President Obama's potentially historic speech at the Newtown memorial, honoring victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, pre-empted NBC's Sunday Night Football matchup between the 49ers and Patriots.
Now, NFL games are regularly the most-watched television events each week during football season, and there were bound to be plenty of narrow-minded souls upset that they would miss a bit of football.
However, as Deadspin quickly noted post speech, Obama's appearance ignited immediate, ugly bursts on Twitter that starkly revealed those undercurrents of racism which continue to tug and pull at our nation's feet.
Below are a just a few of the countless such Tweets that surfaced as Obama spoke:
Now, forget for a moment the ridiculous circumstance – that many professional, black men populated the football field as the 49ers and Patriots battled.
And forget for a moment that these people are pure idiots.
What must be remembered is that this racism isn't just ugly and pervasive, it's also connected to the issue at hand. For as we rightly and painfully mourn for the children killed in Sandy Hook, we also must consider that a national moment of mourning has never taken place for the untold number of minority children who have died from gun violence in cities across America.
We must consider that President Obama's potentially historic speech – if his determined and steadfast calls for a national change are backed by policy proposals – will receive pushback not just from NRA-supporters, but from white men and women who (wrongly) fear having their power, their gun, stripped from them by a black man, President Obama.
There will be anger in the coming months. That is, if Democrats do their jobs and push forward with new gun control legislation.
Yes, there will be anger. And much of it will have undercurrents of racism.
Update:
The first Tweet in this post is by Bradley Patterson, who was a football player for the University of North Alabama. Note the past tense. Due to his Tweet, he has been kicked off the team, a move we should celebrate:
