If You’re Upset Over Players Boycotting or Sitting Out – YOU’RE the Reason They Need To
No one takes to change easily. Believe me, I am in sales and the hardest part about selling isn’t getting someone to actually part with their money for our goods and services – it is getting an organization onboard with the change that ensues.
Change doesn’t come easy, it causes stress, it changes the way we do things, the way we look at things.
I am not asking or even suggesting that we look at any of the recent incidents which have been in the news and select team A or team B. I am not suggesting that anyone denounces police or goes and financially supports any particular organizations. I’m not suggesting to defund this or support that. All I might suggest is that there is a reason people of the country have been speaking out and protesting and that there is a reason high-profile African American’s have been speaking out or boycotting games or other functions. All I am suggesting is that we have the conversation.
Change happens through conversation, and thus far that conversation has been met with opposition. Hold that, it hasn’t been met with opposition because there is a giant portion of the country that isn’t even willing to sit at the table.
That is what is so frustrating for so many out there. The unwillingness of others to even entertain a conversation. This is why peaceful becomes violent.
Equally, I do not believe it is fair or accurate to suggest that if you are in opposition to the conversation that you are immediately racist, or other choice terms. You might be ignorant to what is happening, you might be ignorant to the America someone else lives through. Immediately jumping to calling one racist doesn’t get anyone to the table. I am not pointing a finger as I know it is frustrating that the “have’s” in this nation have refused to really have the conversation. I know it is frustrating to continuously see similar graphics cross your 10 o’clock news. It is frustrating to ask the why’s and you are met with, “why are you standing up for a criminal.”
Equally frustrating is when you use your rights as provided by the constitution of the United States, to try and have the conversation and you’re told to shut up. That your view of society doesn’t matter, or isn’t valid. That is possibly more dangerous than not even having the conversation. To tell someone that their reality doesn’t matter, that is when the protests become more contentious you’re told that’s not the way either.
I would much rather be typing something about sports. I would much rather talk about if the Cubs are going to improve the roster via trade in the next five days. I would much rather discuss anything at all than racial issues. Admittedly, I am not good at it, but I feel it is important to honestly begin the conversation.
“You don’t find history, it finds you.”
No one is asking for the great weight of changing a nation, but there are points in history where the responsibility falls upon the shoulders of the unsuspecting. Will our generation rise up and create the necessary change this nation desires, or will we continue to pass the buck to the next generation and the one thereafter?
We will never know unless we’re willing to step up and just have the conversation.
