Are we misinterpreting protest for disrespect? Twitter recently became divisive as members of the NFL took up the mantle of protest that Colin Kaepernick had been carrying alone over the past year.
Colin Kaepernick is an NFL Free Agent who most recently played for the 49ers. In the 2016 preseason, Kaepernick began sitting during the national anthem, and made a statement that he did so in protest of the Unites States’ unchecked oppression of people of color. This was a direct reference to the police brutality that led to the deaths of Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, and Michael Brown among others, as well as the violence in Ferguson, and the lack of relief in Flint, Michigan. By September of that year, he opted to kneel during the anthem instead of sit, according to the advisement of U.S. military veteran Nate Boyer, as a way to show more respect during his protest. It is believed that kneeling was meant to show strength in humility. Kaepernick’s protest grew legs and took off, as more racially motivated violence took the forefront of the news following the election of the United States’ 45th president.
Most recently, the Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans Saints, Miami Dolphins among others, have had players or entire teams kneel during the anthem or remain in the locker room until it was finished.
The Seattle Seahawks locked arms, hearkening back to a symbol of the civil rights protests in the 1960s in order to evoke unity and raise awareness for civil struggle. The POTUS approved of this show of protest, saying that one must stand for the Anthem to be respectful to the flag. This statement caused many to consult the Flag Code’s Standards of Respect in order to determine the veracity of his statement; there was found to be no article which noted that kneeling for the flag to be an affront. Many also believed that the act of kneeling was the necessary impetus to get the president to acknowledge what was being protested—racial discrimination and violence toward people of color. That 45 missed the point of the protest and instead focused on whether that protest was “respectful” was telling.
There have since been several statements regarding civil protest by NFL players as well as by players in other sports leagues in North America. Stock car racer Dale Earnheardt Jr. defended the right of player protest in a tweet saying that “all Americans are granted rights to peaceful protests,” then quoted President John F. Kennedy by saying: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” Though he notes that he himself would stand for the flag, he also recognized that protest is an individual right spurred by personal belief.
Wayne Simmonds, a black player in the white-dominated National Hockey League, states that the narrative surrounding kneeling has been muddied: “Everybody is relating to politics, but for the people who are doing the kneeling and protesting peacefully, I think it has nothing to do with how [other] people are taking it,” he said. “Some people are saying it’s a disrespect to the flag, a disrespect to the Army. That’s not the thought process behind it; it’s just the vehicle that’s being used to create a conversation about social inequality.” This comes on the heels of the Pittsburgh Penguins choosing to continue the tradition of visiting the White House after a League win—right after the NBA’s Golden State Warriors fervently denied theirs.
Though the narrative has been derailed, the point still stands: the United States has let racism fester and is now feeling the effects more than ever under a president who calls for the firing of peaceful protesters and says neo-nazis are “very fine people.” People of color feel the effects of this daily in the form of hate speech, racially motivated violence, and systemic racism like the kind that Flint, Michigan suffers from. The citizens of Puerto Rico—a U.S. territory—have no power, very little water, and no medical infrastructure left in place after Hurricane Maria, while the President of the United States criticizes the mayor of San Juan after she begged for aid.
The United States of America undoubtedly needs to be held accountable for the racial disparity among its citizens. But, with so many larger issues to tackle, players kneeling to start a conversation about this disparity should not be one of them.
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