It was a classic game – no Tom Brady, big plays, lead changes, fourth quarter heroics, and hopefully the best set of commercials you will see in a given year.

The Super Bowl is the most watched sporting event annually in America as many who do not particulalry follow professional football come to watch the spectacle that the Super Bowl has become.

And there is the halftime show.

For the first time, hip-hop was the focus for the halftime show with icons Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and surprise guest 50-Cent performing. Of course many of the students who go to our public schools watched the game and that halftime show. Those performers are foundational legends in the music industry reaching back three decades. Parents of students were coming of age listening to these stars.

If you listen to their lyrics, the settings of their stories, and the context of their songs, it is hard to not think as a teacher all of the energy and focus many politicians have exerted to shout a narrative about indoctrination, CRT, and the non existence of systemic racism.

One person in particular comes to mind: North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson – he of the Indoctrination Task Force (F.A.C.T.S.). He also has been very vocal about his belief that there is no systemic racism.

Remember this?

“I don’t believe in systemic racism.”

-MARK ROBINSON, (then) CANDIDATE FOR LT. GOVERNOR

To be exact, those words are within this larger context from a virtual debate between Robinson and his opponent, Democrat Yvonne Holly aired by Spectrum News on Sept. 19th, 2020.

“I don’t believe in systemic racism. I don’t believe that systemic racism would allow two black people to be standing here running for lieutenant governor or allow a black man to be elected president for two terms.”

“Systemic racism is not the problem. The problem is we have is far too many communities ruled by lawlessness.”

In a year when the Black Lives Matter movement took shape and the 1619 project was published it seemed rather hard to look at Robinson’s words and agree with them.

This teacher believes that there is systemic racism. That halftime show last night certainly showed how much Robinson’s intentional ignorance still flies in the face of reality – a reality that students, parents, and teachers already know and are trying to combat on a daily basis.

Think about it. Mark Robinson, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Emeinem, and Mary J. Blige are all around the same age. They have lived through the same national events, seen some of the same things, and lived in the same country.

And who has the bigger audience and exerts the most influence?

Is it because they are relating a true perspective of what has happened in our country and still occurs?