Ernest Owens Once Again Goes to the "White Privilege" Well After Eagles Celebrations
You all know Ernest Owens, right? Black journalist in town. He’s the editor-at-large for Philly Mag and has written for a lot of different publications over the years. He does some excellent work but incessantly race baits as well.
His latest offering is for The Daily Beast and titled “Philadelphia Eagles Won Big Sunday Night. So Did White Privilege— Again.” It’s basically the same exact story he wrote five years ago this month, titled…. “The Eagles Won Big Sunday Night, and So Did White Privilege.” This time, he more or less replicated the column while adding in some 2020 George Floyd/BLM protest context to to help expound on his point.
Writes Owens:
…chaos broke across Philadelphia on Sunday night—and a different energy was felt. Packed crowds, public intoxication, reckless behavior, and damaged public property could easily be seen throughout Broad Street and South Street as the Eagles are now headed to the Super Bowl.
…
This kind of behavior is treated as a celebration and is affectionately told to everyone as “it’s a Philly thing.” And while there are some people of color who are a part of this rowdy bunch, it’s impossible to deny that if they weren’t alongside white people acting this way, the situation would be completely different. And after first saying this five years ago when the Eagles previously went to the Super Bowl, I can now confirm this is true.
Philadelphia has clearly learned nothing about such double standards post the 2020 racial uprisings. All of the books, lectures, and dialogue about white privilege have gone out the window as people reinforce the very gross hypocrisies that continue to hurt people who look like me. The harsh truth is that even right now we can all admit that if there was an Eagles crowd channeling their passion for racial injustice in protest—the vibe would be much different.
Ernest’s premise for both of these columns doesn’t work very well because it’s not just “some people of color” taking part in these Eagles (or Phillies) celebrations. It’s typically a very diverse crowd, which you know if you were out celebrating the other night. Sure, you’re going to see white people on South Broad Street in proximity to Lincoln Financial Field and predominantly white neighborhoods, but as you move throughout the city you realize that EVERYBODY is out and about. This was the case with the Super Bowl parade and 2018 NFC championship celebration, which were unifying events chock full of diversity. You didn’t even have to be there to know this. Just analyzing viral video clips you came across crowds that looked like this:
Owens’ macro-level argument is more important. He’s saying that we can do whatever we want when celebrating a sports win, but if you’re protesting racial injustice or a police shooting or something in that vein, then you get tear gassed or you’re harassed:
To be a Black man in America and know that I’m safer getting publicly drunk alongside white Eagles fans than I would if I stood up against racism at a protest doesn’t sit well with me. Watching tons of videos last night on social media of how the media and public officials defined all of this ruckus as simply joy and fun hurts.
According to TMZ, the Philadelphia Police Department only made five arrests on Sunday night. Bad behavior that’s co-signed by white people during celebrations is given a slap on the wrist. Justified rage from people of color during social justice protests is condemned. This is normalized racism. This is why we can’t have nice things.
The last time I shared these thoughts, I was met with a slew of hate from Eagles fans and misguided takes from our other local media outlets. Unfortunately, time has only proven my point even further as we continue to witness two different Philadelphias: One where the police can tolerate outrageous behavior from sports fans and one that has no care for those righteously speaking out against injustice. While the city was celebrating going to the Super Bowl again, I was thinking about Tyre Nichols and the fact that I still live in a society that wouldn’t let me peacefully speak out for his life in the same massive way.
I get the man’s point, but we’re really talking about two different things here. When the Eagles win a big game, people take to the streets to celebrate. They wanna jump around and climb poles and take pictures. Sure, you have drunken idiots who end up damaging property or pissing in the alley, but 99.9% percent of this is relatively harmless. Beyond that, I don’t think anyone actually condones behavior that crosses the line. When I look through the Crossing Broad Twitter and Facebook comments I see plenty of white people annoyed that folks broke a bus stop shelter and left a bunch of trash laying around. There are a lot of Eagles fans out there who condemn behavior deemed irresponsible in these types of settings.
But to talk about a double standard and then blame it on white privilege just doesn’t really mesh. The police chief is black, as was the police chief back in 2018. City Council is more than 50% POC and/or female, so it’s not like whitey occupies every position of power in Philadelphia. Jim Kenney doesn’t even like his job!
What’s happening here, and has been the case for years, is that Ernest is actually looking for accountability and consistency from the police and city leaders at large, but projects his frustration on white people instead, as though we’re all part of some larger conspiracy. That’s obviously not true. We’re just average joes, we’re not in cahoots with Danielle Outlaw and Officer Joey Baloney and the people who are tasked with policing social justice protests, or putting a box over the Columbus statue, or handling the Fishtown baseball bat guys who showed up at the precinct a couple of years ago. We’re just getting together with everyone else to celebrate a Birds win, and it’s really not much more complicated than that.
This city has fallen incredibly short when it comes to leadership and policing many times over the past several years, but this largely has nothing to do with “white privilege” or whatever Ernest is currently complaining about. The ire needs to be directed at the police chief and city leadership and not at Mikey from South Philly.
Ernest is invited to the next tailgate. Go Birds!
