KTF Weekly Newsletter: The 49ers’ Quarterback and the Actual 49ers
Hi everyone,
If you haven’t seen Sy’s post on Eternals, disability, and theological defensiveness, you should give it a read. Though if you plan to watch Eternals, do that first. There are spoilers in the article. And here are this week’s highlights from Jonathan and Sy:
Jonathan’s recommendations:
Colin in Black and White is a six-part docuseries on the life of activist and former NFL quarterback Collin Kaepernick which illuminates much more than just his background. From his childhood in California as a Black child with white, adoptive parents to his standout athletic career, critically acclaimed director Ava DuVernay brings Kaepernick’s powerful story to life. There is much to engage with and dissect here, but for followers of Jesus, it is crucial to notice the distance between the pain of Black Americans and the everyday lives of white Americans, even when they are in close proximity. Black hair in a white house, Black men as quarterbacks, Black teenagers in white hotels – these are the contexts for microaggressions and white obliviousness, denial, and aggression. This documentary shows us life through the lens of one man learning to confront the systemic racism that attempts to govern his everyday life; and his journey invites us to learn and resist.
Activist, author, and Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar outlines the differing standards that exist for athletes like Aaron Rodgers and the rest of society. He also zeroes in on the hypocrisy of Kaepernick being blacklisted for speaking truth to power while Rogers is protected from consequences for lying to the public. “His lies, his illogical defense, and his hubris damage all professional athletes,” asserts Abdul-Jabbar, who painstakingly dissects the latest episode of a high-profile personality leveraging their platform, not for public safety, but for personal “freedom.” In short, Rodgers lied about his vaccination status, endangering the lives of those around him while using untruths, accusations, and distractions to buck accountability for his actions. Abdul-Jabbar offers a masterclass in how to steward our influence in this cultural moment while crafting a masterful rebuke.
Using the N-word on multiple occasions, passing around pictures of his wife in a bikini in a professional setting, and forcing a Black executive to choose allegiance to him over a prominent Black sports agent are just some of the many anecdotes from the 70 people who went on the record with ESPN’s Baxter Holmes. His explosive report alleges years of misogyny and racism by Robert Sarver, the owner of the Phoenix Suns. The last time something like this happened, an owner was forced to sell his team. The significance here for followers of Jesus lies in our reflection on what it looks like to honor God in pursuit of accountability and justice. God ultimately holds all people to account regardless of wealth and power. The question consistently for us is: are we willing to do the same?
Sy’s recommendations:
The University of California Hastings College of Law was the first law school in the Golden State, and has a long list of prominent alumni, including Vice President Harris. But for the last few years, it has been looking more closely into the story of its namesake, Serranus Hastings, and more broadly, at the story Californians often tell themselves about their history. Hastings was the state’s first Chief Justice and one of its wealthiest people during the Gold Rush of the 1840s and 50s. He was also heavily involved in the massacre of the Yuki Indians, leading literal human-hunting parties into the forests and mountains of northern California. And at least some of these killing expeditions were funded by the state. As the school’s board asks itself what to do, they face opposition to restoration and reparation, including from the current occupant of the board seat that is reserved exclusively for members of Hastings’ family. You can read all about the attempts at truth and reconciliation and the accompanying power struggle in this New York Times article.
I recently wrote in this newsletter about the problem of airlines breaking the wheelchairs of disabled passengers during flights. Joseph Shapiro, long-time NPR journalist and author of one of the most widely-read histories of the disability rights movement, went on Morning Edition this week to discuss problems airlines and the TSA have accommodating many kinds of disabilities and the regulations behind those problems. He also wrote an article on the same subject. You can both listen to the report and read the article here. Tragically, one of the stories he mentions is that of Engracia Figueroa, a disability rights activist who died from injuries she incurred while using a replacement wheelchair provided by United Airlines after it broke hers, which was customized for her particular medical conditions. The article highlights stories like this — stories about the human cost of seemingly dry policies and procedures. It also tells stories that could have gone very differently if individual TSA or airport employees hadn’t ignored the humanity in strangers, a constant temptation as we try to make it through our everyday work.
Disability rights organizations earned a victory at the Supreme Court yesterday, though under precarious circumstances. A group of anonymous people who are HIV positive, a group protected under disability rights laws, brought a suit alleging that a change in the way CVS distributes and gives counsel regarding prescriptions inadvertently had a disparate and negative impact on the privacy of HIV patients. CVS advanced a legal theory to which only a minority of lower federal courts subscribe: disabled people cannot bring lawsuits where they cannot allege intentional disability discrimination. Of course, alleging, let alone proving, intentional discrimination by a corporation is nearly impossible, and would dramatically reduce the ability of disabled people to enforce the ADA. A federal appeals court disagreed with CVS, so CVS petitioned for a case to the Supreme Court. This put disability rights groups in a tough position. The likelihood of the strong conservative majority on the Supreme Court agreeing with CVS (and its significant backing from the business community) was high. But yesterday, CVS announced that it withdrew its case after careful and persistent negotiation from disability rights groups convinced it that rethinking its policies in order to better serve disabled clients was the preferable course of action. Given the justices’ lifetime appointments, this will need to be the way disability advocates do things for the foreseeable future. Hopefully other businesses can be convinced, as one lawyer said, “there are always better solutions to a problem than to undercut the foundation of disability rights laws.”
Thanks so much for reading, and we’ll see you next week!
The KTF team