The United States Football Federation voted on Saturday to revoke a controversial 2017 policy that required players to represent the national anthem, and issued a statement hours later condemning the “offensive comments” by a dissident delegate who downplayed the impact of slavery and dismissed police brutality against African Americans as a “statistical anomaly” touted by the media in comments from the floor.
Over 70% of American football governing body members voted to repeal Policy 604-1, who stated that all members of the national team should “stand respectfully” during the song.
About 30% voted to keep the policy in place, no one more vehemently than Seth Jahn, a US Paralympic and current member of the US Football Athletes Council who delivered a seven-minute reprimand of the proposal that reformulated a series of familiar right-wing discussion points, including a media accusation for not reporting on black crimes, spurious correlations between “politicization of sport” and the decline of the TV audience, gross minimizations of the horrors of slavery and derogatory references to “warriors of social justice” and “identity politics”.
On Saturday night, US Soccer issued a statement distancing itself from Jahn’s comments.
“The offensive comments made by a delegate from the floor during today’s annual general meeting do not represent the views of US Soccer,” the statement said. “While reflecting on a successful AGM, we also want to underline the importance of US Soccer’s focus on diversity, equality and inclusion efforts within the federation and among our members. An important step in this process was the repeal of Policy 601-4 today during the national council meeting. As the president of the United States Football Federation, Cindy Parlow Cone, said, after the AGM, there is never any place for racist comments in any way ”.
On Saturday, Cone, who was promoted to United States football president when Carlos Cordeiro resigned amid controversy last year, acknowledged that the revocation was “divisive” during a session with reporters.
“We know that this is an issue that causes a lot of division in our country and around the world,” said Cone. “So I was not surprised that our association was not 100% in one way or another.
The United States women’s team stood as a group during the anthem before their third and final SheBelieves Cup game on February 24, after some knelt at the opening of the tournament six days earlier. The team members said that they had already passed the protest phase of the anthem debate during the rotation competition, but were still committed to fighting to end systemic racism.
In June, the US Soccer board of directors voted to revoke the no-kneeling edict, which was put in place after Megan Rapinoe knelt before a 2016 game in solidarity with NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who started the demonstration as a protest against racial injustice.
The council vote required confirmation from the broader governing body of football, which it received during Saturday’s annual meeting, but not without the vehement dissent of Jahn, a veteran of the U.S. armed forces who played on the national team of seven each. of the USA on the Paralympic River and served as head of security for the women’s team during the 2019 World Cup in France.
In prepared comments filled with specious statements and historical inaccuracies, Jahn described police brutality against black and brown people as “a narrative with relatively little data to substantiate it”.
“Facts just don’t have time for feelings,” he said. “I worked in law enforcement at two large agencies alongside my black, brown, white, yellow, red, purple colleagues, I never saw a sign of police brutality.
“Does that mean it doesn’t exist? Absolutely not, and it is important to address these atrocities when they manifest, exercise critical thinking and also rebuke the divisive narrative exacerbated by the media in order to garner their assessments as they explore our emotional state.
Jahn went on to challenge the impact and legacy of movable property slavery in the United States, arguing that it was not an exclusively American practice.
“I continue to hear how our country was founded on the backs of slaves, although approximately only 8% of the entire population had slaves. Each race in human history has been enslaved by another demographic at some point in time.
“Blacks were enslaved, Hispanics were enslaved, Asians – more recently in our country, in the damn 20th century – were enslaved, natives were enslaved, whites were enslaved. Gosh, I lived in Africa for two and a half years where I could buy people – slaves – between the price of $ 300 and $ 800 per person, per capita, depending on their age, health and physicality. Where are the social justice warriors and news journalists to illuminate these real atrocities?
“Still, in all of history, only one country has fought to abolish slavery: the United States of America, where almost 400,000 men died to fight for the abolition of slavery under the same stars and bars by which our athletes kneel. His sacrifice is contaminated with every … knee that touches the ground. It is shameful and embarrassing. “
The vote – 71% in favor with only a simple majority required – directly followed this sensational seven-minute dissent from Seth Jahn, a U.S. Paralympic athlete who is currently a member of the U.S. Football Athletes Council. pic.twitter.com/vH4Pc4vkT4
– Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) February 27, 2021
After Jahn’s statement and before the final vote, Cone made it clear that the proposal to revoke the anthem’s policy should not be confused with disrespect for the flag or the Armed Forces.
“Let me be clear, this is not about disrespecting the flag or disrespecting the military,” said Cone. “It is the right of athletes and our team to protest peacefully against racial inequalities and police brutality. Therefore, I urge our associates to support our team and our athletes in this policy. “