The current social and political problems plaguing America have begun to trickle into almost every part of our day-to-day lives. Even Sunday Night Football, which is thought to be an opportune few hours for American sports fans to tune out “real life problems” before the workweek, has begun to turn political.
On Sunday, September 24, players from seven NFL teams took a knee during the National Anthem, causing nationwide uproar which has ultimately shown just how divided this country truly is.
The issue began in 2016, when former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first made the decision to kneel for the National Anthem before a game. Kaepernick’s kneeling was not a demonstration of hatred toward the NFL, nor toward the American flag, but an exertion of his decision not to salute “a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” Due to the incident, Kaepernick lost his position in the NFL and is unable to be drafted by another team.
Now, let’s flash forward to last Friday, September 22. President Donald Trump made crude remarks about the issue during a rally in Alabama, at which he referred to Kaepernick and others who “disrespect[ed] the flag” as “son[s] of bitch[es]” and demanded they be fired and taken off the field. Not only it is unheard of for someone holding government office — let alone the president — to engage in matters such as the NFL, but Trump’s remarks undermined what Sunday’s protest was really about. The protest on Sunday was in response to Trump’s attacks on Kaepernick and showed the solidarity the NFL has since formed around him and the protests he took part in.
We are living in an extremely turbulent time in American history. Social issues are coming into the light and proving to us that we haven’t come as far as we’d like to tell ourselves when it comes to equality. Kaepernick’s protest transpired to bring attention to the atrocities of police brutality, racial profiling, and systematic oppression that the black community faces in our country today. Trump and his supporters twisted the story and declared what this protest is about.
Ultimately, it is important to understand that these protesting players are hurting. They feel betrayed and belittled by their own country. So many of us forget that our personal narrative of the history of our country is not the only one. While America should represent freedom and democracy, she is tainted with a history of oppression and severe inequality. The issues faced by black Americans are legitimate and need to be treated as so. Until we recognize that all of our realities are different, we will never be able to collectively combat racism in America. As Donald Trump said himself in a tweet this January, “Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy.”
America promises the same principles to all of her citizens. It’s time to understand and recognize that the notion of racism will never cease to exist until we start acting out of love, able to see the pain in those around us.