Commentary

COMMENTARY: Super Bowl or not, in Black community

NASHVILLE PRIDE —

Published

7 years ago

January 27, 2019

By William T. Robinson, Jr.

While the Super Bowl has been a celebrated and welcomed event for football fans and the American public as a whole, it has become a contentious target for many in the African American community. The ostracizing of Colin Kaepernick, a former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers for kneeling during the singing of the National Anthem to show his disdain for police brutality and social injustices imposed on African Americans and people of color has riled his supporters and those who can identify with his freedom to express himself peacefully.

Unfortunately, there are those who have relegated his actions as being disrespectful to the flag and those who have served our country or may be serving our country. The main critic leading this charge is President Trump, possibly to incite his base in generating racial strife.

How dare African American athletes or celebrities use their national platform to highlight the indignities facing some people in this country? This is the sentiment of some who feel athletes or entertainers should not deviate from entertaining the public. Although many know that entertainment is often used as a smokescreen to shield the public from the harsh realities inundating our lives.

Now make no mistake, you have devoted diehard African Americans who are not entertaining any boycott to keep them from watching or participating in their chosen addiction to football and you must respect their right to make their individual choice.

But it is hard for many conscientious brothers and sisters from judging the sincerity of those unwilling to sacrifice for the good of the whole, seeing this boycott as an opportunity to show a sign of our solidarity and unity in bringing attention and promoting positive changes that will uplift and bring about equality for all people, especially people of color. It is only when we make it known to the NFL and their sponsors that we are going to boycott their games and products will noticeably change take place because there are those betting that African Americans are incapable of uniting as one and showing solidarity. The solidarity that would promote needed change for everyone suffering from social injustices.

You find many African Americans, especially men, who selfishly rationalize and find excuses, challenging the effectiveness of boycotting the Super Bowl as well as other NFL (National Football League) games.

That is reminiscent of the many Africans Americans who didn’t support Martin Luther King, Jr. by claiming he was a radical, maverick, and troublemaker who was flaming or initiating the wrath of White people, feeling that would wreak harm and death upon African Americans, especially our youth. Ironically, these were some of the same African Americans first to stand in line for the many opportunities and rights gained by the Civil Rights Movement. It is unfortunate that we have some African Americans who may have been blessed not to feel the full sting of discrimination, abuse, and inequality, making them indifferent or apathetic to the pain and suffering of their less fortunate brothers and sisters.

Serious supporters of the NFL or Super Bowl boycott are upset with one of our most revered icons and civil rights advocates, singer Gladys Knight, for choosing to sing the national anthem during the Super Bowl. This is made more surprising when you have superstars like Cardi B, Beyonce, Rihanna, and Amy Schumer who are refusing to have anything to do with the Super Bowl until Colin Kaepernick is exonerated and picked up as a quarterback.

Many see Gladys Knight’s participation in the Super Bowl as insensitive and comparable to treason to African Americans seeking solidarity. But Gladys has stated that she feels it is unfortunate that the national anthem has been dragged into a debate against fighting for justice. She sees each as separate issues. She has expressed that she feels by singing the national anthem, she hopes she can bring people closer together and give the anthem back its voice.

If nothing more, this dilemma has sparked conversation and discussion about selfishness versus unity among the Black community. When all is said and done, we cannot let the biggest weapon (divide and conquer) keep us from moving forward as a people. If we do, we have let those seeking to oppress us continue to win.

This article originally appeared in the Nashville Pride.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

COMMENTARY: Sen. Lamar Alexander on Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday

Don't Miss

Naomi Osaka has arrived, wins Australian Open and No. 1 world ranking

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

15 hours ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.