If racism is America’s original sin, then Democrats and others on the Left are the biblical Babylonians of the 21st century. For a group of people who claim to want racism gone, they wickedly do everything possible to make sure it remains alive — or at least the insinuation of it. Incidentally, this phenomenon is a core tenet of the much-maligned diversity, equity, and inclusion movement often referred to as DEI.
At his introductory news conference after being named the new New England Patriots head coach, former NFL player Jerod Mayo garnered significant attention after answering a question from the media about race and being the first black head coach in the team’s history. It was a question asked to Mayo and Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
“Robert, Jerod said that being the first black coach was important to him,” a reporter asked. “Curious, what does it mean to you? And Jerod, have you reached out to any folks like Tony, Tom, just to get their sense of what it means to them?”
Kraft answered first, and Mayo followed.
“Let me say this to you: I’m really colorblind in terms of I know what I feel like on Sunday when we lose, and I can just tell you that after my family, my passion is with the New England Patriots, and there’s something else very close second, but winning at the Patriots is my passion,” Kraft said. “I want to get the best people I can get. I chose the best head coach for this organization. He happens to be a man of color. But I chose him because I believe he’s best to do the job.”
“Yeah, and Mike T, he reached out. He’s actually from our hometown back in Virginia as well. We haven’t really talked about the challenges. I appreciate Thunder and the organization selecting me to be a black head coach,” Mayo said. “I would say what Thunder just talked about, that was in the locker room. You want your locker room to be pretty diverse, and you want the world to look like that.”
This is a typical answer in the DEI-obsessed society we live in. It’s somewhat silly because diversity really has no impact on whether the Patriots win or lose games. The only thing that matters is the level of play by the players on the team’s roster. However, if diversity is as important as Mayo claims (and I seriously doubt it is), he might want to add significantly more Asian, Latino, white, and Native American players to the roster.
And then Mayo said the kind of comment we have become all too familiar with in the race-crazed DEI era.
“What I will say, though, is I do see color because I believe if you don’t see color, you can’t see racism. Whatever happens, black, white, disabled person, even someone with disabilities, for the most part, people are like — when they’re young, they kind of make the spot hot. Younger people know what that means,” Mayo said. “But what I would say is, no, I want you to be able to go up to those people and really understand those people. It goes back to whatever it is, black, white, yellow, it really doesn’t matter, but it does matter, so we can try to fix the problem that we all know we have.”
Mayo shouldn’t be faulted for having to answer the question. After all, it was a simple-minded query asked by a member of the media, which love nothing more than bringing race into things that really don’t have anything to do with race. Nevertheless, his dull-witted and cliche-filled answer deserves criticism, even though it was celebrated by many people on social media, the people who very frequently clamor to do away with racial problems and claim to desire racial harmony. However, Mayo’s answer raises very important questions: What racism? Where?
Where is there racism in the NFL in 2024? What are the problems that Mayo sees that need fixing? I’d like him to cite one honest and legitimate example of racism in the NFL today. Because last time I checked, the NFL was incentivizing teams to hire people based on skin color and requiring teams to interview people based on skin color — and that skin color was not white.
Or, if he is referring to perceived grievances throughout society, I’d like for him to consider examples of all grievances by people of all races, including white people, and explain how whatever incident he wishes to cite is legitimately an example of a systemic result that favors one group of people from a certain race over another specifically because of race — the actual definition of racism, not the hijacked version the Left uses today.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Mayo’s comments are representative of the toxicity and perpetual grievances of today’s DEI Democratic political culture. They should just change their name to the DEI Patriots. Just a few days after the holiday that celebrated the civil rights icon who championed a meritocracy and judging people “by the content of their character, not the color of their skin,” Mayo proudly confessed he sees color and looks for racism.
It’s almost as if many of the people, especially those in the “anti-racist” crowd, who claim they want to eradicate racism from society, instead, in actuality, desperately cling to it and do everything possible to make sure they are able to claim it still exists. Such actions run counter to their public claims because they seemingly cannot function without racism. It is as if these anti-racists need racism to survive the way humans need oxygen.