wv wrote:

he Pats are an interesting example. They, apparently are often below average on the draft, but they must be good evaluators during free agency, cause they always put together a good team ‘somehow’.

I don;t agree with that either btw.

Subtract Brady and Bellichick and you don’t have a good team.

That doesn’t mean they put together good teams, measured against others. It means they have both Brady and Bellichick.

wv wrote:

For starters, I’d call tavon a bust. I really would.

I don’t think Tavon is even remotely a bust. Some would say a disppointment based on the slot where he was picked, but he was performing half the role he was supposed to be performing in 2017, when McVay would not use him in the passing game. That’s not on Tavon.

To me it’s a matter of perspective. Trung Canidate is a bust. Robert Thomas is a bust. Jimmy Kennedy is a bust. Klopenstein is a bust. Tye Hill is a bust. Claude Wroten is a bust. Brian Leonard is a bust. Chris Givens is a bust. Tavon gets used and accounted for. That’s not a bust.

Spring league Alliance of American Football to launch in 2019 on CBS

The league is the brainchild of the man who directed the ’30 for 30′ documentary about the XFL

Ryan Wilson

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/spring-league-alliance-of-american-football-to-launch-in-2019-on-cbs/

The XFL, the controversial football league founded by Vince McMahon in 1999 that lasted one season, is set to return in 2020. But it won’t be the only new professional football league — or even the first to begin play.

Charlie Ebersol — the son of NBC executive Dick Ebersol, McMahon’s partner during the XFL’s first stint — announced in a press release that the Alliance of American Football will debut on Feb. 9, 2019 on CBS.

The younger Ebersol, who directed ESPN’s “30 for 30” documentary on the XFL, brought in former NFL general manager Bill Polian to help oversee the league. Former Steelers safety Troy Polamalu will oversee the player side and former USC standout and executive J.K. McKay will oversee the team side. Advisors include former players Hines Ward and Justin Tuck, and Dick Ebersol.

“The Alliance of American Football represents a fundamental shift in the way we approach professional sports,” Charlie Ebersol said. “We believe fans and players are what’s most important, so our approach is simple — we’ve created an Alliance where fans and players share in the success of their teams.”

“Players have our commitment that we will seek the highest degree of safety and our support as we continue to invest in their success off the field with post-football career scholarships and financial wellness programs,” he continued. “With the expertise of Bill Polian and a leadership team of respected former All-Pro players and executives, we are committed to putting the best football product possible on the field every weekend, ensuring that 2018 will be the final year fans have to experience a six-month period without football.”

The plan, like the XFL, is to stock the league with players who don’t make it onto NFL rosters.

“There is a significant amount of football talent looking to begin or extend their professional careers,” Polian said. “The Alliance will provide those players with a new opportunity to compete at a high level. Our players and fans are the lifeblood of The Alliance, and we will treat them as such.”

“We will give players an opportunity to flourish on the field while establishing plans to support their personal and professional growth, health, safety and financial well-being. This is our commitment to them and will result in an exciting pro football product on the field that fans across the nation and in our markets can rally around.”

CBS will air the league’s debut game on Feb. 9, 2019, one week after Super Bowl LIII on CBS. The network will also carry the Alliance of American Football’s championship game on the final weekend of April 2019. One regular-season Alliance game will air exclusively on CBS Sports Network each week as well.

“As the Alliance of American Football launches next February we are excited to become the official television partner, adding more football to our robust programming line-up with a great package that includes two primetime games on CBS, as well as a full slate of regular-season spring football on CBS Sports Network,” said CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus. “With Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian at the helm we are confident that the product they will deliver will be entertaining, exciting, engaging and something that fans will really enjoy.”

The league will have eight teams in cities to be announced in the next three months. Rosters will have 50 players each and will be built primarily through a regionally-based draft. To differentiate the Alliance of American Football from its competitors, there will be no TV timeouts and 60 percent fewer commercials. Other differences will include no kickoffs and instead of onside kicks, the trailing team will receive the ball on their own 35-yard line facing fourth down and 10. There will also be a 30-second play clock and mandatory two-point conversion attempts after touchdowns.

Proposal trying to make NFL kickoffs ‘more of a punt play’

http://www.theredzone.org/Blog-Description/EntryId/69842/Proposal-trying-to-make-NFL-kickoffs–more-of-a-punt-play-

The NFL is finalizing a proposal to make significant changes to the kickoff, intensifying the tweaks of recent years in what might be a final attempt to salvage the most dangerous play in football, Kevin Seifert of ESPN reports.

The adjustments — prompted largely by a group of special teams coaches who traveled to a Wednesday meeting at league headquarters — are designed to make the kickoff “much more of a punt play,” according to competition committee chairman Rich McKay. The kickoff will remain on a “short leash,” according to committee member and Green Bay Packers president/CEO Mark Murphy, but it appears to have survived for at least another year.

The proposed changes will be written into a formal document by next week and presented to owners for approval during their May 21-23 meetings in Atlanta. They include:

* Coverage teams would lose the 5-yard head start they previously had;

* Five players would need to be aligned on each side of the kicker;

* All wedge blocks, including two-man double teams, would be eliminated;

* Eight of the 11 return team members would be lined up within 15 yards of the restraining line, and blocking would be prohibited within those 15 yards;

* There would be no pre-kick motion.

The governing idea was to reduce the space and speed of collisions that have historically occurred on kickoffs.

“With the old rule, you had guys running at each other,” said Kansas City Chiefs special-teams coordinator Dave Toub, one of nine current special teams coaches in the room for the discussion. “Now, you’ll have guys running with each other down the field. That makes a big difference … because the distance between the two of them are closer. The distance between the front line and the kickoff return team is so tight that when they run down the field, it’s a lot like a punt. They’re running together. You’re pushing people on the side and you don’t have those big collisions. That was the main thing in our proposal.”

The competition committee discarded some of the coaches’ more radical proposals, including a rule that would place all fair-caught kickoffs at the 25-yard line. But league executives in attendance were generally encouraged by the depth of the proposed changes. Murphy, who announced in March that the kickoff would be eliminated if it could not be made safer, said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the new direction.

“I give these coaches credit,” Murphy said. “To me this was a breakthrough, that they’re really looking at it to make it safer.”

Rich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
Rams were listed (by the NFL) as having a “rookie camp” on May 11-12, but that only will be for some tryout guys. This year’s draft picks will be on the field for the first time May 15, as part of the regular offseason program.

Jenny Vrentas@JennyVrentas
As Troy Vincent said yesterday, the NFL plans to make changes to the kickoff for 2018—but not eliminate it. Special teams coaches around the league collaborated on a proposal to modify the play & make it safer by reducing some of the play’s space and speed.

Language of the proposed rule change is still being finalized before vote at May meetings but changes would include no running start for kicking team, no wedge & only three players deep

There’s optimism these changes will make the play safer—but will it be enough? Packers president Mark Murphy said the play is on a short leash & will be reassessed year to year.

Coach McVay getting a look at his new corners 👀 #LARams pic.twitter.com/VAksD8fQ34

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) April 30, 2018

alyoshamucci sez

pick analysis and total rookie class of 2018

I was nervous about until we made our picks in the 5th round … after that I was golden.

Round 3 Pick 25 (89) Joseph Noteboom OT I liked him but the collective community had him lower, so he must have aced the interviews and been fun to work with. In my scouting I had him highlighted at the beginning of his junior year because he had the size and looked natural run blocking at OLT, which is rare in the big 12. So when I look at the guys available, and picture where they will be in a year … going into their second camp, he looks like he could be a starter on either side.

Round 4 Pick 11 (111) Brian Allen C This was going to be my sleeper pick. I like my centers short, angry, and professional. He has all that.

Round 4 Pick 35 (135) John Franklin-myers DE This one was out of left field for me, and then I realized why. We lost power in the Northeast during the combine and I didn’t get to see him. I mean we lost power for 4 days. a 6-4 285 4.75 40 is the kind of guy I want to develop for rotational brutality.

The next 4 could have been our entire draft and I would have been fine.

Round 5 Pick 10 (147) Micah Kiser ILB He’s a 3rd rounder for me. He’s a defense leading intelligent sure tackler with a quick first step. He’s been my pick at 111 every mock I made.

Round 5 Pick 23 (160) Ogbonnia Okoronkwo EDGE This is crazy getting him here. If he had gone early 2nd I wouldn’t have been surprised. Maybe I missed something obvious about him. I doubt it. I tend to miss on QBs and DTs mostly.

Round 6 Pick 2 (176) John Kelly RB I have “runs angry” in big letters by his name. H’es not crazy fast, but he’s really close to Malcolm Brown in how he shows up on the field. He didn’t test amazing, but I like his attitude between the snap and the whistle.

Round 6 Pick 18 (192) Jamil Demby G Honestly I think he could have gone much earlier. I really liked his postseason. I don’t know how any of last year’s backups make our team.

Round 6 Pick 21 (195) Sebastian Joseph DT Who? Totally no idea why on this one. I don’t think I had him high enough to mention.

Round 6 Pick 31 (205) Trevon Young EDGE This fella I’ve seen play really fast and angry. He, if he stays healthy, could really be an asset. I had he and his teammate Hearns much higher than most. I watched a lot of Louisville the past few years.

Round 7 Pick 13 (231) Travin Howard LB Yeah this is a special teamer … 5-11 211.

Round 7 Pick 26 (244) Justin Lawler DE I can’t see how he makes the team with what’s in front of him.

UDFA
Likely

Tegray Scales Really a 3rd round pick quality LB … with elite instincts and pedestrian foot speed. I thought he’d slide, but not OFF the board. I think we’d have to really like Hager for us to keep a player in their last rookie contract year over him.

Chucky Williams I wanted a 4th safety. This seems to be it. He can cover decent and shows up in the box angry.

McKay Murphy Freak athlete son of Dale Murphy the baseball player. 6-4 300 4.81 40 and 41 reps.

Less likely — like for the PS.
Stephen Mitchell Had some good moments.
Stephen Parker Ive seen him get burned badly and make some good plays.
Dalton Keene Apparently super angry fella, like him for the PS.
Ricky Jeune … is still one of ours? Big kid that can win contested balls and block stuck on a triple option team.
Codey McElroy TE SE Oklahoma State

bodies
Afolabi Laguda
Laquivonte Gonzales
Tony Perez QB

Then the curious Gardner Webb QB turned RB. Tyrell Maxwelll 6-1 231.

InvaderRam wrote:

it should be interesting. how this defense develops. and if kiser and ogbo can make an impact this season.

Outside of Noteboom, this draft seemed to be all about solid role players. Which is fine, they have stars…Peters, Joyner, Donald, Suh, even Brockers, plus Whitworth, Saffold, I say Goff even if he is an apprentice star, Cooks, Woods, Kupp, and Gurley.

Noteboom is athletic enough to envision him becoming a real NFL LOT. Unless he just becomes Alex Barron.

While Noteboom has enough athletic potential to be more than just a role player, mostly this draft just sets out to plug holes with serious role players like (IMO) Allen, Kiser, Obo, and Kelly. Not stars, but solid middle class. I think all 4 of those guys make it.

Plus I think a few of the others develop too.

This is what they would be ideally:

Franklin: 5-tech who can sub at 3-tech and can play DT in 4 DL pass rush sets.

Demby: a college tackle to NFL guard convert in the Kromer mold (for the absolute ideal of that see Jahri Evans)

Joseph: I have very little idea about this guy, but if he works out he’s just a pure NT

Young: was hampered by injuries, but ideally he’s a strongside OLB/rusher in the Barwin mold

Howard: Barron

Lawler: ideally, a 3/4 end who can also pass rush some at left (strongside) DE in 4 DL sets

In need of linebackers, Rams didn’t panic in early rounds of NFL draft

RICH HAMMOND

link: https://www.ocregister.com/2018/04/29/analysis-in-need-of-linebackers-rams-didnt-panic-in-early-rounds-of-nfl-draft/

The empty seats in the linebackers’ meeting room could have caused the Rams to panic.

Alec Ogletree, gone. Robert Quinn, gone. Connor Barwin, gone. What remained? One starter, Mark Barron, and eight other linebackers, a collection of unproven young hopefuls and NFL career drifters.

So the Rams looked at their list of draft picks, already dwindled by trades, and knew they needed linebackers. Then they promptly used their initial three picks on an offensive tackle, a center and a defensive end. After four rounds, the Rams hadn’t picked a linebacker. No panic.

By the end of the draft, the Rams had acquired four linebackers, one of whom is being heralded as a potential “steal.” The position remains a concern, but the fact that the Rams didn’t overreach simply to put warm bodies in their linebackers’ room speaks to the progress they’ve made in the past 15 months.

Among their 11 picks in this year’s draft, which ended Saturday, the Rams brought in edge rushers Ogbonnia Okoronkwo (fifth round, from Oklahoma) and Trevon Young (sixth round, from Louisville) and inside linebackers Micah Kiser (fifth round, from Virginia) and Travin Howard (seventh round, from TCU).

It’s folly to grade a draft class before a single game has been played, but it’s fair to be impressed with what the Rams pulled off, and perhaps it’s an indication of growing cohesion within the organization.

“I think going into year two,” Coach Sean McVay said after the draft, “you can be a little more strategic with some of the needs. Because collectively, as a coaching staff and with our personnel staff, we have a much better idea of how our players that have been here fit, and the way we want to utilize them.”

By comparison, 2017 must have felt like a white-knuckle ride. The Rams hired McVay on Jan. 12, exactly 15 weeks before the start of the draft. During that time, the Rams brought in an almost entirely new staff of assistant coaches, overhauled their offensive and defensive schemes and fired four scouts.

At that point, McVay and General Manager Les Snead still were learning about each other. They faced the dire task of improving a team that had gone 4-12 in 2016, amid national-media reports that the relationship between Snead and then-coach Jeff Fisher, and their respective staffs, had become “toxic.”

Now, it seems, much has changed. McVay and Snead breezily toss praise to each other, and the Rams seem to have a firm idea of their identity and how they want to get things accomplished.

That confidence manifested itself at the draft. The Rams built depth along an aging offensive line and brought in tackle Joseph Noteboom (third round, from TCU) and center Brian Allen (fourth round, Michigan State). Defensive end John Franklin (Stephen F. Austin) arrived late in the fourth round.

Then, in a series of jiu-jitsu-style moves, the Rams made multiple trades and got their linebackers. The transaction with the potential to be remembered for a long time is the one that brought in Okoronkwo.

The Rams, in March, sent a fifth-round pick to Denver to acquire veteran cornerback Aqib Talib. Then, on Saturday, the Rams got that pick (No. 160 overall) back from the Broncos, in exchange for two sixth-round picks, and used it on Okoronkwo, a selection heralded by some draft pundits this weekend.

Okoronkwo is a speedy outside linebacker who could pair nicely with Samson Ebukam, a 2017 draft pick who is expected to inherit a starting job as an edge rusher this season.

The Rams also traded picks with Green Bay, moved down in the fifth round and drafted middle linebacker Micah Kiser, a tackle machine from Virginia who is well-regarded for on- and off-field intelligence.

Kiser could contend for playing time with third-year linebacker Cory Littleton, who is expected to inherit Ogletree’s old job alongside Barron in the middle of the Rams’ defense. They also added potential depth with the additions of Louisville’s Young in the sixth round and TCU’s Howard in the seventh.

The new picks are expected to join their veteran teammates in two weeks, as part of the Rams’ offseason program, and then the true evaluation process will begin. It seems, though, that the Rams did a solid job of filling holes, even though they lacked first- and second-round picks for the first time since 1984.

Snead spoke at length this week of his admiration for lesser-known Rams staffers, including area scouts and even the folks who drove potential draft picks to the airport as part of their official visits.

“All of that, it’s a great process,” Snead said. “Sean’s staff, they’re involved, and when you get involved in the personnel side, it’s not easy. There’s a lot of extra work on your plate and they do a heck of a job. This day couldn’t have gone as smooth as it did without their work.”

Dear White America

GEORGE YANCY
DECEMBER 24, 2015

link: https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/dear-white-america/

In 2015, I conducted a series of 19 interviews with philosophers and public intellectuals on the issue of race. My aim was to engage, in this very public space, with the often unnamed elephant in the room.

These discussions helped me, and I hope many of our readers, to better understand how race continues to function in painful ways within our country. That was one part of a gift that I wanted to give to readers of The Stone, the larger philosophical community, and the world.

The interviewees themselves — bell hooks, Cornel West, Judith Butler, Peter Singer, David H. Kim, Molefi Kete Asante among them — came from a variety of racial backgrounds, and their concerns and positions were even more diverse. But on the whole I came to see these interviews as linked by a common thread: They were messages to white America — because they often directly expressed the experience of those who live and have lived as people of color in a white-run world, and that is something no white person could ever truly know firsthand.

That is how I want to deliver my own message now.

•

Dear White America,

I have a weighty request. As you read this letter, I want you to listen with love, a sort of love that demands that you look at parts of yourself that might cause pain and terror, as James Baldwin would say. Did you hear that? You may have missed it. I repeat: I want you to listen with love. Well, at least try.

We don’t talk much about the urgency of love these days, especially within the public sphere. Much of our discourse these days is about revenge, name calling, hate, and divisiveness. I have yet to hear it from our presidential hopefuls, or our political pundits. I don’t mean the Hollywood type of love, but the scary kind, the kind that risks not being reciprocated, the kind that refuses to flee in the face of danger. To make it a bit easier for you, I’ve decided to model, as best as I can, what I’m asking of you. Let me demonstrate the vulnerability that I wish you to show. As a child of Socrates, James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, let me speak the truth, refuse to err on the side of caution.

This letter is a gift for you. Bear in mind, though, that some gifts can be heavy to bear. You don’t have to accept it; there is no obligation. I give it freely, believing that many of you will throw the gift back in my face, saying that I wrongly accuse you, that I am too sensitive, that I’m a race hustler, and that I blame white people (you) for everything.

I have read many of your comments. I have even received some hate mail. In this letter, I ask you to look deep, to look into your souls with silence, to quiet that voice that will speak to you of your white “innocence.” So, as you read this letter, take a deep breath. Make a space for my voice in the deepest part of your psyche. Try to listen, to practice being silent. There are times when you must quiet your own voice to hear from or about those who suffer in ways that you do not.

What if I told you that I’m sexist? Well, I am. Yes. I said it and I mean just that. I have watched my male students squirm in their seats when I’ve asked them to identify and talk about their sexism. There are few men, I suspect, who would say that they are sexists, and even fewer would admit that their sexism actually oppresses women. Certainly not publicly, as I’ve just done. No taking it back now.

To make things worse, I’m an academic, a philosopher. I’m supposed to be one of the “enlightened” ones. Surely, we are beyond being sexists. Some, who may genuinely care about my career, will say that I’m being too risky, that I am jeopardizing my academic livelihood. Some might even say that as a black male, who has already been stereotyped as a “crotch-grabbing, sexual fiend,” that I’m at risk of reinforcing that stereotype. (Let’s be real, that racist stereotype has been around for centuries; it is already part of white America’s imaginary landscape.)

Yet, I refuse to remain a prisoner of the lies that we men like to tell ourselves — that we are beyond the messiness of sexism and male patriarchy, that we don’t oppress women. Let me clarify. This doesn’t mean that I intentionally hate women or that I desire to oppress them. It means that despite my best intentions, I perpetuate sexism every day of my life. Please don’t take this as a confession for which I’m seeking forgiveness. Confessions can be easy, especially when we know that forgiveness is immediately forthcoming.

Being a ‘good’ white person or a liberal white person won’t get you off the hook.
As a sexist, I have failed women. I have failed to speak out when I should have. I have failed to engage critically and extensively their pain and suffering in my writing. I have failed to transcend the rigidity of gender roles in my own life. I have failed to challenge those poisonous assumptions that women are “inferior” to men or to speak out loudly in the company of male philosophers who believe that feminist philosophy is just a nonphilosophical fad. I have been complicit with, and have allowed myself to be seduced by, a country that makes billions of dollars from sexually objectifying women, from pornography, commercials, video games, to Hollywood movies. I am not innocent.

I have been fed a poisonous diet of images that fragment women into mere body parts. I have also been complicit with a dominant male narrative that says that women enjoy being treated like sexual toys. In our collective male imagination, women are “things” to be used for our visual and physical titillation. And even as I know how poisonous and false these sexist assumptions are, I am often ambushed by my own hidden sexism. I continue to see women through the male gaze that belies my best intentions not to sexually objectify them. Our collective male erotic feelings and fantasies are complicit in the degradation of women. And we must be mindful that not all women endure sexual degradation in the same way.

Don’t tell me that you voted for Obama. Don’t tell me that you don’t see color. Don’t tell me that I’m blaming whites for everything. To do so is to hide yet again.
I recognize how my being a sexist has a differential impact on black women and women of color who are not only victims of racism, but also sexism, my sexism. For example, black women and women of color not only suffer from sexual objectification, but the ways in which they are objectified is linked to how they are racially depicted, some as “exotic” and others as “hyper-sexual.” You see, the complicity, the responsibility, the pain that I cause runs deep. And, get this. I refuse to seek shelter; I refuse to live a lie. So, every day of my life I fight against the dominant male narrative, choosing to see women as subjects, not objects. But even as I fight, there are moments of failure. Just because I fight against sexism does not give me clean hands, as it were, at the end of the day; I continue to falter, and I continue to oppress. And even though the ways in which I oppress women is unintentional, this does not free me of being responsible.

If you are white, and you are reading this letter, I ask that you don’t run to seek shelter from your own racism. Don’t hide from your responsibility. Rather, begin, right now, to practice being vulnerable. Being neither a “good” white person nor a liberal white person will get you off the proverbial hook. I consider myself to be a decent human being. Yet, I’m sexist. Take another deep breath. I ask that you try to be “un-sutured.” If that term brings to mind a state of pain, open flesh, it is meant to do so. After all, it is painful to let go of your “white innocence,” to use this letter as a mirror, one that refuses to show you what you want to see, one that demands that you look at the lies that you tell yourself so that you don’t feel the weight of responsibility for those who live under the yoke of whiteness, your whiteness.

I can see your anger. I can see that this letter is being misunderstood. This letter is not asking you to feel bad about yourself, to wallow in guilt. That is too easy. I’m asking for you to tarry, to linger, with the ways in which you perpetuate a racist society, the ways in which you are racist. I’m now daring you to face a racist history which, paraphrasing Baldwin, has placed you where you are and that has formed your own racism. Again, in the spirit of Baldwin, I am asking you to enter into battle with your white self. I’m asking that you open yourself up; to speak to, to admit to, the racist poison that is inside of you.

Again, take a deep breath. Don’t tell me about how many black friends you have. Don’t tell me that you are married to someone of color. Don’t tell me that you voted for Obama. Don’t tell me that I’m the racist. Don’t tell me that you don’t see color. Don’t tell me that I’m blaming whites for everything. To do so is to hide yet again. You may have never used the N-word in your life, you may hate the K.K.K., but that does not mean that you don’t harbor racism and benefit from racism. After all, you are part of a system that allows you to walk into stores where you are not followed, where you get to go for a bank loan and your skin does not count against you, where you don’t need to engage in “the talk” that black people and people of color must tell their children when they are confronted by white police officers.

As you reap comfort from being white, we suffer for being black and people of color. But your comfort is linked to our pain and suffering. Just as my comfort in being male is linked to the suffering of women, which makes me sexist, so, too, you are racist. That is the gift that I want you to accept, to embrace. It is a form of knowledge that is taboo. Imagine the impact that the acceptance of this gift might have on you and the world.

Take another deep breath. I know that there are those who will write to me in the comment section with boiling anger, sarcasm, disbelief, denial. There are those who will say, “Yancy is just an angry black man.” There are others who will say, “Why isn’t Yancy telling black people to be honest about the violence in their own black neighborhoods?” Or, “How can Yancy say that all white people are racists?” If you are saying these things, then you’ve already failed to listen. I come with a gift. You’re already rejecting the gift that I have to offer. This letter is about you. Don’t change the conversation. I assure you that so many black people suffering from poverty and joblessness, which is linked to high levels of crime, are painfully aware of the existential toll that they have had to face because they are black and, as Baldwin adds, “for no other reason.”

Some of your white brothers and sisters have made this leap. The legal scholar Stephanie M. Wildman, has written, “I simply believe that no matter how hard I work at not being racist, I still am. Because part of racism is systemic, I benefit from the privilege that I am struggling to see.” And the journalism professor Robert Jensen: “I like to think I have changed, even though I routinely trip over the lingering effects of that internalized racism and the institutional racism around me. Every time I walk into a store at the same time as a black man and the security guard follows him and leaves me alone to shop, I am benefiting from white privilege.”

What I’m asking is that you first accept the racism within yourself, accept all of the truth about what it means for you to be white in a society that was created for you. I’m asking for you to trace the binds that tie you to forms of domination that you would rather not see. When you walk into the world, you can walk with assurance; you have already signed a contract, so to speak, that guarantees you a certain form of social safety.

Baldwin argues for a form of love that is “a state of being, or state of grace – not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” Most of my days, I’m engaged in a personal and societal battle against sexism. So many times, I fail. And so many times, I’m complicit. But I refuse to hide behind that mirror that lies to me about my “non-sexist nobility.” Baldwin says, “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” In my heart, I’m done with the mask of sexism, though I’m tempted every day to wear it. And, there are times when it still gets the better of me.

White America, are you prepared to be at war with yourself, your white identity, your white power, your white privilege? Are you prepared to show me a white self that love has unmasked? I’m asking for love in return for a gift; in fact, I’m hoping that this gift might help you to see yourself in ways that you have not seen before. Of course, the history of white supremacy in America belies this gesture of black gift-giving, this gesture of non-sentimental love. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered even as he loved.

Perhaps the language of this letter will encourage a split — not a split between black and white, but a fissure in your understanding, a space for loving a Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Aiyana Jones, Sandra Bland, Laquan McDonald and others. I’m suggesting a form of love that enables you to see the role that you play (even despite your anti-racist actions) in a system that continues to value black lives on the cheap.

Take one more deep breath. I have another gift.

If you have young children, before you fall off to sleep tonight, I want you to hold your child. Touch your child’s face. Smell your child’s hair. Count the fingers on your child’s hand. See the miracle that is your child. And then, with as much vision as you can muster, I want you to imagine that your child is black.