Truly.

This story goes to the heart of American racism, where black people are expected to be physically superior to white people but also intellectually inferior. They expect us to be strong and fast, to fight, dance and entertain well, and to play sports expertly. In matters of body, America expects blacks to be good, but in matters of mind, America expects blacks to be inferior to whites. They believe that we don’t think as fast and as deeply as they do. It’s not only dehumanizing, but it’s also a practical justification for racism. Of course, this notion mostly stays in the shadows, but sometimes it rears its pointed little head. And wouldn’t you know it, if you look through recent NFL history, you’ll see it.

In 2015, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, paving the way for a $1 billion settlement between the NFL and former players that could provide payment of up to $5 million each for impact at long-term concussions and other neurological conditions (although the settlement does not address chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which has been linked to concussions). The settlement saved the NFL from having to admit what it knew about the impact of concussions, but that’s a separate issue right now.

In order to qualify for money that would help former players who suffered neurological damage take care of themselves, they had to pass a test to prove they had reduced mental capacity in order to qualify. It seemed good. It was the next part that had me screaming madly.

After players’ cognitive abilities were tested, settlement layouts allowed doctors to judge black players on a different scale than white players. They were all men with diminished mental capacity from football, but the NFL said the mental decline of black players was lower than that of white players because black people aren’t as smart to begin with. If the black players didn’t lose as much intelligence as the whites, then they were paid less or not at all. More than 4,000 black players have been denied payment because of this policy. Because the league determined they hadn’t lost enough of their cognitive ability to deserve payment.

The NFL was doing what’s called race normalization, and it didn’t become public knowledge that the NFL was doing it until a 2020 lawsuit brought by two black former players. Their attorney told the New York Times, Indeed, the settlement, as administered, has a white door and a black door. Although the neurocognitive tests behind each gate are the same, the raw scores of former black and white players are interpreted differently.

The concussion fund reportedly paid out more than $997 million, and attorneys for black players say white players were getting double or triple what black players were getting.

This is racism in action. This is the myth of black cognitive inferiority in action. And it’s also an example of how even movements that are made with the intention of supporting black people often end up helping white people even more. The NFL is about 70% black, so you’d think a concussion settlement for NFL players would largely benefit black people, but instead something was injected into the normalization process of race and because of this, black people have been economically deprived because of a racist perception of their cognitive ability.

NFL policy was crafted and implemented by supposedly honest executives, lawyers and doctors who would look you in the face and tell you that they are not racist, have black friends and they don’t hate anyone. Yet their policy helped the NFL avoid paying thousands of black people what was rightfully owed to them, depriving thousands of black families of help paying dad or grandfather’s medical bills as they move away from ALS, Parkinson’s disease or other head injuries. problem that came from their time in the NFL. This money that they did not pay may have deprived them of funds that they could have used to invest or buy a house or help their children start a business. This money, like countless other examples of economic deprivation ranging from wage theft to assessment fraud, uses racism to further deprive black people of the resources we need to grab a little more power in this country, which helps white supremacy continue. Rinse and repeat.

Tour is host and creative director at theGrio. He is the host of the “Toure Show” podcast and the “Who Was Prince?” He is also the author of seven books including the biography of Prince Nothing Compares 2 U and the ebook The Ivy League Counterfeiter. Don’t miss his next podcast Being Black In the 80s.

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