Page 30 - Florida Sentinel 2-1-19

Sports
Social Justice And The Super Bowl: Two Fatal Police Shootings Of Black Men In Atlanta Raise Questions
The city of Atlanta is in an especially precarious po- sition, activists say, given its history as the cradle of the civil rights movement in America and for decades lauded as the "Black Mecca of the South."
While the city has hosted the Super Bowl twice before, most recently in 2000, this latest championship comes at a fraught time for the league: The NFL, team own- ers and the players' union are at odds over how to deal with protesting players, par- ticularly after President Donald Trump last year blasted the movement spawned by Kaepernick, a former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who began kneeling during the national anthem to highlight racial inequality and oppression.
In the months leading up to the Super Bowl, some black artists and musicians — including ones who would normally be a sure bet to headline the game's highly
anticipated halftime show — refused any potential offers to perform.
Rapper and Atlanta na- tive T. I. said on BET last summer that there remains a "violation of constitutional rights being implemented to minority players who choose to have a peaceful, silent protest."
The halftime entertain- ment for Sunday's game will be led by Maroon 5, and joined by Atlanta-based rap- per Big Boi and Houston rapper Travis Scott, both of whom are black.
As two families in Atlanta mourn the deaths of their sons — young black men be- lieved to be unarmed when they were killed in separate police-involved shootings this month — tens of thou- sands of football fans are converging on the city for festivities ahead of the Super Bowl.
The jarring juxtaposition isn't lost on the loved ones of Jimmy Atchison, an as-
Jimmy Atchison, 21, of At- lanta was killed in a police-in- volved shooting on Jan. 22, 2019.
piring musician who will be laid to rest Thursday and whose death last week has stirred questions over the use of lethal force.
A week before Atchison was killed, 18-year-old D'et- trick Griffin died in an- other officer-involved shooting.
Tammie Feather- stone, Atchison's aunt,
said of the police probe into his death, "They've put this on the back burner because of the Super Bowl."
The family's attorney, Tanya Miller, said the backdrop of the nation's most-watched sporting event should magnify rather than distract from Atchi- son's killing and the need for a larger dialogue about community policing.
"It shouldn't be forgotten that the shooting happened just before the Super Bowl, at a time when people have been seeing football as a symbol of protest in light of Colin Kaepernick bring- ing attention to police bru- tality and injustice," Miller said.
Scott's involvement this year has come under heavy criticism from the Rev. Al Sharpton and others, but the rapper said he would only perform if the NFL agreed to help donate $500,000 to a criminal jus- tice reform group headed by
activist Van Jones. Another black Atlanta-
based rapper and producer, Jermaine Dupri, who is hosting a five-night concert before the Super Bowl, told The Associated Press he wants people affected by po- lice-involved deaths to be heard.
"I met with the families and parents who have been killed and murdered by po- lice officers here," Dupri said. "I plan on having them come to my Super Bowl Live event and speak to the crowd, and tell their story about police brutality in the city and let people under- stand that I'm supporting them as much as possible."
On the day before the big game, a coalition of civil rights groups also plans to rally a few miles to the north of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and highlight how the state of Georgia is still struggling with issues beyond policing that stem from the Jim Crow era and the legacy of slavery.
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