Sen. Kelly Loeffler Says, You Will Not Dream in Color

So, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) is telling it like it is. The co-owner of WNBA team Atlanta Dream doesn’t want her players wearing jerseys that state support for Black Lives Matter, and she’s firm on that.

I feel so bad for the Dream players. It’s one thing to know that white people in the abstract are racist and hateful and unsupportive unless they’re using you for something — like making money off you playing a sport — it’s something else to be faced with the hard evidence of an owner’s racist views. This is an NFL, Colin Kaepernick moment all over again.

Loeffler: "No one has asked politics to come into sports. Sports are about unifying people. People from all walks of life from all political views should be welcomed in sports and to cancel someone because they want to protect innocent life; because they are fighting for the unborn; because they support the Second Amendment; because I support the constitutional rights that have been given to us by God? Why would that not fit as part of American sports culture? That should be a tenet of sports, is to welcome all views.”

Let’s unpack that shall we?

"No one has asked politics to come into sports.” She’s a Senator (politics) and a co-owner of a basketball team in a league that is 80 percent black women (sports). No one has to ask. To be black in America is to be political. Why? Because you are constantly fighting with an entire fucking country for autonomy and control over the safety and sanctity of your own body and the bodies of those who look like you.

 Sports are about unifying people. Sports is about playing a game and entertaining people. And as a player, I imagine it’s tough to be effective when you’re stressed out and worried and angry and in a perpetual state of low-grade PTSD from seeing “suicide” lynching news, George Floyd’s murder on a video media loop, and other black tragedy porn everywhere you look.

People from all walks of life from all political views should be welcomed in sports… They are.

… and to cancel someone because they want to protect innocent life; because they are fighting for the unborn; because they support the Second Amendment; because I support the constitutional rights that have been given to us by God? WTF is she talking about? How did abortion get into this conversation?

“… a tenet of sports, is to welcome all views.” So, why doesn’t she want to welcome BLM’s viewpoint?

Come on. If you don’t see the ridiculous hypocrisy and nonsense she’s peddling, you don’t want to, and that’s fine. But I sincerely hope the good Black people and the reasonable white people of George remove her come Senatorial election time.

In other articles I watched or read, Loeffler called the black lives matter movement “a divisive political organization.” Racist white people always say its divisive because it threatens their privilege and urges dismantling of the systems from which they benefit every day. She also said BLM is anti-semetic – I’m sorry, but in the macro, what do Jewish people specifically have to do with Black Lives Matter?

That’s a huge part of the problem. Every time black people say: Stop killing us. Stop hurting us. Stop abusing us with impunity. Stop treating us like shit. Racist white people bring every other race into the conversation. It’s a base distraction technique, and sadly, it works. Black Lives Matter is not about hating Jewish people. It’s about not oppressing, murdering and otherwise abusing Black people, in myriad ways. Of course there are nuances there, but let’s not lose the forest for the trees.

Ignore Desean Jackson’s idiocy. All he proved is that there are ignorant people in all races, including Black people. Black Lives Matter is, at its core, about the Black experience in America. It’s powerful enough that it’s spread globally, but it began as a direct result of the atrocities committed against black bodies in this country. Hitler, being Jewish, not relevant.

So, if Black Lives Matter is about Black people, how can Loeffler, who’s workforce is primarily Black, think it possible to separate them from what’s happening all over the world? Had she just stuck with the idea that politics and sports don’t mix because it’s potentially divisive rather than unifying, ok. That’s fair.

But she doubled down. She went there. She revealed her true self – thank you very much; honesty is always preferred; cheers! – and now people want to cancel her, for her to give up her stake in the team. She says she’s not going anywhere. It would be funny though, if her players refused to take the court – you know, whenever the ‘rona lets us resume such activities – and the other owner was like, you’re out, or it’s a lawsuit, because you’re damaging a profitable investment with your bigotry.

To me, it’s almost a sure sign of racism when a white person wants you not to support Black Lives Matter. If not that, it’s a huge red flag that there’s some ignorance and privilege at play there. Because why would a reasonable person object to you and your brethren not wanting to be a human punching bag for the country at large, and a pin cushion for police bullets in particular?

Loeffler insists that politics and sports don’t mix. It will be interesting to see if the WNBA Players Association et al agrees.