You know everything’s changed when you see a black kid wearing this throwback varsity jacket on the subway and realize that…
- After 7/7, you could never wear it on the subway, and
- Subway cops are now inaccurately suspicious more of you than of him
Fritz Pollard formed this African-American football team ([New York Brown Bombers], named for African-American heavyweight boxer Joe Louis) after the NFL adopted a policy of segregation. [Link]… the Brown Bombers [were] a professional team that played in Harlem for three highly successful seasons – funded by a loan from John D. Rockefeller Jr., a friend from Pollard’s days at Brown. The Bombers’ roster was a Who’s Who of black athletes at the time, including players from basketball and baseball leagues as well as former NFL stars. The Depression and the war ended the Brown Bombers’ run in 1938. [Link]
By the way, the Brown Bombers jacket is not actually a bomber jacket, and the Brown Bombers are not the same as the Bronx Bombers, the Brooklyn Bombers or the London bombers.
Related post: Worst timing ever
I doubt a White person would want to wear this “human pinata T shirt” in a Black neighborhood. In any case, I doubt it is a good idea to wear anything with the word “bomb” or any of its variants on mass transit systems, regardless of your skin color… 🙂
I think our situation is different from the African-American one. there’s many differences partly the historical treatment of African Americans, the fact of slavery and the consequences. Lets just hope peace comes to our fruited planes for all of us
so true. Even worse would be to wear it if you have a beard also.
Saturday morn,sans coffee so far, so a tad slow on the uptake. Suicide bombers are brown – mostly. Thus the irony?