Ruminating After the Superbowl: A Fist Full of Sorrows
By JaRon Eames
The National Football League has been in existence for over 100 years, yet there isn’t a single black owner. Not today, or any other day, for that matter. Though Blacks make up 70% of the players, not one of them is at the helm. There have been, of course, Black coaches, and there are certainly plenty of Black players who are making many millions of dollars. Yet, those Black bodies running up and down the field are still powerless when it comes to making real changes in the league.
Which then made me wonder, who is sending all of those Far-Right politicians to Washington, DC? Every single one of them seems destined to deny Blacks the right to vote. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that many of those people, sitting right next to you at the Superbowl, and rah- rah- rahing throughout the game, are also putting those Far-Right politicians into office.
What I’d really like to see is that Black money is spent on buying up the ghettos, insuring safety, opening schools, and high-tech centers, libraries, and art programs. Something more than showing off mansions and Rolex watches. There are, of course, some wealthy Black athletes and celebrities who put their fortunes to good use. I certainly Bless them for that, but there are surely just a handful of them.
Then there is the issue of all of the murders of Black men and Black women. Like my brothers and sisters, I’m horrified by it all. But when I keep reading that every one of them was killed because he or she was Black, I stop and say, NO. THAT’S WRONG! It’s not because the victims were Black, but because the shooters were white. That is the heart of the matter. That’s the mind set we are dealing with. Whites can do whatever hell they want to — because in America — white always makes right. I want to put the blame exactly where it belongs — on Whiteness.
Look at the backlash that emerged after the first Black president left the White House. Think of all of the White supremacists who have now come forward. Though, fortunately, they are only a minority, they still nonetheless intend to cause a lot of harm. Perhaps, the oppressor is now afraid that we as Black people will do to them what they have done to us, for centuries as it so happens. Otherwise, all of this seems inexplicable to me. What White supremacists don’t understand is that retaliation is not in our DNA. All we ask is that you leave us alone.
Sometimes I get so fed-up — and desperate — that I think that we should put all the Black gang bangers and white supremacists — and every other criminal element disrupting decent people’s lives — on a large barge that is filled with weapons, and then send it to the middle of the ocean, just to let them fight it out to their hearts content. Perhaps only then will the rest of us be allowed to enjoy the one life we have been given to live.
Speaking about feeling totally disheartened, I’ve also started thinking that perhaps Marcus Garvey and Malcom X were right. The best solution is separation. Maybe separation would guarantee a stress-free existence for Blacks in America.
But what do I know? I’m just a guy who started ruminating after watching the Superbowl.
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JaRon Eames was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on December 21st in 1953. He is the youngest of six children. His late father, Louis L. Eames, started the first Black bank (along with 6 other men) in Baton Rouge in the 1950s and that bank eventually grew into the 7th largest Black Savings and Loan institution in the United States. JaRon attended Southern University in Baton Rouge for one year, and then moved to NYC in 1972. He worked for Japan Air Lines for several years but quit to devote his time entirely to music. At one point he lived in Berlin, and then continued to perform in clubs in Germany thereafter. In 1998 he and Ms. Torrie McCartney hosted the first Billie Holiday Jazz Festival, held at the Billie Holiday Theater in Brooklyn, NY. JaRon has also performed several times in Japan, including Nagoya Japan’s World Fair in 2005. Besides being a noted singer, archivist and journalist, JaRon is equally renowned for the many interviews has conducted with countless jazz greats, such as Nancy Wilson and Joe Williams. He is also recognized for his many books and recordings; all of which are available on the Internet.
Contact information: www.jaroneames.com