• These ignorant black youth football players took a knee. Is that why th

    From Black Lies Matter...@21:1/5 to All on Sat Nov 12 02:26:38 2016
    XPost: alt.tv.oreilly-factor, alt.healing.reiki, alt.politics.radical-left XPost: alt.journalism

    Reap what you sow.

    When the Beaumont Bulls, a youth football team in eastern Texas,
    decided to take a knee at a Sept. 10 game, the response was
    swift — and vicious.

    Hate mail poured in from people who were outraged that the all-
    black team and its coaches had refused to rise during the
    national anthem. Some people called the 11- and 12-year-old
    players racial slurs and even threatened to have them lynched
    and burned.

    In the face of all that, the Beaumont Bulls executive board
    stood behind them. So did the Bay Area Football League, which
    the team is part of.

    “There are scenarios occurring in society that until this point
    in time, we have not had to address,” the president said at the
    time. “We support the Beaumont Bulls.”

    Within a week, however, on the eve of the next game, things
    began to unravel. Tensions erupted between coaches, parents and
    league officials. Shortly after, players began to drop out.

    Now, a little more than a month after the team’s protest, the
    league has canceled the team’s remaining games, as KBMT reported
    Tuesday. The reasons behind the decision are in dispute. The
    league’s athletic director said the season was cut short because
    too many players left. The head coach, however, has suggested
    that it all stemmed from the protest.

    It’s the latest controversy to rattle an athletic club in the
    weeks since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick
    took a knee during a preseason game in protest of racial
    injustice and fatal police shootings in the U.S. Athletes from
    professional teams all the way down to the junior level have
    joined him, igniting provincial battles over whether it’s
    offensive or improper for players to mimic his display.

    The Beaumont Bulls’ decision to kneel during the anthem was not
    the work of just a couple wayward players. After mulling
    Kaepernick’s protest in September, the team’s players and
    coaches agreed that they would all take a knee at the Sept. 10
    game, according to Bleacher Report, which spoke to the team.

    But before they did, they asked for permission from the league
    and the Beaumont Bulls executive board.

    They got it.

    When the hateful messages and death threats came in, team and
    league leaders backed them.

    [Crowd hurls slurs at all-black youth football team as some
    players kneel during anthem, coach says]

    “It is our hope and desire to cultivate young men that will be
    leaders in our communities that will make a difference in this
    world,” the Beaumont Bulls executive board said in a statement a
    couple of days after the game. “And though their stance was not
    seen by all as a sign of progress, we believe that it was and we
    will continue to support them.”

    As the following game approached, the team discussed whether
    they would continue. Most of them took a knee, while five others
    stood by with locked arms, according to Bleacher Report.

    It was around that time that things spiraled out of control.
    Parents, coaches and officials clashed at meetings where they
    discussed how to deal with the threatening messages. Details are
    murky and conflicting, but head coach Rah-Rah Barber told
    Bleacher Report that he was suspended because he had allowed
    parents to speak to the media and players to continue to protest.

    Parents followed him out, and took their players with them, he
    said. By Oct. 1, the team had just 15 players left, down from
    two dozen, KBMT reported. Within days, not enough players
    remained to meet the league minimum and the season was nixed,
    according to KBMT.

    League and team officials, however, said it had nothing to do
    with the protest.

    “We are an African-American board,” league athletic director
    DeCarlos Anderson told KBMT. “Our membership is diverse. It’s
    not a race thing.”

    Anderson said Barber, the Bulls’ head coach, was suspended
    because he pushed two assistant coaches out when they said they
    didn’t want to continue with the protest.

    “The athletic director is the only one who has the authority to
    remove an assistant or head coach,” Anderson said. “He tried to
    remove an assistant coach and child from his team because he
    didn’t have the same beliefs that he had.”

    In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Barber fired back, saying the
    board “reprimanded” them for protesting and that many parents
    and players on the team quit in solidarity. At least one coach
    resigned with them, according to Bleacher Report.

    “Until the coach is reinstated they decided not to attend
    practice or games in an attempt to make the board pay for their
    actions,” Barber said, adding, “I have accepted the outcome and
    moved on.”

    Barber and league officials didn’t immediately respond to
    requests for comment on Tuesday.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning- mix/wp/2016/10/19/these-youth-football-players-took-a-knee-but- is-that-why-their-season-got-
    canceled/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_3_na
     

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