Yea, but …

“Black people are literally saying ‘Stop killing us!’ And there are people saying ‘But …’”

Yea, but fucking what.

“Yea, but …,” when strung together, might be the most useless, lazy, and uninteresting piece of rhetoric that people use in conversation. It is a spoken aloud version of, “I don’t REALLY care,” not so cleverly disguised as a weak acknowledgment of the other person’s thoughts, with a quick pivot to something usually completely irrelevant. While it’s not such a big deal when talking about sports or the stock market or most things that don’t really affect other peoples’ livelihoods, it is massively consequential when talking about civil rights, equality, and social injustices.

The frequency of this “Yea, but …” response that has been continuously invoked by moderates when discussing the Black Lives Matters protest, and more recently, when discussing the NFL players’ protest is alarming. It is a verbal confirmation that they are willing to concede that there is a problem, and at the same time unwilling to actually do anything about it. And that is infuriating.

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’….” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

What follows “Yea, but …” is rarely any commentary on the issue, and often dives into some factoid completely unrelated to what a protest is actually about. For these folks to offer some prescriptive solution to a problem that they have rarely faced, let alone live with on a day to day basis, is both patronizing and pretentious. It trivializes the concerns that a protesting community cares deeply about, while undermining the judgement of their leadership who have prioritized a problem, amongst many problems they are painfully aware of, as the one to address now. Equally frustrating is listening to the unsophisticated and almost infantile analyses of the problem/solution, which is often devoid of any independent thought, and typically limited to regurgitated, unvalidated soundbites from some media outlet. Basically, they sound a lot like this Harvard prick from Good Will Hunting:

Take the NFL players’ protest as an example, a protest that has clearly and unequivocally stated on numerous times that it is about the disproportionate amount of police brutality faced by the black community and the lack of any legal recourse in the judicial system. Rather than simply saying, “Yes, this is a problem and we should fix it. How can I help?” instead, we hear:

“Yea, but … black on black crime is a problem too.”

Do you really think black communities don’t think this is also a problem? Do you think they are sitting around and saying, “You know what, this police brutality thing is really cutting into our black on black crime. We think we should be the only people allowed to inflict violence on our community, so let’s end police brutality!” Of course not. They are protesting police brutality in their communities because it is a much BIGGER threat to them, and because black on black crime really isn’t a thing. The statistics clearly show that most crime isn’t about race, and much more highly correlated with proximity and socioeconomics. In a country where Americans have chosen to self-segregate (see white flight), it’s not surprising that whites murdered by other whites is also extremely high (83%), and poor urban whites have a higher instance of violence than poor urban blacks. Ultimately though, what does any of this have to do with curbing state sanctioned violence?

“Yea, but … the NFL is a business so they have a right to fire anyone who negatively affects their bottom line.”

Oh really? So you would have been fully onboard with Uber had they fired Susan Fowler for going public on the sexual harassment she faced while working there? Mind you that this led to uncovering over 200 filed cases of sexual harassment reported to Uber’s HR division that went generally ignored. She had negatively affected the image of the company by penning that blog post, so it would have been well within Uber’s right to fire her, and further collude with other technology companies to blackball her from working in the field. How is this not the same ridiculous line of backwards thinking that folks are using to corroborate why Colin Kaepernick does not have a job in the NFL? Oh right, All Billionaires Matter.
Colin Kaepernick is a quarterback who went to the Super Bowl and the NFC Championship game in back to back years less than four years ago. This is a quarterback who threw 16 TDs to only 4 INTs last year (phenomenal) and rushed for over 450 yards and two more scores on one of the worst teams in football, in only 11 games. When compared against quarterbacks who started more than 10 games in 2016, Kaepernick’s .818 Approximate Value per Game Started was better than 13 presumed NFL starters (list is below).

This guy can’t find his way on to an NFL roster, even as a back-up? The craziest part about this entire critique is that Kaepernick has not said a single word about not having a job in the NFL. Yet folks are still outright losing their minds, burning his jerseys and berating him on social media, all while expressing absolutely zero outrage at a judicial process that consistently finds a way to acquit police officers who are clearly aggressors. Last I checked, kneeling football players aren’t causing police officers to kill non-violent black people on video. On video!

“Yea, but … they are disrespecting the flag and national anthem.”

Nick Wright explained it best when discussing this topic on First Things First:

A flag and an anthem are inanimate objects. To trivialize, whitewash, and reduce American history to a singular reality that all Americans experienced, regardless of what they have historically endured, is disingenuous. The reality is that America’s history has not been kind to newcomers, even the white ones, and that is not lost on those communities who continue to bear the burden of hundreds of years of systemic oppression.

Despite this, most Americans, including those protesting, completely understand that this is a wonderful country to live in. To be clear, they are NOT protesting America as a country like ISIS does. They are protesting to prevent their children from being gunned down in their neighborhoods by public servants funded by tax dollars to serve and protect; they are protesting so their fathers aren’t killed during “routine” police stops; they are protesting so their teenagers get equal treatment under the law for doing the same stupid things that all teenagers do.

“Racism is so American that when we protest racism the average American assumes that we are protesting America …”

What is moderate America waiting for to happen before they decide to stand behind a pretty simple and straightforward cause? What is that perfect offense where they can feel comfortable that police aggression has gone too far? Does a baby have to be shot in the face by a bad cop before they let go of these nonsensical segues to unrelated topics? Honestly, when will they draw the line?

This way of thinking, or rather, passively commenting on problems is confusing. It is as if they are trying to earn participation points in some classroom of life, taking any opportunity to blurt out the Cliff Notes version of real and consequential social issues which they know exists. This sideline moderate begins to explain how every county in Massachusetts can vote Democratic in the 2016 election while Michael Che can call Boston the most racist city he’s has ever been to. Convenient liberalism.

The irony in all of this is that these moderates, with their vocal inaction, are really hurting themselves. As they are dampening the message to end excessive police force from their virtual pedestals, they are leaving the door open for police brutality to show up in their community. While there are racial aspects to the current conversation, brutality and excessive force by police is ultimately about abusing power, and that abuse of power does not care about race.

Fortunately this elderly couple only had to deal with an unpleasant police encounter versus the very real threat of losing their lives often faced by black people in a similar situation. That’s the point groups like Black Lives Matter and the NFL players are trying to get across. When they say they want equal treatment by police officers, they don’t mean they want these old people shot in the streets. You do understand that right?

What they want is something that we all want, to prevent OUR children from being gunned down in OUR neighborhoods by public servants funded by tax dollars to serve and protect; so OUR fathers aren’t killed during “routine” police stops; so OUR teenagers get equal treatment under the law for doing the same stupid things that all teenagers do. So moderates, instead of “Yea, but’ing” your way through life, lean in to what you know is a problem. “Because for certain battles to be won, those battles have to take place in the first place” — Khalid Latif

2017 NFL Projected Starting Quarterbacks with a Lower Approximate Value per Game Started than Colin Kaepernick in 2016

Derek Carr (.800)
Carson Palmer (.800)
Alex Smith (.800)
Cam Newton (.786)
Ryan Tannehill (.769)
Jameis Winston (.750)
Andy Dalton (.750)
Sam Bradford (.733)
Trevor Siemian (.643)
Blake Bortles (.625)
Carson Wentz (.625)
Eli Manning (.563)
Joe Flacco (.563)