Photo: Miami Dolphins new head coach Mike McDaniel taps the microphone, which hadn't yet been turned on, as he prepares to speak at an introductory press conference, Feb. 10, 2022, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
The National Football League is embroiled in a scandal over its failure to equitably hire Black executives and coaches, and former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the organization and other NFL teams challenging their hiring practices.
Now one of the NFL’s new hires says it’s “weird” how fixated people have become on his racial identity and that he never had any real experience with racism.
The new football head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel, has a Black father, a white mother, and said he identifies as just “human.” He said he finds it strange “identifying as something,” Newsweek reported.
Even though Flores led the Dolphins in back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in almost 20 years, the NFL team fired him on Jan. 10, 2022. Flores had two years left on his contract. The Dolphins is one of the teams Flores is suing for racial discrimination.
“It’s been very odd, to tell you the truth, this idea of identifying as something,” McDaniel said during his introductory press conference on Feb. 10. “I think people identify me as something, but I identify as a human being, and my dad’s Black.”
The remarks sparked a slew of comments from Black America, who accused McDaniels, among other things, of identifying as white but refusing to say so.
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“He actually said: I don’t use labels even tho’ dad is Black, I don’t experience racism. Thankfully my skin is more wyte so while I don’t lie & say I’m not black, I just let you assume, based on what you see. Allowing me the privileges & advantages of what you think I am!” tweeted THEE DDerry Jones Vaxxed Boosted! (@DDerryJ).
“Incredible, this is why lineage matters. Real Black Americans are the ones who have been blocked out of Ownership and High Level positions. Not this guy and not the Flores guy who claims Anti-Black Racism only when it’s convenient,” tweeted Nas (@nasescobar316)
Some said McDaniels’ comments evoked golf champ Tiger Woods, who is also biracial with a Black father. Woods was known to skip racial identity questions.
“He hit us with the Tiger Woods !!! Best of luck to him,” tweeted C HENRY (@aikhanHEN313).
“Dude, just say you don’t identify as Black. “I identify and have lived my life as a White man and can not speak to the experiences of Black men, players, or fellow coaches. But, I am open to learning from my peers.” Just speak your truth and keep it moving,” tweeted Demetria Hill Sloan.
Photo: Miami Dolphins new head coach Mike McDaniel taps the microphone, which hadn’t yet been turned on, as he prepares to speak at an introductory press conference, Feb. 10, 2022, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
