We Need To Stop Saying University of Colorado Is “Black America’s Team”

We need to talk about Black America.

So we don’t, but we do according to Skip Bayless, so here we go.

Recently, Skip Bayless asked, “Is Deion’s Colorado now Black America’s Team?” asked one show promotional tweet.

Social media hasn’t been kind to Skipbut let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and review the episode that aired on Undisputed.

Skip Bayless asked the question to Richard Sherman and Keyshawn Johnson: Based on an article by Mike Freeman of USA Today, in which Freeman says:

“While Deion Sanders continues to capture the magic of college football, even as his team disintegrates, something else is happening. It may not make headlines, but it’s happening all over the country. In black homes. In black businesses. Black fathers and sons, Black mothers and daughters, Black friends and co-workers; Many in the black community are talking about Sanders. They say Colorado is Black America’s team.“

To Richard Sherman and Keyshawn Johnson’s credit, they seemed to understand the question, although they were a little confused by the premise.

Richard Sherman said Deion “has a lot of fans in the black community, and a lot of fans in every community.”

“Everybody wants to play with Deion because he is Deion,” Keyshawn Johnson said.

Not everyone. Just ask the people who want him to stick it out at Jackson State and continue to help elevate HBCUs. Just like Deion Sanders, these people are not hard to find.

My instincts completely reject this proposition because THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BLACK AMERICA.

We do not have a single voice or a single interest. What race of people does this?

We are not a monolith.

If you’re black, perhaps there’s added incentive for you to take a deep-rooted interest in Deion Sanders’ success.

Every positive indicator you can understand is a helping hand in both self-validation and nurturing the next generation.

But I guarantee you that if you say Deion Sanders’ name in a gathering of Black Americans united around seeing the University of Colorado succeed, you will get the full spectrum of views.

And that includes people who never cared about Deion Sanders and never will.

Believe it or not, not every black person is interested in sports.

10 million people watched the last Colorado game. There are more than 40 million black people in America. Mathematics is not mathematics.

And if you’re interested in sports, especially college football, are you rooting for Deion Sanders so much that you’ve outgrown your allegiance? Want him to bring the Buffaloes to your town to beat up your school?

I know I didn’t.

And they didn’t, by the way. Go Ducks.

My point is that it is foolish to view any group of people as one thing on one team. White people never have to deal with this.

It would be absurd to say that something has been embraced by all of White America, even if it’s something disproportionately loved by whites, like pickleball, pumpkin spice, Duke basketball, or the Rudy movie.

But when it comes to minorities, for some reason we entertain the idea on a live television show moderated by Skip Bayless?

If there was a meeting we were all supposed to be at Team Deion at, I must have missed it!

For another example of this, look at what’s going on with the Washington Redskins or the Football Team or the Commanders.

A petition has been circulating from an organization called the Native American Guard Association asking new owner Josh Harris to change the franchise’s name from Commanders to Redskins.

And the reaction online was: “I thought Native Americans were the ones who wanted the name changed, why can’t they decide?”

Maybe it’s because there is no such thing as “them”.

Native Americans are not one thing. So much so that we literally get the term “tribe” from here.

Holding an entire group accountable for the views of a portion of that group has resulted in the entire indigenous community making successive agreements to share their land, culture, and resources.

Look, I don’t care how well-intentioned Mike Freeman is, it was his column that allowed Skip Bayless to go on TV and present the idea that Black America is some kind of hive mentality.

It’s not dangerous to present the idea that a growing number of black people support Deion Sanders, but the idea that opinions about Deion Sanders are unlikely to change because of the color of his skin is exactly why it happens every time I tweet. About Coach Prime, there are trolls who say in my remarks that I only support him because he is black.

We let idiots and racists think like idiots and racists.

Let that sink in.