A magazine’s claim about Black men in football did not sit well with users on Twitter.
The Scientific American published an opinion article titled, “Damar Hamlin’s Collapse Highlights the Violence Black Men Experience in Football.”
The outlet shared the article on Twitter with the caption, “The ‘terrifyingly ordinary’ nature of football’s violence disproportionately affects Black men.”
Comedian David Angelo reacted, tweeting, “When people ask for a definition of ‘woke,’ I’d probably say ‘clumsily using race and/or gender to launder stupidty for financial gain.'”
One user wrote, “Thanks, Scientific American, for using a man’s tragedy as political whining under the guise of ‘science.'”
Writer Christina Sommers replied, “Another absurd and incoherent article in the once-serious Scientific American.”
Columnist Kurt Schlichter simply wrote, “Shut up.”
Read more reactions below:
https://Twitter.com/Reverend_Ducati/status/1612175130888933376
https://Twitter.com/kmklapak/status/1611937072662839302
Tracie Canada argued in the article Black men are “overrepresented on the gridiron.”
She continued, “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, coachers racially segregate athletes by playing position.”
Canada claimed these “demographic discrepancies place Black athletes at a higher risk during play.”
Commenting on Hamlin’s collapse on the field during a game last week, Canada wrote his injury “demonstrates that ordinary violence has potentially deadly consequences, and highlights how Black men’s athletic labor sustains this brutal system.”
Concluding the piece, Canada said, “If we expect these quotidian gladiators to return to the field, structural shifts must occur so they are actually cared for in a way that respects their humanity, as men who just happen to play the game of football exceptionally well.”
Hamlin, a safety for the Buffalo Bills, posted from his hospital bed less than a week after his cardiac arrest.
“GAMETIME!!!” Hamlin tweeted ahead of the Bills’ game against the New England Patriots on Sunday.