Poet Amanda Gorman exudes hope even as Black oppression remains | Commentary

By JASON CAMPBELL GUEST COLUMNIST |FEB 09, 2021 |

“…Scripture tells us to envision / that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree / And no one shall make them afraid…”

As Amanda Gorman spoke those words during the inauguration last month, I felt a chill — the hairs standing on the back of my neck. Praised for her diction, eloquence and intellectual accomplishment, Amanda Gorman has made her mark, subtly changing our prevailing expectations of Blacks in the spotlight. While Black culture is inextricable from music and entertainment in our country, with her bold words and melodic verses Gorman showed that Black excellence is far deeper and broader.

Now we are days later from again hearing the words of our first national youth poet laureate. This time her backdrop was not the West Front of the Capitol but our most iconic sporting event—the Superbowl.

“…Let us walk with these warriors, / Charge on with these champions, / And carry forth the call of our captains!

We celebrate them by acting / With courage and compassion, / By doing what is right and just. / For while we honor them today, It is they who every day honor us…”

Six months ago, at the beginning of the NFL season, many of the athletes joined the national chorus of cries for justice and reform. While only two teams played Sunday, all 32 took solace when Amanda Gorman took the stage.

The power of sports in this country has always been tremendous, but there is a shifting tide in America where inequity and inequality will no longer remain obscured just because a game is on. As a young Black boy growing up in Washington, D.C., I pleaded with my parents for season tickets for the team that at one time had broken the racial barrier by fielding Doug Williams — the first Black quarterback to be named Super Bowl Most Valuable Player. Now, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — the newly cemented Super Bowl champions — have four Black coaches in the top coordinator positions, another proclamation that Black men can succeed not only between the lines but outside the lines as well.

In the past 12 months, empty fields, dark courts, and silent stadiums have given us the opportunity to focus our national attention on matters of life and death, but the struggle for racial justice in this country is nothing new. Fifty-two years ago, Black Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists during the Olympic Games in Mexico City as the “Star-Spangled Banner” began playing — a silent protest of the appalling treatment of Blacks back home in the United States. Many years later, Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James have followed their example, this time kneeling to push forward national conversations.

Being a Black sportsman has never been easy. Critics argue that professional athletes are well paid and thus have little to complain about, but sadly their opinions may often serve as the only voices for their voiceless brothers and sisters. Surely Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali are smiling down from above on the current crop of outspoken sports icons because they know all too well playing sports in a society that reveres you as an idol but does not embrace you as a human is not tenable.

Amanda Gorman’s meteoric rise in the national consciousness has been inspiring but should not lull us into thinking we have reached our goal.

We have not.

She represents hope and a deep-rooted excellence that has been buried by historic levels of oppression ready to be unraveled. Sunday was a reminder that our destiny is tied to our dreams. If we are to learn anything from her let it be that even in the darkest of days, we all have light to share, or as Ms. Gorman said far better:

“For there is always light,

if only we’re brave enough to see it

If only we’re brave enough to be it…”