Over the past few weeks, two events have happened which seem to have set the global media into a tailspin. On one hand we have the death of the long-serving and much travelled US Sen. John McCain and on the other hand, we have had the blacklisted NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick unveiled as the new face of Nike. The two events have been met with what can only be called an exaggerated emotional reaction, a willful blindness to facts and in a strange way, act as symptoms of the disease which affects humanity.
Let us start with the case of Nike as that incident seems to have garnered the most controversy. Contrary to what social media and media pundits tell you, Nike is not ‘woke’ (if I may be permitted to use the youthful jargon) and the move to secure Mr Kaepernick was not borne out of some sort of moral stance, rather it was made for simple economic reasons. In the years since Colin took the knee and even following his blacklisting, his jersey remains in the top five as it relates to most popular and sales. Nike made a marketing decision, a bold one, but nothing more than mere marketing and trying to get more money, this time from the SJW group.
Have we forgotten how and where Nike shoes are made? In Hattian, Thai, or Chinese sweatshops by underpaid over-exploited persons who more often than not are children. This is not a morally upright company (an oxymoron probably) and to state that it is one simply because it has the great Serena or the stoic Kaepernick as the faces of the company product does not change that.
The mourning of the late John McCain is equally baffling as the Nike case. Mr McCain, a person who never left the American media spotlight, gained even more popularity in the last few years of his life as an ardent and vocal opponent of the current president. Before and more so after his passing we have been inundated with stories of how the late war-hero and Sen. strived for bi-partisanship, human rights and even if a maverick always had his heart in the right place and did the right thing. This is the mantra coming from both parties in the US and even critics of Mr Trump abroad, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
Lest it is forgotten in all this mourning allow me to remind us all of what John McCain stood for. The much-venerated veteran served in the Vietnam war and was shot down while en-route to bomb a lightbulb factory (a war crime by all standards), the so-called champion of human rights aggressively and openly funded/courted hard right despots in Latin America. The man who so recently has been held up as a champion of human rights embraced in his final few years the open neo-Nazis in Ukraine and the militias which have been running slave markets in Libya and Iraq. John McCain was many things, a paragon of human virtue, however, he was not.
But what is it that these two cases have in common and how does it reflect on our modern society? The common thread running between these two cases is people projecting their values on others because it fits the narrative.
It is fun and heart-warming to believe that Nike, the heartless amoral company would stand up to white supremacy, it gives us hope in mankind to think that a man who operates as McCain did opposes the insanity president Trump does. There are more people of colour in the world when compared to white people, basic business states therefore that you don’t alienate them. More persons of colour are playing sports when compared to white people (for the reason see the previous point), basic business says you do everything to retain that market before securing others. Note that the company still has no problem operating in countries with legalised racism.
John McCain despite vocal criticism to Trump voted in his favour in the majority of votes taken in the house before his demise (most notably the tax bill which most persons agree is unsustainable). Despite vocal criticism aligned himself with Trump on foreign policy or, and this is because he was a maverick, was even more hawkish than the current president. Note that the man who stated that the president is a Manchurian candidate voted to give him unfettered war powers.
What these recent events have shown me in no uncertain terms is that this urge we have as a species to run with the premise that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ is still with us. It shows that we are still gullible and refuse to look at the picture as a whole rather than in fragmented pieces and therefore fall prey to propaganda and (what can only be called slick) marketing campaigns. It shows that some people are still more than willing to drink the Kool-Aid even after seeing the rat-poison being poured into it.
That, however, is no reason to throw in the towel and stop calling out inconsistencies, propaganda and flat out lies. On the contrary, it should be the fire which drives one on. So, I say again, John McCain was no fan of the oppressed and downtrodden and Nike is nowhere near being the ACLU (or JFJ for us Jamaicans). Do they on the rare occasion stand on the right side of history, yes, but so did the British and Free French in WW2 and they are still held up to ridicule for what they did pre and post-war. Never believe that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, things are always more complicated and murkier the longer one looks and shouldn’t be forgotten. So, kudos Nike for a slick campaign, but you really need to step up workplace practices while speaking out against racial injustices if you are to be taken seriously as a voice of virtue. And thank you, John, for calling out Trump, it’s a shame you never got a chance to show if you had truly changed your political stances or were merely grandstanding to a man who levelled insults towards you.
jamaicachange 