Colin Kaepernick once again refused to stand when the national anthem was played before a game Thursday night-and this time, he wasn’t alone.
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Boyer, who competed for a job on the Seahawks previous year, wrote an open letter in The Army Times earlier this week to Kaepernick about his decision not to stand during the anthem.
Reid said his decision to join Kaepernick had nothing to do with his standing in the NFLPA, and he did not inform the 49ers before joining Kaepernick because he didn’t feel supporting Kaepernick would be detrimental to the team.
However, the jeering did little to deter Kaepernick, who impressed during two quarters, leading his team on a 16-play opening drive for an early touchdown to put the 49ers ahead.
“What should horrify Americans is not Kaepernick’s choice to remain seated during the national anthem”, he wrote, “but that almost 50 years after Ali was banned from boxing for his stance and Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s raised fists caused public ostracization and numerous death threats, we still need to call attention to the same racial inequities”.
Before and after refusing to stand for the national anthem, Kaepernick made no mention of religious conversion or (general) appeals to faith while articulating his political views. I believe that there are issues in this country – many issues, too many to name.
But Kaepernick is certainly following in the footsteps of those giants, who bravely protested this country’s injustices even when they knew it would come at enormous personal cost.
Without providing specifics, Kaepernick said he is working with organizations in communities of need that will get the $1 million he makes this year. This happened as the home team, the San Diego Chargers, were honoring the armed forces with a salute to the military night.
“I plan to take it a step further”, Kaepernick said.
It was clear from Kaepernick’s words and actions before and during the game that he sought to end some narratives that have developed amid this story.
After the game, Kaepernick held a press conference. Some people aren’t given the same rights or opportunities as others. But I choose to stay here and try to work to make America a better place.
“That’s another issue. These issues need to be addressed”.
Ever since Mr. Kaepernick began to commit this taboo form of protest Friday, some athletes, fans, and columnists have said the 28-year-old is unpatriotic. Without question, these factors were central in Kaepernick’s development as a political being and thinker, in conjunction with the trials of being a young black man in an America where systematic police brutality and the prison industrial complex disproportionately target his specific demographic.
“He’s just speaking out (but) he used a platform that many Americans don’t agree with”, Smith said on Tuesday. So I think that it was very big of him to change his physical position, to taking a knee, to show respect to those people, but still stand up for the message he was trying to portray. And not take away from the military, but keep the focus on what the issues really are. That’s why I’m doing this.
Kaepernick also addressed the socks he wore weeks ago that had a pig cartoon dressed as a cop.
Kaepernick’s statement is powerful precisely because he’s in a position he was never meant to occupy.
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Before the game, Petty Officer 1st Class Steven Powell from the US Navy sang “The Star-Spangled Banner”. I support him because he’s bringing the truth out — regardless of how done.
