Culture

Mariah Carey expertly takes down the Super Bowl in five perfect words

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey attends the premiere of Tyler Perry’s “A Fall From Grace” at Metrograph on 13 January 13, 2020 in New York City. (Getty/ Jamie McCarthy)

Mariah Carey’s take on the Super Bowl 2021 is the only one humanity needs.

The elusive chanteuse is not here for the NFL’s attempts to paper over its problems with systemic racism.

Four years after Colin Kaepernick played his last NFL game before being effectively disowned by the league for kneeling against racism, the NFL celebrated its own pledge to fight injustice.

Super Bowl 2021 viewers were treated to an advert for the NFL’s Inspire Change campaign, flashing images of the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests – including, incredulously, demonstrators taking the knee – along with players wearing the names of Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain and Eric Garner – three Black victims of police brutality.

After the ad aired, Mariah Carey was among many to point out the hypocrisy.

“Happy Colin Kaepernick Appreciation Day!” she tweeted.

Never one to miss a beat, she also took the opportunity to champion Janet Jackson, whose career was infamously derailed after her own Super Bowl appearance.

Mariah wasn’t the only one to ridicule the NFL for its anti-racism advert. It was “revisionist posturing happening real time,” tweeted author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.

“Don’t forget that the NFL has systematically villainized Colin Kaepernick because he *knelt* to protest racial injustice, police brutality, and anti-Blackness,” added house representative Pramila Jayapal, as Kaepernick’s name trended.

Colin Kaepernick and his 49ers teammate Eric Reid announced in February 2019 that they had settled a collusion complaint which accused team owners of colluding to keep them off the field after they knelt during the national anthem to protest racism. The NFL paid the players a settlement, reportedly worth less than $10 million.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke of his regret over the situation on 4 February, when he said: “I said very clearly back in June that we wish we had listened to our players earlier, and we had a lot of players that were coming and bringing these issues to us.”

He singled Kaepernick out as “one of the individuals who obviously brought a great deal of attention to this, and, for that, he deserves our recognition for that and appreciation”.

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