Scottish Martial Arts wrote on Sep 10, 2020, 08:18:

Quinn wrote on Sep 10, 2020, 02:24:
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No, SMA, your brain is unable to fathom that if someone gives critique or even dumb ad-homs toward a person who isn't white, doesn't automatically mean said someone is racist. I also noticed the bolded part. That "mentally inept" lives as a stereotype for a certain race in your brain, is your problem. Nobody is a mind-reader. Next time I'll give critique or uncharmingly insult a non-white person, shall I check with you first what stereotypes live in your head?

If you are familiar with the history of American slavery and segregation, then you know that American culture built up a series of stereotypes around the "Negro" to justify their brutal subjugation. Specifically, that they are less sensitive to pain; that they are less intelligent; that they are more likely to engage in criminality unless kept under strict control; that they are sexually profligate and that the men will rape white women unless, again, kept under strict control; that they are, at their core, beasts of burden and not rational, moral actors. These are the attitudes which justified slavery, which justified Jim Crow and segregation, and which justifies continuing racial inequities particularly as regards the criminal justice system. You do not have to actively consider yourself a white supremacist to have absorbed these attitudes and anyone who is being honest with themselves will find themselves thinking or feeling them from time to time, much like any American will also think "freedom is good" from time to time -- it's just part of our culture.

If someone starts expressing racially conservative views, i.e. that it is inherently illegitimate for a black athlete to engage in protest on American race relations, they themselves may not view themselves as racists, but having absorbed American cultural attitudes towards blacks, it is entirely likely that they will express their racially conservative views in terms of the aforementioned longstanding racial stereotypes. Using the term "mentally inept" -- when arguing that nothing untoward happened because Kaepernick's career was already in steep decline -- is tipping your hand. If his career is in steep decline, then you can provide the statistical evidence to show it, and you have proved your premise in your larger argument. Falling back on "mentally inept" suggests that this is not an evidence based argument. Instead, the argument is rooted in unconscious cultural attitudes which then engender resentment in the racially conservative person when he is forced to confront racial inequity, such as when a protest regularly occurs as part of his favorite sport.