September 9, 2020 Issue, Page 8 of 8

Page Text

Page 8 The Elk City News, Elk City, Oklahoma Wednesday, September 9 2020 Elks beat Southeast, win first game in three seasons Elk City running back Day Day Thompson looks for running room against the Southeast defense. The Elks won the game 62-29 Thursday at Big Elk Stadium. Photo by Jim Hodnett. By Don Munsch, Editor offense and a 258-yard head football coach Dave continued in the second son 8-yard run later in team is young, and despite Well, the symbolism rushing performance Meadows said. “It was a quarter, with Elk City the quarter, defensive end some mistakes against couldn’t have been more from running back Day sloppy win, but we had a quarterback Corey Cul- Joseph Dailey scored on apt for the Elk City Elks Day Thompson, the Elks lot of really good things ver hitting Alex Cherry on a short fumble recovery Southeast on both sides of in their football game beat Southeast 62-29 to in there. Our offense is a 22-yard TD pass to put return. The Elks went up the ball, he is pleased with against Southeast OKC even their record at 1-1. simple — if we find a weak Elk City up 19-0. Quarter- 48-22 at that point. Owens the effort. Thursday night at Big Elk The victory broke a 23- spot somewhere, we can back Drake Hughes, who would add a short TD run Stadium. game losing streak for the just hammer, hammer, started the game, scored in the first minute of the “Tt’s never an effort With 6:17 left to play Elks varsity football pro- hammer, hammer. That's on a 6-yard run with 2:34 fourth quarter, and then problem,” he said. “We’ve in the game, the lights at gram that stretched back kind of what we did.” left in the half to help give with 5:13 left, Hughes just got to be a little smart- the stadium went out at. It to 2017. [Yes, the lights Elk City led 13-0 at Elk City a 27-0 lead. The connected with Mason was fitting development eventually came back on the end of a quarter, with Elks led 27-6 at halftime. Price on a 61-pass for a er about what we do.” for the home team, given and the game resumed, Thompson and Levy Hughes scored on a 75- TD for the Elks’ last score The Elks’ next game they had played lights out with Elk City leading 55- Owens scoring on short yard run for the Elks’ first of the night. offensively all night. 29 at that point.) touchdown runs. score of the third quar- Meadows praised the of- will be Friday at home Behind 550 yards of “Tt feels good,” Elk City The scoring onslaught ter, and after a Thomp- fensive output. He said his against Guymon. The grim double consciousness Black NBA players must navigate By Keenan Norris, Los Hill vented that the play- These are young Black popular American athlete vember election suggests the San Diego Chargers. Angeles Times rs “shouldn’t even have men whose job it is to en- of this era has for seven the power that they can My cousin, the defensive James Baldwin in his came to this damn place.” tertain the American pub- decades rendered Black wield if they are willing coordinator for the Cana- essay “A Talk to Teach- He was referring to the lic in cloistered environs Americans unemployed to linger in the breach be- dian Football League’s ers” wrote that the Black so-called NBA bubble, while other young Black at twice the rate of whites tween their privilege and Saskatchewan Roughrid- student who becomes the sports complex near men and women who regardless of booms and the plight of millions of ers, played pro football, aware of his relation- Orlando, Florida, used share their background are busts. their people. too, and recently wrote ship to American soci- for the final months of the assaulted or murdered on While NBA players earn Maybe all American an article about his expe- ety risks psychological season. video in the public square. $7.7 million a year on av- workers should match alienation. Once when a In managing to keep It’s hard to overstate the erage, more than one-fifth their boycott, turning riences of racism in the group of Black college COVID-19 at bay while double consciousness re- (20.8%) of Black Ameri- away from our jobs to pro- United States. My father, students chuckled at this producing a high-quality quired to perform awe-in- cans live in poverty, ac- test injustice so that the Calvin Norris, a decorated line during a public dis- event, the NBA’s hermeti- spiring athletic feats while cording to the 2018 U.S. burden doesn’t rest only college sprinter, was ex- cussion, Baldwin dug in cally sealed venue has witnessing in unending re- Census Bureau statistics, on the athletes. But they pelled from Fresno State and pressed them to pick showcased the best attri- play the images of Blake a rate eclipsed only, and occupy such a uniquely in 1970, his deferment up and repurpose the tools butes of American capital- being shot seven times not coincidentally, by Na- difficult and blessed posi- lost, his draft number of power with their own ism: boldness, innovation in the back by police and tive Americans (25.4%). tion that they are called to called, for protesting the intention. and the nonpareil talents paralyzed from the waist The same America that and can do more, whether injustices of his time. The NBA players took of the players themselves. down. exalts the talents of Ste- it be extending the boy- That such injustices and up those tools recently. But it has also sealed the This double conscious- phen Curry warehoused cott, or pushing the NBA the psychic rifts that they At least for the moment, athletes in an artificial en- ness is built into the trou- 465,200 Black people in ownership’s investment the dust has settled on the vironment where they are bled relationship of Black its prisons in 2018, while in black-owned business- create for Black athletes players’ playoff strike. cut off from people capi- people to capitalism itself. jailing hundreds of thou- es, which have suffered and Black professionals in After negotiations with talism has deemed too un- “Do you know why peo- sands more for nonviolent tremendously in the pan- general persist more than league ownership, the important to protect. ple like me are shy about drug offenses and even demic, or simply insisting 50 years on is a national players, 81.9% of whom Jared Kushner, President being capitalists?” the lesser violations. that the NBA not limit the shame. In the midst of a are people of color, have Donald Trump’s son-in- writer Jamaica Kincaid The stand that the play- protest words players can pandemic and _ political decided to return to the law, dismissed the strike asked. “Well, it’s because ers took was powerful and put on their jerseys. Busi- and economic upheaval, court. But the terms of as a night off from work we, for as long as we have right. LeBron James and ness as usual, capitalism the way forward is even their peace speak to just for a bunch of financially known you, were capital, others are doing Bald- as usual, should not be an more fraught than in the how psychologically dif- fortunate workers. Yes, it like bales of cotton and win’s work by repurpos- option. 1960s, but it too exists. ficult, perhaps untenable, is easier to protest from a sacks of sugar, and you ing the tools of a system It is past time that Black Keenan Norris is an as- is their relationship to position of privilege, but were the commanding, made to degrade them for athletes realize and live America and specifically that is true of the athletes cruel capitalists.” other ends. in their power. I’m well sistant professor of Eng- its capitalist bedrock. only to the extent that one The same capitalist sys- That the players were aware of the costs that lish at San Jose State Uni- In the wake of the Jacob is willing to ignore the tem that’s made Michael able to negotiate for NBA they will incur. My uncle versity and author of the Blake shooting, Milwau- psychic cost of being pro- Jordan a billionaire and arenas to be opened as Charles Anthony was a novel “Brother and the kee Bucks guard George tected and Black. LeBron James the most polling places for the No- linebacker at USC and for Dancer.”