I’m sure your social media is covered with people posting support, criticism, or otherwise expressing their thoughts on San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick’s decision not to stand during the national anthem in protest of racial oppression.
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Kaepernick recently refused to stand for the national anthem at a game against the Green Bay Packers.
His protest comes amid increased scrutiny over police use of force against African-American men and other minorities.
“There’s people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable”, says Kaepernick.
I’d love to see the critics’ protest statements on the systematic economic under-development of black communities for generations by both government and private mainstream corporate interests.
Kaepernick, who is bi-racial, insists whatever the consequences, he will know he did “what’s right”. “The cause he was going for, fine by me – but don’t do it in that fashion”, Isner said. So I don’t see it as going about it the wrong way. This isn’t for looks. This is for people that don’t have the voice.
“And this is for people that are being oppressed and need to have equal opportunities to be successful, to provide for families and not live in poor circumstances”, he said.
In 1968, Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos lifted their black-gloved fists as the national anthem was played after they won the gold and bronze medals in the men’s 200-meter sprint – a gesture seen as radical and an endorsement of black power.
So, the fact that a 29-year-old professional football player chose to take a stand by refusing to rise along with his teammates as The Star-Spangled Banner is played doesn’t faze me one bit.
Yet the National Football League recently denied a request by the Dallas Cowboys for players to wear a sticker on their helmets to show support for five Dallas police officers killed last month.
“Obviously everyone has a right to do what they want to do”.
“The next time some overpaid entertainer or athlete or politician stands up and says, boo-hoo, people are mean to me because x, y and z, laugh in their face, including this guy”, Carlson added.
Taking a slightly different angle, the Guardian published a story giving Kaepernick extra cudos for the move because he hasn’t been playing well, saying that only makes his protest “all the more fearless”. Presumptive starting quarterback Blaine Gabbert “will not play”, as he received “43 snaps in the preseason”. Or they are individuals who are silent when white athletes don’t place their hands over their hearts when the national anthem plays – but vilify Gabby Douglas for the same.
“We fail to teach our kids, our young people, anything about our history”, Owens said. People are dying in vain because this country isn’t holding their end of the bargain up, as far as giving freedom and justice, liberty to everybody.
“Others re-upped a post from the Baltimore Sun published a year ago in the wake of calls for the removal of the Confederate flag from public property, with the headline: “‘The Star Spangled Banner’: “a slave-owner’s anthem?”
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“Mr. Kaepernick has embarrassed himself, the 49er organization, and the NFL based on a false narrative and misinformation that lacks any factual basis”, SFPOA President Martin Halloran wrote in a letter to 49ers President/CEO Jed York, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Kaepernick.
