“It’s better to remain quiet and have people think you’re a fool than to open up your mouth and remove all doubt.”

Earlier this week Hall of Fame NFL Quarterback, Brett Favre, said on his podcast that he found it hard to believe that Dereck Chauvin killed George Floyd intentionally. “I found it hard to believe and I’m not defending Derek Chauvin in any way, I found it hard to believe, first of all, that he meant to kill George Floyd. That being said, his actions were uncalled for. I don’t care what color the person is on the street. I don’t know what led to that video where we saw his knee on his neck, but the man had thrown in the towel.”

We should take Favre saying this publicly as a valuable teaching moment because it not only shows us how he feels, but it also reveals what other people around our country also feel about this case. It allows us to see how much of a lack of awareness there is for certain people that see law enforcement as the “good guys” and someone they can count on for protection. This isn’t the first time Favre has stuck his foot in his mouth, as he recently stated to The Daily Wire’s Andrew Klavan that athletes who kneel during the national anthem have “created more turmoil than good.”

It doesn’t matter how much footage or evidence there is showing blatant wrongdoing, it’s hard for them to accept that someone that they respect and hold dear could do something so egregious. This is an issue of ignorance, that comes off as a lack of empathy, because in this instance Favre is clearly having an empathetic connection with Derek Chauvin and not George Floyd that was strangled to death on camera.

At the end of the day, certain people just can’t understand the realities people of color face while dealing with law enforcement because it simply is not their reality. In their reality, law enforcement can do no wrong because they are the people that make them feel safe. When certain people see law enforcement they see a friend and feel protected. When people of color see law enforcement, the way we feel is often the exact opposite. This is a reality that can be hard to articulate with words and get people that aren’t impacted to understand.

Favre’s statement exemplifies ignorance on both sides, the people that agree with him don’t understand people that don’t and people that don’t agree with him don’t understand how he could possibly say something like that despite the overwhelming evidence at hand. Although it may be easy to call Favre racist, we must all learn to understand that our perceptions and who we are is not our fault. We are all ignorant and once we acknowledge that we will be a lot better off amongst each other. This one of the biggest issues facing our country today and it all comes down to communication or in this instance a lack thereof.