The guest speaker on Tuesday’s Saints’ team Zoom call was Spike Lee, per Adam Schefter.
The guest speaker on today’s Saints’ team Zoom call was Spike Lee, per source. Lee complimented Drew Brees for how he stood up to President Trump and then spoke 45 minutes about his experiences in race relations. The players loved Lee, said one person on the call.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 9, 2020
Lee is known as an authority on these issues and is recognized as a voice of Black America, often using his films to attack racial issues and enlighten non-POC on the Black experience in America.
His latest acclaimed film was “BlacKkKlansman,” which tells the true story of an African-American police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. The film won an Oscar and was the 61-year-old’s first competitive Academy Award. However, that film is just one of many in which Lee masterfully portrays the plight of POC in this country.
Drew Brees Chooses Wrong Time To Excercise His Blind White Privilege
Brees’ flag saga has been one of the polarizing stories during the two weeks of national and global protests. After getting absolutely dragged on social media and national TV platforms for his insensitive comments and total lack of understanding about the flag as it relates to anthem protests — while the world was mourning the death of George Floyd, another Blackman at the hands of police brutality — Brees did a complete 360 as far as his feelings about Colin Kaepernick’s peaceful protest.
It was horrific timing and Brees’ teammates and the sports world, in general, took him to task. Eventually, Brees had to offer several apologies and a complete change of philosophy. The NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell followed with an apology for not listening to the players. He didn’t mention Kapeenrick’s name but we know what he meant.
Once President Trump tweeted that Brees should not have apologized, Drew doubled down on his apology saying “It’s not about the flag” and seemed to regain some of the respect and support of his teammates.
Spike Lee vs. Donald Trump
Lee had his own little tiff with President Donald Trump following his powerful speech in which he referenced the 400 years of slavery Black American shave been trapped in from 1619 to 2019.
https://youtu.be/pYKxQ0Zrvs0
Instead, of commending Lee and promising to work towards making our country better for Black people, Trump responded with one of his many divisive personal jabs.
He wrote: “Be nice if Spike Lee could read his notes or better yet not have to use notes at all when doing his racist hit on your president.”
Trump also egregiously claimed he had “done more for African Americans (Criminal Justice Reform, Lowest Unemployment numbers in History, Tax Cuts, etc) than almost any other Pres[ident]!”
That was then. Much has changed in a year and even though Trump’s not listening, the rest of the white privileged world has no choice.
NFL Players Will Kneel During Anthem
With this newfound “understanding” of what kneeling for the anthem truly means, veteran Washington Redskins running back Adrian Peterson has said that NFL players will definitely start kneeling again when the season commences — this time with the unofficial blessing of most head coaches and the commissioner, who has offered to take a knee with them.
Adrian Peterson says he’s “without a doubt” kneeling this year https://t.co/aX6x257zwI
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) June 5, 2020
