ESPN host Pat McAfee used MLK Day to show white privilege is in full effect

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

Like clockwork and without fail, as surely sunset follows sunrise, each Martin Luther King Day features mass misappropriation from disingenuous or ignorant white folks. 

They cherry-pick his message to find the most palatable, most nonthreatening quotes and post them on social media like Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Still, who was kicked off the Tulsa Race Massacre Commission in 2021 for signing a bill that outlawed teaching critical race theory in public schools. 

“Dr. King’s dream was the American Dream — we’re one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all,” Stitt tweeted Monday. “He knew that greatness was determined by the content of our character and merit, not skin color or background. MLK’s legacy is forever engraved in history.”

Makes me wanna holler and throw up.

Stitt reverences a dream that his ilk fights against becoming reality, a common theme when MLK Day rolls around. But ESPN broadcaster Pat McAfee offered a new twist on the old saw, using a euphemism for the N-word to suggest we’re nearly free at last.

“Obviously it’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day,” McAfee said Monday on his eponymous show. “He had a dream. And I think LANK was one of the closest we’ve had to potentially that dream coming to fruition. So let’s realize that as we look around and that we’re maybe more close than we’ve ever been.”

What the hell is he talking about? 

We don’t need a Pew report to know “America is exceptional in the nature of its political divide.” We’ve got 400 years of evidence, with too many states like Oklahoma trying to run it back and rewind the clock. Roughly half the nation’s voters favor an orangy grifter who admittedly wants to flush democratic ideals and place racism on a pedestal.

I suspect McAfee’s obtuseness results largely from his eight years in the NFL, giving him a sense of familiarity and comfort around Black men and perhaps their families. He comes off as a dude who easily laughs and jokes in melanin spaces, able to talk shit and take it as well. But that closeness can create a false sense of unity concerning a slur that WE can toss around freely, much to the chagrin of cool Caucasians who want to be down.

Which brings us to McAfee’s absurd contention that “LANK” was a watershed moment in bridging America’s racial chasm.

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In case you missed it, McAfee almost lost his mind on an ESPN college football show last month when an Alabama player’s motto came up. Host Rece Davis said – slyly – that the acronym stands for “Let A Naysayer Know.”  McAfee interjected as Davis continued to speak.

“That is not what I thought,” he said, as one Black broadcaster (Joey Galloway) started laughing and the other (Desmond Howard) tried to keep a straight face. “Let a naysayer know?” McAfee said, incredulously. With laughter roiling the set, McAfee said, “It got real tight up here.” Galloway said, “I thought it was going down!” 

Just like that — as two Black guys yukked it up with two white guys (Davis and Kirk Herbstreit) — “naysayer” replaced the N-word that everyone was thinking about.

 I remember seeing a T-shirt years ago that read: “If you see the police, let a ni**a know.” LANK is a common phrase in Black vernacular, thus McAfee’s reaction to the edited version. And he thinks that TV moment brought us closer to MLK’s dream?

Naysayer, please.

(For the record, “naysayer” is now officially off-limits to white people and they should keep it out of their mouth when in mixed company, just like the real word. Same rules apply.)

The rest of McAfee’s MLK tribute was crazy, too, saying “There’s an election about to take place this year where we need to remember that we are more close than we have ever been. And people could potentially try to drive us apart from the outside looking in. … Two political parties canceled me last week and we are still alive. Let’s remember we don’t need all the outside noise. All we need is a little bit of love.”

We need a lot more truth and fact-checking, which are sorely lacking during MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ weekly appearances. 

A week earlier, the noted conspiracy theorist suggested that comedian Jimmy Kimmel was connected to accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. ESPN issued an apology, but Rodgers was back on the program one day later. Public outrage made McAfee cry “canceled,” though he remains on air daily at a reported $17 million per year.

That’s a whole lotta white privilege, the ability to make MLK Day about yourself, embrace the N-word and low-key endorse anti-Black politics. McAfee certainly doesn’t stick to sports like former ESPNers Jemele Hill, Michael Smith and Cari Champion were instructed. Those who think like McAfee need to heed a less-famous MLK verse until the lesson takes.

“Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance,” King wrote in “Where Do We Go From Here.” “It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn.”

Where are the willing students? 

We’re dying to teach.

Deron Snyder, from Brooklyn, is an award-winning columnist who lives near D.C. and pledged Alpha at HU-You Know! He’s reaching high, lying low, moving on, pushing off, keeping up, and throwing down. Got it? Get more at blackdoorventures.com/deron.

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