I think most of us can agree that racism is ignorant. I have said many times that if all you have against me, is the color of my skin, not only are you ignorant but you are lazy. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to not like me, you don’t need to use my skin color.

I have been thinking about some of our knee-jerk reactions to certain situations. While many of them may be justified, let’s remember that justification is not about right or wrong. Justification is about how we rationalize a thought or action.

There was a visceral reaction to a statement made by NFL owner, Bob McNair. That reaction given the context was 100% justified in my humble opinion. In order to provide some context, the owner said “we can’t let the inmates run the prison.” It was said during a meeting where the objective was supposed to be the owners and players working together productively and discuss the current climate surrounding the National Anthem protests. When you take into consideration what the NFL protests have really been about, the fact that the “inmates” he was referring look like the people whom the injustices have been targeting and the fact that McNair is old enough to have lived during the height of the civil rights movement, he (McNair) should have known better. Was his statement racially insensitive? Absolutely! Did it demonstrate a lack of awareness of the moment? Of course! Neither of these things however make him a racist, so I will not call him one.

The NFL athletes have an excellent opportunity with this situation. The original message has unfortunately been hijacked and lost through misdirection by others that are opposed to either, the message, the method or both. If I had influence in the NFL my advice would be to use this opportunity to illustrate how important the protests are.

Let me be clear, all professional sporting events, at the end of the day are entertainment. Giving Bob McNair the benefit of the doubt and assuming that he was merely using a very popular phrase, which it is, this can become the perfect learning tool for how easily and damaging a seemingly popular phrase can be if you don’t really understand the landscape. If a man can misunderstand the message of his best entertainers, when he interacts with them on a regular basis, it becomes less plausible to expect the rest of society to understand the main message either. This is why staying focused and continuing to educate on the original intent of the protests is paramount.

Is Bob McNair a racist? I don’t know but I doubt it. His statement however, did show his ignorance on this issue. Contrary to how our political climate may make individuals feels, you don’t become a billionaire by being a moron and normally making asinine decisions. Those two truths unfortunately were not reflected by his statement. To be fair, he did speak to one of the NFL representatives immediately, (whom is African-American) owned his mistake and apologized. My objective is not to vilify Mr. McNair as a man but the attitude behind the statement must not be ignored.

No matter how we decide to react to a situation, especially one that can be deemed racially charged, it’s important to remember that while all racism is ignorant, not all ignorance is racist! A general lack of understanding does not normally bring people closer together but the unwillingness to even attempt to understand, is a true cause of division.