Source: Robin Alam/ISI Photos / Getty
I n today’s episode of
Why Did Colin Kaepernick Get Black Listed From The NFL Again? Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker gave a commencement speech last weekend at Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts school in Atchison, Kansas, and, well, it was bad. Butker espoused the kind of social and political opinions that would typically have a Fox News host telling an athlete to “
shut up and dribble ” if white conservatives had the same energy for white athletes whose ideological opinions align perfectly with white nationalists, anti-LGBTQ+ bigots and men who long for the day when women accepted their roles as human cooking, cleaning and birthing machines.
Butker’s speech sounded like a bunch of random MAGA talking points written on the back of notecards that were then shaken up in a bag and poured out onto the podium. Butker’s spoke against abortion, which I suppose should be expected at a Catholic school. He also railed against COVID-19 lockdown measures, because, apparently, some of those MAGA notecards in the mixed bag were from 2021and he forgot to change them out within the last few years during which COVID lockdowns have not really been a thing. He sounded off against Pride Month because nothing gets a queerphobic bigot’s goat like a month honoring a marginalized community that said bigots are not, in any way, being forced to celebrate or even recognize.
And, of course, no white conservative speech of anti-intellectualism, right-wing propaganda and white male grievance pontificating would be complete without an anti-DEI jab to serve as the cherry on top of white male supremacist sundae.
“The world around us says that we should keep our beliefs to ourselves whenever they go against the tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion,” Butker said.
See, this is a prime example of when you can tell someone is on the wrong side of an issue just by the language they use.
How does someone even write down the words “tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion” without realizing how ridiculous they sound? Diversity is only a bad thing if you’re a white racist who is dedicated to denying that America has practiced white racism for the overwhelming majority of its existence, which is the only reason so many industries are so overwhelmingly white today. You only see diversity as a bad thing if your wish is to make America white by default again . Likewise, equity and inclusion are positive concepts unless what you want is inequality and exclusion .
But to a person who isn’t white, male, staunchly conservative, and a barely-closeted white nationalist, the words “tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion” sound the same as the words “evil of roses, butterflies and rainbows.” (Although to be fair, MAGA bigots also hate rainbows these days.)
If you’re not already convinced enough that Butker, 28, wants America to return to a time he isn’t even old enough to have experienced —when Black people knew their place was under the heal of the white man and women knew their place was in the kitchen, the broom closet and the maternity ward—listen to him tell an audience full of women who were graduating college that no professional ambition they may have is as important as taking on the role of mother, wife and “homemaker,” which is basically the white version of Black Kevin Samuels acolytes who say to Black women, “Those degrees won’t keep you warm at night.”
In fact, Butker proceeded to tell the women in the audience that “the most diabolical lie” they’ve ever been told is that they don’t need to be wives and mothers to have fulfillment in their lives.
“How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world,” Butker said. “But I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
He also said his wife would agree that her life “truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
Imagine being such a knuckle-dragging cave beast that, in the 21st century, you don’t think a woman has truly lived until she has given life after marrying a man.
Butker’s remarks on working women got him dragged across social media, of course, but he did have his share of equally white, male and socially primitive co-signers like former NFL wide receiver T.J. Moe, who tweeted, “Not a word Harrison Butker says here should be remotely controversial. He’s 100% correct. Those trying to convince women that being assistant VP of lending & intentionally childless at age 40 is more fulfilling than making a family and home are evil.”
It just doesn’t seem to occur to these sexist and pathetically insecure men that women don’t actually need to be “convinced” of anything. Women who want to be wives and mothers strive to be wives and mothers. Women who don’t wish to prioritize being wives and mothers —or don’t want to take on the roles at all—and would rather prioritize their education, professional goals and achievements will do just that, and there’s nothing wrong or “controversial” about it. Some women will choose to be both a professional woman and “homemaker,” which is also fine. What isn’t OK is these socially stunted and weak-minded men who feel so threatened by working women who might not want the Housewife life that they feel the need to catch female graduates before they have their diplomas in their hands to warn them that if they’re not making babies, they’re making bad decisions.
“We fear speaking truth because now unfortunately truth is in the minority,” Butker said during his speech.
But Butker is really only referencing a white man’s “truth.” White men knew they were on the side of “truth” when they overwhelmingly opposed the civil rights movement . They thought they were on the side of “truth” when women weren’t allowed to vote, work or have any legal identity whatsoever that wasn’t tied to their husbands. White people in the South thought they were on the side of “truth” when they overwhelmingly opposed the idea of newly-emancipated Black people having even similar rights to the rights enjoyed by white people. And when it comes right down to it, the “truth” of those historically racist, misogynistic and evil white people is reflected in the “truth” espoused by modern white conservatives such as Harrison Butker.
It is the “tyranny” of white conservatism that needs to be laid to rest —and that’s the “truth.”
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The post The Irony: Conservatives Didn’t Tell NFL’s Harrison Butker To ‘Shut Up’ And Play Football After Bigoted Graduation Speech appeared first on NewsOne .
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