Drew Brees and his wife are looking to be part of the solution.
In a post on the Brees Dream Foundation Instagram account, Brittany Brees addressed her NFL star husband’s recent controversial comments on Black Lives Matter protesters kneeling during the national anthem.
“WE ARE THE PROBLEM,” she wrote in the post, which included quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. “I write this with tears in my eyes and I hope you all hear our hearts.”
“I have read these quotes and scripture 1,000 times,” she continued, “and every time I read it and the words sink into my heart. I think yes this is what it’s all about… Only until the last few days , until we experienced the death threats we experienced the hate… Did I realize that these words were speaking directly to us.”
Brittany added, “How could anyone who knows us or has had interactions with us think that Drew or I have a racist bone in our body?”
As it turns out, recent events have opened her and Drew’s eyes to the problems of racial inequality and police brutality.
“But that’s the whole point,” she wrote. “Somehow we as white America, we can feel good about not being racist, feel good about loving one an another as God loves us. We can feel good about educating our children about the horrors of slavery and history. We can read books to our children about Martin Luther King, Malcolm X., Hank Aaron, Barack Obama, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman.. and feel like we are doing our part to raise our children to love, be unbiased and with no prejudice. To teach them about all of the African Americans that have fought for and risked their lives against racial injustice. Somehow as white Americans we feel like that checks the box of doing the right thing. Not until this week did Drew and I realize THAT THIS IS THE PROBLEM.”
Addressing her husband’s comments about keeling directly, Brittany said, “To say ‘I don’t agree with disrespecting the flag’.. I now understand was also saying I don’t understand what the problem really is, I don’t understand what you’re fighting for, and I’m not willing to hear you because of our preconceived notions of what that flag means to us,” she wrote. “That’s the problem we are not listening, white America is not hearing. We’re not actively LOOKING for racial prejudice. We have heard stories from men and women we have known and loved for years about the racism that occurred in their lives..stories that were never shared or talked about because somehow they were considered normal.”
Finally, she added, “We want to do better. We want to HEAR you, and we will fight for you because thinking we are not part of the problem…is checking the box it means we are…not doing enough. It’s our job to educate ourselves. We are sorry.”
