By Allen Jones
San Francisco, CA — The record 114 million viewers that watched Super Bowl 49 are still scratching their heads on what many called the worst play-call in National Football League history. The play in question, ended the chance of the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks to repeat as champs. Truth is, it was not close to being the worst play-call in NFL history.
The National Football League (NFL) is planning to use the 49er’s new Stadium in Santa Clara, CA for its gold anniversary Super Bowl. But all the major Super Bowl events/parties will be hosted by the city of San Francisco.Francisco.
Twelve thousands Blacks have moved out of San Francisco in the last ten years. Many believe the main reason is that San Francisco is an expensive place to live. I will concede that many Black San Franciscans have stayed because they are too poor to leave, but as a longtime resident of the city (1960), I see the root cause is racism from City Hall and the unwillingness of the main local papers to report on City Hall racism.
There seems to be solid evidence to point to racism; hidden behind the cloak of diversity by City Hall that helped the Super Bowl selection committee pick San Francisco as a place to host the NFL’s biggest event ever.
From the mayor of San Francisco who is Asian, declaring in his January 15, 2015 State of the City address that, he wants the city to have more successful Black single mothers, to the president of the city’s legislative body, a Black woman, telling Black parents to turn in their kids to law enforcement, in the same Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event where she also told the crowd not continue to look for help from city government. And the owner of the San Francisco 49ers who discovered poverty after he moved a $1.3 billion stadium project away from a struggling Black community of San Francisco. He promised 25% of the profits from Super Bowl 50 to go towards fighting poverty in the area. Why hold any event in a place with such screwed up logic, let alone the biggest game of the 21st century?
The 11 member legislative body of San Francisco is called the Board of Supervisors. Along with the mayor, they all boast of the city’s diversity. Two Black faces, two Hispanic faces, three White faces, four Asian faces and a part of the total, two gay faces make up this elected board. Therefore, it would seem ridiculous to think that racism against Blacks exists in such a diverse city.
San Francisco has a Human Rights Commission, which was formed in 1964 to help Blacks fight discrimination at the time. Today, the commission’s executive director is a White woman who cost the city tax payers $210,000 when a former Black male staffer sued her and the city after he proved part of his harassment was based on his race. Two years later, this same White city employee is making $170,000.00 per year in her same position with full support from the mayor who appointed her and the Board of Supervisors who approved of the lawsuit settlement.
Two years ago, San Francisco law makers; thinking of health, passed a law that banned toys from McDonald’s Happy Meals. Then, concerned with the environment, they passed a law that instituted a ten cent charge for bags at all stores and restaurants. And in an attempt to clean up the image of the city, they banned people from walking around in the buff. Therefore, one would think they cared about cleaning out the racism that is camouflaged behind the city’s diversity image.
So in an attempt to reduce racism in San Francisco, one would think the board would be all for jumping on board with a reasonable first step. “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change”, Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.”
I proposed a resolution to the entire elected San Francisco Board of Supervisors to dedicate the year 2015 to looking in the mirror. They all rejected/ignored my proposal as if I made up the evidence.
If you would like to view my evidence and proposal to first look in the mirror as well as the years of chronicled disrespect that Blacks have endured in San Francisco, visit http://sf49erfanrevolt.squarespace.com
Allen Jones is a columnist and prison reform activist in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at jones-allen@att.net
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