"We live in this weird era...in which your lived experience get to be your fact."
--Jack Armstrong
"My feelings are more important are your fact"
--Joe Getty
Cancel culture is once again alive & well. Featured in this episode: NFL star Drew Brees.
Brees was asked about the protests that are taking place around the country, and during an interview with Yahoo Finance the beloved Saints QB telling Yahoo Finance that “it’s important to be a part of the solution”, while also emphasizing that he doesn’t support the act of kneeling during the National Anthem.
“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country. Let me just tell what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played and when I look at the flag of the United States. I envision my two grandfathers, who fought for this country during World War II, one in the Army and one in the Marine Corp. Both risking their lives to protect our country and to try to make our country and this world a better place. So every time I stand with my hand over my heart looking at that flag and singing the national anthem, that’s what I think about. And in many cases, that brings me to tears, thinking about all that has been sacrificed. Not just those in the military, but for that matter, those throughout the civil rights movements of the ‘60s, and all that has been endured by so many people up until this point. And is everything right with our country right now? No, it is not. We still have a long way to go. But I think what you do by standing there and showing respect to the flag with your hand over your heart, is it shows unity. It shows that we are all in this together, we can all do better and that we are all part of the solution.”
Naturally, given the high degree of anger and high anxiety over the protests and looting that’s taken place following the death of George Floyd, Brees’ comments didn’t go unnoticed. Current and former NFL’ers have piled-on against Brees, as have a number of athletes from other sports--notably Lebron James.
Perhaps most interesting about this weird time in which we live is the widely embraced notion that “my lived experience gets to be my facts’, that “my feelings are more impact important than your facts”. Brees specifically said that when he looks at the flag, he thinks of the people in his family fighting on behalf of protecting our freedom. It didn’t seem as though Brees was disavowing other people’s ‘lived experiences” but certainly--that's the way they took it.
It wasn’t long ago that to speak about one’s lived experience was Ok.
Now, Brees has apologized for his comments, stating
“they were insensitive and completely missed the mark on the issues we're facing right now as a country I would like to apologize to my friends, teammates, the city of New Orleans, the black community, The NFL Community and anyone I hurt with my comments yesterday in speaking with some of you it breaks my heart to know the pain I have caused."
But even if it's over for him, it's not going to be over in general.
Listen to the rest of Jack & Joe’s commentary on Drew Brees, as well as former NBA player (and friend of George Floyd) Stephen Jackson’s offensive response in the Armstrong & Getty Select Cuts Podcast below...