Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Like so many teams’ statements, the Giants’ was hard to disagree with. They are against “racial injustice.” They will honor those who have “senselessly lost their lives.”
And like most teams’ statements, there were two notable words absent from the organized message of the club’s.
“Police brutality,” according to Larry Baer, “could have been” in the message from the Giants following the death of George Floyd, whose last moments were with a Minneapolis officer’s knee on his neck.
“I think some statements have had that,” Baer said on “Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks” on Thursday. “I don’t have an exact answer other than to say racial injustice takes a lot of forms. In this case, this specific case — George Floyd — that’s obviously what it was. But there’s other forms, and we were I think being a little broader. There’s racial injustice in terms of hiring, in terms of targeting, in terms of redlining, there’s a lot of different forms. But I hear your point.”
Teams and leagues have been criticized for being vague in their messages since protests have broken out all around the country. By other segments, they’ve been criticized for releasing a statement at all.
It is a difficult tightwalk to tread in terms of public relations. Of course, racism is not an area where public relations should really come into play.
“We unequivocally denounce acts of racial injustice against members of the black community that continue to plague our nation,” the Giants’ statement Sunday night read. “We pledge to honor the memories of those who have senselessly lost their lives by working together to end discrimination and violence in our communities.”