After opposition last week to his criticism of NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, NFL great Jim Brown said the black community shouldn’t blame the president for its problems, insisting it “has a responsibility” to examine its own performance.
“We should look at ourselves first before we look at the president,” said Brown in an interview Tuesday with the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.”
“The black community … has a responsibility regardless of what the president does,” said the former Cleveland Browns running back. “And if you have a homicide rate within your black community, then it’s not the president that’s created a homicide rate, it’s the black community itself that needs to address it.”
Brown described Trump as an “exceptional” president who is wrongly accused of being racist. And he commended “white people” who have sacrificially advocated for black Americans.
“The advancement of black people in this country is based upon white people who risked their lives just to do the right thing to make the playing field equal and balanced,” he said.
“How many black athletes are millionaires because of those white fans that go to those games?”
Brown said he doesn’t want to “just put everything” on President Trump.
“And I’m sorry to say that the black community is not doing what we should do, and that includes myself. We have to be able to, as citizens, bring something that the president can join forces with and triple the effectiveness of it,” he said.
Last week, Trump tweeted his support of Brown after the football icon criticized disrespect of the anthem by some NFL players and said he was “really pulling for the president.”
“Thank you to the great @JimBrownNFL32, perhaps the greatest running back of all time, for your wonderful words and support. Since our meeting in New York, African-American UNEMPLOYMENT has reached the LOWEST LEVEL IN HISTORY. You get it!”
