Colts GM and head coach speak about racial injustice as Indiana mourns Chris Beaty

I don’t have a planned article. I don’t have notes or a co-author to guide me. I am full of anguish and my heart is heavy. If you come away from this offended, so be it, but to quote Colts GM Chris Ballard, “This ain’t about football right now.” It also isn’t about you or me.

Black Lives Matter.

That’s it. That’s the entirety of where my and your head should be.

There’s no other acceptable thing to say right now with all this going on. Saying “All Lives Matter” is disingenuous at best and is moving the goalposts in terms of what we need to be doing and saying as a largely white fan base/state/country. Saying “disrespecting the flag is wrong” is stupid, Drew Brees, because there is no formal document demanding fealty to the flag. It’s an inanimate object that has no emotions itself. Your attachment to the American flag is an attachment to nationalism, a gateway to fascism, a form of extreme nationalism.

Black Lives Matter.

On Monday, May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight and on camera by former Minneapolis Police Officers Derek Chauvin and his colleagues Alexander Keung, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. All four were fired, but not before massive public outcry. Protests have swept the globe in the last 10 days, and it was yesterday, June 3, before charges were filed on all four of these former officers.

I will not speak ill of these four as they are the product of systemic racism and oppression. They will not receive qualified immunity because they are no longer employed as Minneapolis Police officers. They’ll be tried and hopefully found guilty. Let’s hope the criminal justice system doesn’t screw this up with the world watching.

Black Lives Matter.

In the days since George Floyd’s death, I have watched videos of uniformed police officers attacking peaceful protesters. I’ve watched police in riot gear trap, tear gas, shoot and assault those same people they are sworn to protect without being provoked (if you haven’t seen these videos, find me on Twitter @likelyalien. Fair warning, I have receipts.) As of noon today, June 4, six additional people have died (that we know of) in protest of George Floyd’s murder. It’s too soon to say “the country has come together”, as we are only in our second week of protests and until today, I honestly felt like the President was encouraging the US military to attack its own people. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.

Black Lives Matter.

On Tuesday, Colts head coach Frank Reich gave a passionate speech about the pitfalls of passivity and ignorance as it refers to racial injustice. Per his words, “It’s easy to be silent and do nothing when it doesn’t directly impact you.” Rather than quote Frank further, here’s the link to that video. That’s my head coach! Hell yeah, Frank!

Black Lives Matter.

Today, our general manager Chris Ballard put out a passionate, unplanned sort of speech and also took questions afterwards. He made many great statements (you’ll get the sense that I bit his opening and some statements with my opening) and answered a bunch of questions. Rather than continue to quote him, here’s that video.

Black Lives Matter.

On Saturday, May 30, former Indiana University football player and well-known Indianapolis businessman Chris Beaty was murdered trying to keep two young women from being robbed outside of his apartment. It’s important to distinguish that it does not appear that Chris’ murder had anything to do with the protests and Chris was a friend to the Colts, sure. As I began this, so shall I end it.

This ain’t about football right now.

Black Lives Matter.