A little time has gone by since Jay Z sat down with NFL commisioner Roger Goddell to announce a partnership with the NFL for social justice and appoint Jay-Z whos real name is Sean Carter, the face of the NFL’s new attention to social justice in the wake of the Kaepernick scandal that ripped trough the NFL.
You don’t have to go far on social media to find examples of influencers and celebrities taking shots at Jay-Z for his choice to work with the NFL especially with his work convincing others to not work with the NFL in recent history.
The real question was why was the partnership done and why did it have to happen at the moment that it did. The answer is simple.. The NFL did the partnership thinking that it would show how woke they were and Jay-Z did the partnership for the same reason he would do any other partnership. Money, promotion and just because.
The NFL is under increased pressure to make sure that they address the growing sentiment that the league is against black people and social justice causes in America. This theme hangs over the NFL so of course they needed a solution to cover them from that blame. The question is Who?? Common, India Arie, Mos Def, Chance the Rapper,..Lauryn Hill… If the NFL was going to chose an artist, what actual options did they have? Maybe Logic?? All the other artists lacked the influence to make a difference and Logic just didn’t lend the credibility would be needed. Kevin Hart or the Rock wouldn’t make sense and Denzel Washington would be too old. Furthermore, they had to find someone that would be willing to go along with the NFL and risk the backlash from their community. This is how you end up with Jay-Z.
With the exception of his documentary on Trayvon Martin, Jay-Z simply lacked the credibility to represent Social Justice for any organization. What he did provide was a massive platform and the guarantee that his announcement wouldn’t go unnoticed. Furthermore, Jay-Z didn’t seem to be concerned about backlash from his community. Hence, you have the partnership.
Now that you have Jennifer Lopez and Shakira (who is part of Jay’Z’s Roc Nation) performing at the Super Bowl the question rises…. What exactly should we be expecting Jay-Z to implement.
So the question is Why did this need to happen? The answer is simple. It didn’t . The NFL simply needed cover and Jay-Z simply needed more promotion, but the issues that birthed whatever movement whether you agree or not were eclipsed by the corporate needs of two entities disregarding the root causes.
For a people who were enslaved , causes affecting the black community should not be commandeered by corporations. The NFL being one and Jay-Z (Roc Nation) being the other.
