Trump’s Threats to NFL Protests: Muzzling Black Men Like Slave Days

October 13, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

In Trump’s fascist worldview, the Nazis and KKK white supremacists in Charlottesville are “very fine people”… while the NFL players who protest the murder by police of people of color are “sons of bitches” who should be immediately fired.

Nazis and KKK white supremacists rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photo: AP

NFL players take a knee to protest murders by police of people of color. Photo: Twitter/OaklandRaiders

If Trump shuts down the NFL protests, or if the owners punish the players taking righteous action, it will be a significant victory for fascism. It would mean he will have succeeded in silencing Black men. It brings to mind the binding and gagging of Black Panther leader Bobby Seale in a political kangaroo trial in 1969 and the literal muzzling—and worse—that slave owners perpetrated on “back-talking” slaves.

Depiction of Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, bound and gagged during his a political trial in 1969. (Image: © Estate of Howard Brodie/courtesy Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Instruments of torture that slave owners used to literally muzzle “back-talking” slaves.

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