NFL Will Stop Assuming Black Players Have Lower Cognitive Function

The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that the National Football Association will stop its policy of “race-norming,” which operates under the assumption that Black people have lower cognitive function than white players.

This decision comes as part of a $1 billion dollar settlement approved by a judge in 2015 which will go to retired NFL players who have conditions that may stem from concussions over the next 65 years. This includes Alzheimer’s disease, moderate dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig and other issues from chronic brain trauma.

Former Black Washington running back Ken Jenkins said that this decision from the NFL came from advocacy led by wives of Black NFL players. “If it wasn’t for the wives, who were infuriated by all the red tape involved, it never would have come to be,” Jenkins told the Associated Press.

Lawyer and writer Derecka Purnell wrote on Twitter that this policy demonstrated how little the NFL cares about its Black players, citing their treatment of Colin Kaepernick. “The NFL locked Kap out for displaying his political analysis while also devaluing the Black players because ‘they can’t think,'” she wrote. “[T]his is partly how racial capitalism manifests, race making for the purpose of categorizing, extracting, and exploiting labor and time.”

The Associated Press reported that some Black football players have been rejected for compensation due to this policy. “The binary race norms, when they are used in the testing, assumes that Black patients start with worse cognitive function than whites and other non-Black [people],” journalist  Maryclaire Dale explained. “That makes it harder for them to show a deficit and qualify for an award.”

The NFL wrote in a statement that Black players who did not qualify before due to “race-norming” will receive compensation. “The replacement norms will be applied prospectively and retrospectively for those players who otherwise would have qualified for an award but for the application of race-based norms,” NFL said in a statement issued Wednesday by spokesman Brian McCarthy.

The awards so far have averaged slightly over $500,000 for the 379 players with early-stage dementia and slightly over $700,000 for the 207 players with moderate dementia.

This is just one example of how racism shows up in both athletics and in medicine. Black Americans are systematically under-treated for pain, experience longer wait times in the ER and are more likely to lose their lives during child birth.

Related: 8 Ways Health Care Racism Is Harming Black People