Former NFL defensive lineman Marcellus Wiley rejected the popular narrative that white people are inherently privileged.
“White Privilege doesn’t exist!” the Compton, California, native tweeted Thursday. “U know what it implies-Black Disadvantage! The son, man, husband, father, and victor in me would never buy into such a limiting thought. My skin is not a sin! I stand tall, not slouched, on my parents & ancestors endured shoulders! #unlearn.”
White Privilege doesn’t exist!
U know what it implies-Black Disadvantage!?
The son, man, husband, father, and victor in me would never buy into such a limiting thought. My skin is not a sin!
I stand tall, not slouched, on my parents & ancestors endured shoulders!??♂️?#unlearn— Marcellus Wiley ? (@marcelluswiley) September 11, 2020
Wiley, the co-host of Fox Sports 1’s Speak For Yourself, spoke out earlier this month after ESPN host Stephen A. Smith lamented “white privilege” following news that the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets hired Hall of Famer Steve Nash, a white man, when black candidates with more coaching experience were available.
“I don’t believe in white privilege,” Wiley said at the time. “The conversation of white privilege is a distraction that leaves racism and true power intact while you now attack it from social and other psychological measures, trying to pull on the emotions of white people and try to guilt them into really trying to say that all of the things that they have inherited, all of the things that they have worked for … had some percentage of it to be based on their skin color.”
“Steve Nash wasn’t hired because of white privilege… I don’t believe in white privilege.” — @MarcellusWiley pic.twitter.com/cRFshVAl0p
— Speak For Yourself (@SFY) September 4, 2020
Wiley also warned against “identity politics” when the NBA announced a plan to paint “Black Lives Matter” on the court during the season’s restart in Orlando, Florida.
“There’s a problem with when you start to go down this road of freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and how much social space is allowed for those who don’t support in that same space,” Wiley said in July.
“And that’s where I wonder where this is going to go in terms of identity politics,” Wiley continued. “We know what identity politics does. It divides and it polarizes. No matter how you want to look at it, that’s just the effect of it — no matter how great the intentions are. And we all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
“I respect your space, I respect what you’re protesting for.
But will you respect others who don’t support that same protest?”@marcelluswiley rails against the “Black Lives Matter” mission statement & promotes 2-parent family structures.pic.twitter.com/iZMblAlNEn
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 30, 2020
