The publication Scientific American covers new developments in the realm of science, technology, and society. Now, you can add racism to that list of topics.
SA published a piece by Tracie Canada, an associate professor of anthropology at Duke University, suggesting that the violent nature of professional football disproportionately affects black men who play the sport. She used Damar Hamlin’s injury as the crux of her race-baiting article to suggest that black players are at higher risk of injury.
Now to be fair to Canada, if you make this assumption simply based on the demographic of NFL players, it’s somewhat reasonable. The league is composed of 70 percent non-white players, so it would make sense that this demographic would have a higher injury rate simply because there are more people in this demographic. But Canada’s argument quickly loses credibility as she suggests that white players are purposefully protected from injury by putting them in “safer” positions, and states the NFL thrives on exploiting black players.
“Non-white players account for 70 percent of the NFL; nearly half of all Division I college football players are Black. Further, through a process called racial stacking, coaches racially segregate athletes by playing position. These demographic discrepancies place Black athletes at a higher risk during play,” Canada writes. “Hamlin’s injury demonstrates that ordinary violence has potentially deadly consequences, and highlights how Black men’s athletic labor sustains this brutal system.”
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Football is a violent sport, and that can’t be completely avoided. Hamlin’s injury was a freak accident. Race had zero to do with it. As stated earlier, the only reason why major injuries such as Hamlin’s might affect black players more is because there are more of them playing professionally (shouldn’t progressives be happy about this level of “representation?”). Furthermore, the “racial stacking” argument Canada used in her piece has been debunked and discredited many times throughout the years. All in all, Canada’s piece has no credibility.
Former Indianapolis Colts coach and current NBC broadcaster Tony Dungy thought the same thing and said as much on Twitter.
As a black man and former NFL player I can say this article is absolutely ridiculous.
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) January 7, 2023
Hamlin’s injury, while tragic, is not indicative of a racism problem in the NFL, and it is preposterous to say it is.
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Hamlin Previously Spoke Of Prayer, Cherishing Every Moment https://t.co/vmH3SrWOVC
— MRCTV (@mrctv) January 8, 2023