Critical analysis of Wright's NFL protest arguments and racial justice claims

Reaction One: Agreement Although I disagree with Wright’s opinion, I do acknowledge that the NFL protests are not helping “heal the nation’s racial divide.” I understand that Wright thinks that one person’s statistical analyses can refute a whole body of evidence about racially motivated police brutality; many people misread and misinterpret statistics. Wright does a good job of oversimplifying the issues, such as leading the reader to believe that police brutality is not a problem, or glossing over systematic injustice and institutionalized racism. Wright is also correct to point out, “all is not well with how America treats our black and brown citizens. And it extends beyond the realm of criminal justice.” The author discusses the ways employers discriminate against candidates with African-American names. The author is also correct that discrimination is “complicated” and not as direct as some people want to believe. It is definitely true that “our brains are hardwired to embrace stereotypes.” Stereotypes are cognitive shortcuts that help us to quickly classify and categorize the world. Wright is right to say that the media leads us to believe certain things about people of color, which leads to serious prejudicial attitudes. Although I generally support the NFL protests and disagree that Black Lives Matter is based on a “false narrative,” I agree that the conversation about race does need to be more elevated and more sophisticated in general. Reaction Two Wright’s article on the NFL protests comes across as being angry and arrogant. The headline uses keywords like “stars,” to refer to the athletes, taking away from their responsibilities as American citizens. Granted, Wright does criticize Trump for his unnecessary “barrage” of tweets, but what really makes Wright’s (2017) position enervating is the author’s assertion that police brutality is a myth. Several times the author refers to “alleged police mistreatment,” and cites one professor (and overtly states that the professor is African American) who claims that there is no racial disparity in the use of deadly force by police officers. Yet a few sentences later, Wright (2017) states, “Black and brown Americans were more likely to be touched, handcuffed, pushed to the ground or pepper-sprayed than whites during similar altercations,” practically contradicting his own statement. Police brutality is not just about lethal incidents, but about an overall racial bias that leads to unfair treatment. Moreover, one professor’s data does not refute the larger body of scientific studies that do reveal strong racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Cognitive Dissonance It took a lot of work to agree with Wright, because I have strong beliefs about the issue. Cognitive dissonance refers to “a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance,” (McLeod, 2008). I felt uncomfortable when reading the Wright article, and being challenged to agree with him did lead to my experiencing some cognitive dissonance. However, I have no problem holding two contradictory thoughts and enjoy the opportunity to explore different ways of looking at the issues. As I wrote the agreeing and disagreeing paragraphs, I realized that I can have mixed and complex attitudes about the topic and that in fact, I should.