Jay-Z’s Hollow Victory
Roc Nation’s new partnership with the NFL for social justice is a victory for everyone except Colin Kaepernick
Yesterday, Hip Hop musician and business mogul Jay-Z (born Shawn Carter) and the NFL announced their partnership with his company Roc Nation to bolster the league’s entertainment offerings and raise awareness of social issues that have been ignited to public consciousness thanks to the protests of Colin Kaepernick and several NFL athletes.
The NFL discussed the details of the partnership on their website:
Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by rapper and businessman Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, is entering into a multiyear partnership with the NFL to enhance the NFL’s live game experiences and to amplify the league’s social justice efforts.
As part of the agreement, Roc Nation will advise on the selection of artists for major NFL performances like the Super Bowl. A major component of the partnership will be to nurture and strengthen community through football and music, including through the NFL’s Inspire Change initiative.
The NFL formally launched the Inspire Change initiative in early 2019, after more than two years of work with NFL players, with the goal of creating positive change in communities across the country. Through this initiative, NFL teams and the league office work with the Players Coalition and other NFL players to support programs and initiatives that reduce barriers to opportunity, with a focus on three priority areas: education and economic advancement; police and community relations; and criminal justice reform.
“With its global reach, the National Football League has the platform and opportunity to inspire change across the country,” Carter said in a press release. “Roc Nation has shown that entertainment and enacting change are not mutually exclusive ideas — instead, we unify them. This partnership is an opportunity to strengthen the fabric of communities across America.”
Carter added during a Wednesday Q&A with select media: “I’m really into action — I’m into real work. I’m not into how it looks. How it looks only lasts for a couple months until we start doing the work. I’ve been in this position many times. Take Tidal as a great example from five years ago. Now, people look at it today, people have a different outlook on it. But at the time, people didn’t see what was going on. So I’ve been in this position many times. I just show up and do the work, I’m not interested in how things look on the outside. If protesting on the field is the most effective way, then protest on the field. But, if you have a vehicle that you can inspire change and you can speak to the masses and educate at the same time.”
Carter said the platform that the NFL provides speaks to the work in the community that the league and Roc Nation can do together.
“Inspire Change is already happening (with Roc Nation) and the NFL has a huge platform,” he said. “We can use that huge platform, and we’ve seen it happen. Like with J.J. Watt, when he brought the aid to everyone in Houston, everybody forgot about the turmoil that was in the NFL. If you can use this platform to do that in different areas, that’s a home run. That’s how I would view a success. That’s success for me.”
Roc Nation also will work with the NFL to create and distribute content across multiple music streaming services for a variety of initiatives.
“Every conversation I’ve had with Jay has been inspiring,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday. “Not just on his perspective on the process of how we do the entertainment, but what we should try to achieve. We always say we should get better and we should evolve. We think we should partner with the best, and that’s why we’re sitting here. We believe we’re partnering with the best. So, his perspective is going to drive us.”
This all sounds good. The NFL is taking steps into working with the players to provide support to those who have suffered social injustice. Jay-Z and Roc Nation can bring awareness of those social issues to the public and generate profit by helping out their entertainment brand (particularly the Super Bowl). Everybody wins right?
Well…not exactly. There’s a “giant elephant in the room” that has yet to be fully addressed by Jay-Z or Goodell: how does Colin Kaepernick feel about all this?
It’s been three years since Kaepernick brought awareness of the social injustices and systematic oppression in America to light and he hasn’t played professional football since the 2016 NFL season. Even when teams were in dire need of a quarterback to fill in the shoes of those who were injured or just flat out played poorly, no one has bothered to bring in Kaepernick to take over the position or even brought him in for workouts. Heck, he hasn’t even been signed to practice squads just to get reacquainted in the game of football.
Despite the fact that he wants to have the NFL make legitimate changes to how they act and provide help to those in need, he’s been often left out of the meetings and his opinions have never been truly valued by the NFL. Instead of showcasing that they’re making strides, the League has Kaepernick remain jobless from the sport he grew up loving. It’s one of the main reasons why the NFL continues to maintain a negative reputation of only looking out for the head executives as opposed to the players. You can’t state you want to combat social injustice while doing disservice to the person who made light of those issues.
Kaepernick’s absence was brought into attention during yesterday’s press conference with Jay-Z and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Here was his response to Kaepernick’s lack of involvement:
“I think that we forget that Colin’s whole thing was to bring attention to social injustice, correct?” Jay-Z said during the press conference. “So, in that case, this is a success; this is the next thing. ’Cause there’s two parts of protesting. You go outside and you protest, and then the company or the individual says, ‘I hear you. What do we do next?’ So, for me, it was like, action, actionable item, what are we going to do with it? Everyone heard and we hear what you’re saying, and everybody knows I agree with what you’re saying. So what are we going to do? So we should, millions of millions of people, and all we get stuck on [is] Colin not having a job. I think we’re past kneeling. I think it’s time for action.”
Uh…no.
Maybe Jay-Z doesn’t realize this but taking action on combating social injustice while not helping the person who ironically is a victim of a form of injustice is hypocritical. While Kaepernick wasn’t the first professional athlete to highlight those issues plaguing society he definitely was the lightning rod that brought it to the NFL. You probably wouldn’t be seeing more and more players speak out on those issues if it wasn’t for him. Him not being involved leaves a bitter taste to those who were hoping for real change in the NFL in regards to their handling of systematic oppression.
Recently Miami Dolphins wide receiver Kenny Stills criticized his employer and the owner of the team Stephen Ross for hosting a fundraiser for U.S. President Donald Trump who has been known for his insulting comments on athletes like Stills and Kaepernick.
Stills highlighted that you can’t host a fundraising event for a President who doesn’t even support your players and their freedom to present social issues that concern them. Ross also is the co-founder of RISE (the Ross Initiative for Sports and Equality), whose objective is to create leadership programs and workshops to address racism, inequality, and prejudice in America and makes his association with President Trump look all the more worse. Stills probably would’ve kept those thoughts to himself at one point but athletes like Kaepernick and his former teammate and best friend Eric Reid — who’s currently a safety on the Carolina Panthers — wouldn’t stay silent and encouraged other NFL athletes to speak their minds on the matters that are important to them and not “just shut up and play ball.”
This brings us back to Jay-Z’s troubling partnership with the NFL. Because he’s associated himself with the League that hasn’t done right to someone he supposedly supports it makes seem like he’s doing this based solely on self-interest as opposed to genuinely wanting to help people. That wouldn’t be fair to Jay-Z since he himself is an activist and he has also brought to light the social injustices in America. He produced the Kalief Browder documentary. He brilliantly deconstructed how the war on drugs disproportionately fails Blacks and Latinos. He assembled the Reform Alliance with Meek Mill, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Philadelphia 76ers owner Michael Rubin who all pledged $50 million to provide support for those who have been victims of the flawed incarceration system in America. Jay-Z is very serious about his philanthropy and giving back to those in need.
So why work with the people who haven’t been fair to the person you claim inspired you take the initiative to form this partnership?
Maybe this sounded like a good idea in his head at the time but probably didn’t think of the ramifications of his decision when it all went down(keep in mind this all speculation and doesn’t confirm nor deny anything). There’s no denying that Jay-Z definitely should’ve included Kaepernick in his decision-making process. It doesn’t help that Kaepernick’s girlfriend and media personality Nessa Diab criticized Jay-Z for supposedly lying when he claimed he spoke to Kaepernick before announcing his partnership with the NFL.
While Jay-Z may not care that much of public perception, actions definitely speak louder than words and close friends of Kaepernick do not believe for a second that he is doing what he can to support Kaepernick.
There’s no telling what Jay-Z plans to do now with the recent backlash he’s been receiving based on his decision. The NFL doesn’t get to skate by either as “the Shield” continues to receive criticism for their treatment of Kaepernick as well. Goodell and the other executives thought that by partnering with arguably one of the biggest musicians in pop culture would alleviate the damaged reputation they have been receiving. It didn’t and just reignited the fact that a quarterback who was statistically good the last time he played has been left out by the League and continuously has his message and objectives muddled by outside parties.
Yes, this partnership is definitely a win for Jay-Z, Roc Nation, Robert Kraft, Roger Goodell, and the NFL. However, since Kaepernick is not involved and is still being held jobless, this “victory” feels incredibly empty.
*additional content from SBNation, ESPN, The Atlantic, USA Today, CNN, The Root, Playboy, TMZ, NY Times, Yahoo Sports, NFL.com
