NFL Sellout

One of the hardest things as a black person at least for me is understanding my responsibility as a black individual to stick up for others of the black race.  On Sunday Eric Reid of the Carolina Panthers approached Malcom Jenkins of the Philadelphia Eagles starting a brief altercation during the coin toss. In his post game interview Eric Reid called Malcolm Jenkins a "sellout" and a "colonialist" My understanding of why Reid is angry is because the original movement started by Colin Kaepernick and became a players coalition and then Kaepernick dropped out of the coalition and Jenkins is a member. Jenkins and the coalition made an agreement with the teams owners in the league for 89 million dollars fir the players would not protest during the games and the money would go into social justice organizations.

The sports media world has responded in an interesting way. Steven A Smith and Shannon Sharpe both were angered not as journalist but as black men because they felt as though Eric Reid display of emotion on a national stage calling out another black man when they are fighting for the same cause, proves all of the white old men writing their paychecks right.

The NFL is a league troubled with bad reactions towards peaceful protest. This display by Eric Reid during a game knocked the players movement towards improving injustice one step back even more. He could have talked to Jenkins in private and avoided this entire situation.