Football Legend: Black Lives Matter 'Don't Speak for Me'
Football legend Herschel Walker continued his commentary on social issues in a recent video post on Twitter, saying the Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t speak for him.
“Hey, it’s Hershel here, working out,” Walker said in a video posted Friday. He then told a short story that included his off-the-cuff thoughts about racial unity, personal freedom and the desecration of public monuments.
“I was watching some kids, African-American and Caucasian kids, play the other day, and I started thinking about their future,” he said. “And then I listened to a BLM protester who was speaking for the black people.
“And I said, ‘Wait a minute. He don’t speak for me. He don’t speak for a lot of other people that I know.’
“And I was watching all the people that are wanting to take over a city block — and not just black, there was Caucasian, there was all types of race there — and I said, ‘Wait a minute. They don’t speak for the people that I know.'”
I don’t want to defund the police. I don’t want to tear down statues. What about my freedom of speech? I want to be united as Americans. Congress and Senators… Can you hear me? pic.twitter.com/2fdqP6GSwQ
— Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) July 3, 2020
Walker said that in a society that by and large crushes any dissent of the official narrative that the Black Lives Matter movement is simply about protecting individual black lives, he wants to be free to disagree with the group’s behavior.
“Where’s my freedom that I don’t want to tear down statues? I don’t want to defund the police. I don’t want to riot and tear people’s stores up,” he said.
“I’m going to do it the right way,” Walker said.
The former University of Georgia and Dallas Cowboys running back then went after lawmakers.
“So, Congress, senators: Where’s my freedom to speak?” he said.
In an apparent reference to White House staffers leaking information to the media, Walker also questioned if those who engage in leaking should face criminal punishment.
“If you’re a leaker and you decide to leak information that’s not true, isn’t that like shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded building, that you need to be punished?” he asked.
Walker won the 1982 Heisman Trophy and later opted to join the United States Football League.
The star running back played for the New Jersey Generals, which was purchased by Donald Trump in 1984.
The two men became close and have remained friends, and Walker has continued to speak in support of Trump now that he’s president.
He explained their relationship to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in April.
“We always talk. He appointed me a little position there in Washington with the President’s Council and [with] Health and Human Services. So we’ve still got a very, very good relationship. I’ve changed a little bit of how that council’s run and trying to get us more involved, so we can change some things in Washington,” he told the paper.
Walker also explained his support of Trump despite the criticism he has received for standing in the president’s corner.
“It has caused a lot of controversy,” he said “But I tell people that’s what’s great about America. We can all have our own opinions. We don’t have to agree with everyone.”
“I hear the word racism associated with him a lot, and it’s insulting,” Walker told the newspaper. “I’m, like, ‘Do you even know what racism is?’ It’s sad when you hear that because people use it so lightly.
“Racism is a lot deeper than that. Just because you disagree with somebody today, whether it’s the president of the United States or somebody else, the first thing people say is ‘racism,’ and that’s what’s sad.”
Last month, Walker offered to buy anti-police activists tickets to leave the country amid unrest following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.
I have an idea…
For all these people who don’t want any police, I’d love to meet with American Airlines, Delta, and Southwest and make a deal to fly them to countries that don’t have police. I want them to be happy! @CNN @FoxNews @DonaldJTrumpJr @POTUS @espn
— Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) June 17, 2020
“I have an idea… For all these people who don’t want any police, I’d love to meet with American Airlines, Delta, and Southwest and make a deal to fly them to countries that don’t have police. I want them to be happy!” Walker tweeted.
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