NY Times Writer Blames Capitalism for Black Oppression

“An organization rooted in capitalism…hurts and marginalizes black people.”

9.29.2017

In his article for Wednesday’s edition of The New York Times, John Eligon presents a bizarre and yet utterly predictable theory regarding the recent National Football League controversy: players are kneeling in protest over racial injustice because of capitalism.

Eligon, whose official New York Times bio calls him “a national correspondent covering race,” would surely be expected to find racism where it is absent; but how and why does he reach the conclusion that blacks are suffering at the hands of a free market economy?

Eligon expresses concern that, as the NFL controversy grows, the original intent of ex-quarterback Colin Kaepernick—who refused to stand for the National Anthem as a protest of perceived racial injustices—will be lost:

“Around the country, racial justice activists are concerned that the essential issues they have spent years trying to highlight -- police brutality and systemic racism -- could get lost in the growing national dialogue emerging from football stadiums….With President Trump criticizing the NFL and its kneeling players, leading many players, owners and league officials to band together, motivations have become murky.”

Fair enough. However, apparently sympathizing with the anti-capitalist aim of Black Lives Matter, the journalist claims that the NFL is an insidious participant in the protest on behalf of the disenfranchised: “[The NFL] is an organization rooted in capitalism, a system that…hurts and marginalizes black people.”

It's impossible to imagine how one comes to the conclusion that an economic system and organization that rewards blacks -- who comprise nearly 70% of the NFL -- with fame and fortune "hurts" and "marginalizes" them, but such is the leftist victim mentality of identity politics.

It's impossible to grasp also what a better alternative for blacks would be. Socialism—a system which inevitably spirals downward into oppressive poverty for all except the authoritarian elites? And yet the dangerous flirtation with socialism is growing—in the media, in academia, and even amidst a bizarre national conflict over men kneeling to protest a supposedly oppressive country that pays them millions to throw and catch a ball.