As Colin Kaepernick continues to silently drop to one knee
as the Star Spangled Banner is played, the conversation and the controversy
continue on Facebook and Twitter, around water coolers and at kitchen tables.
After spending plenty of time reading, discussing and thinking about the
subject, the time has come to put my thoughts into print. Writing, for me, has never been
reactionary. It is the culmination of
deep thought and reflection, and it allows me to present my thoughts and ideas with
clarity and conviction.
I can say with complete clarity and conviction that not
everyone who reads this will agree with my conclusions. I am certain that most people reading these
words have their own feelings on the subject and may disagree strongly with Mr.
Kaepernick’s actions. I am confident
that others will write, and have written, words that convey a different
opinion, and yet are just as thoughtfully presented as mine. I only ask that, as you read these words, you
understand that they are not intended to provoke an argument, but rather to
spark a conversation.
My words are my platform.
We are raised as Americans to always respect the American
flag, to stand for the Star Spangled Banner, to remove our hats, place our
hands over our hearts, and to appreciate the freedom and opportunity that these
symbols represent. The anthem means many
things to many people. For me, I think
of freedom, the Olympics, and the many sacrifices of our soldiers. I think of how lucky I am to have had the
blind luck to be born here, considering that more than 95% of humans live
somewhere else on the planet. It is not
surprising, especially given my upbringing, that I had mixed feelings when I
heard that Mr. Kaepernick was taking a stand by sitting down.
I want to talk about the means of protest, but I’ll come back
to that later. The first thing, and the
most important thing, is the protest itself.
Colin hasn’t made a lot of public statements, but he hasn’t been unclear
about his reasoning. From the reading
that I’ve done, he has made two major public statements explaining his actions,
and I’ve copied them below.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a
flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color”, Kaepernick
told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. “To me, this is bigger
than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There
are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with
murder.”
“I’ll continue to stand with the people who are
being oppressed. To me, this is something that has to change, and when there’s
significant change — and I feel like that flag represents what it’s supposed to
represent, and this country is representing people the way it’s supposed to —
I’ll stand.”
While it is relatively clear from the first quote that he is
referencing recent police shootings of black men, he also talks more generally
in both quotes about “a country that oppresses black people and people of
color,” and standing with “people who are being oppressed.” His statements
suggest that he is holding the flag, as the symbol of our country, to a higher
standard. He is demonstrating a disapproval with how our country is currently performing against our stated
ideals and expectations for ourselves.
In recent days, a number of other athletes have voiced their
support for his sentiments, and many have even decided to join in the protest.
Brandon Marshall, a linebacker for the Denver Broncos, recently started taking
a knee. His explanation is as follows:
“The message is that I’m against social
injustice,” Marshall told reporters after the game. “I’m not against the
military, police or America at all. I’m against social injustice and I feel
like this is the right thing to do.”
If you believe that
racism is a problem in this country, that minorities are sometimes oppressed,
that injustice is ingrained in many of our institutions, then it is easier to
understand the actions of these athletes.
If, on the other hand, you disagree with the premise of the protest,
then the means of expression is irrelevant.
In other words, if you don’t think Colin has a point, then it really
doesn’t matter how he decides to express his disapproval.
I’ve also listened
to people argue that, because of Kaepernick’s success as an athlete, or due to
his financial standing, that he doesn’t have a right to speak on these
issues. I suppose the suggestion is that
you shouldn’t protest oppression if you are not among the oppressed. Let’s put
aside the fact that Kaepernick is a mixed-race man raised by white parents, who
works for mostly white billionaire employers alongside mostly black
co-workers. I’m going to go out on a
limb and assume he’s run into some sort of difficulty at some point in his 28
years. This contention reminds me of a discussion I once had with someone who
tried to convince me that a wealthy, white politician was a hypocrite for
suggesting tax increases on wealthy people.
After spending quite some time arguing that acting against your own
self-interests to benefit others doesn’t make one a hypocrite, we ended up
agreeing to disagree.
The more important
point, however, is that protesting against the unjust treatment of others is
exactly what we should all be doing. As
I’ve stated before on these pages, real change doesn’t tend to happen unless
those who have the power find the courage to stand up for those who are denied
it. Kaepernick’s fame and fortune don’t
disqualify him from standing up for his ideals, they simply give him a larger
stage to stand upon.
If I haven’t lost
you yet, I hope that you can agree with the following two points:
- Oppression of minorities happens, and it is a problem worthy of our time and contemplation.
- Colin Kaepernick, or any one of us, has every right to call attention to this problem.
Let’s return to the
flag. Even if we can agree that there is
a problem with racism in America, and that an NFL football player has every
right to speak his mind, many of us are still bothered by the means of
protest. Initially, I was bothered by
the ambiguity of the action, by the many ways that his protest would be (mis)interpreted. I worried that his important message would be
drowned out by the protests of police officers, active military officers and
military veterans.
Instead, something
else happened. Kaepernick’s team
supported his right to protest. The NFL
decided not to punish him. He sat down
with a member of the military to discuss his motivation. Pretty soon, #VeteransForKaepernick started
trending on Twitter. He decided to kneel with his teammates instead of sitting
alone. A white US women’s soccer player followed
his lead. Soon, others were kneeling,
raising a fist, or supporting his right to protest. Before you knew it, a conversation was
beginning in this country. Not a
consensus, but a conversation.
Finally, it
occurred to me. You don’t bring
attention to something that you care deeply about by doing something that
nobody cares about. That would be like
“Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli protesting his treatment in the media by going
on a hunger strike (seriously dude, go away).
If you want to make a statement, you need to get people’s
attention. Regardless of your feelings
on the matter, I’d say he succeeded.
The Star Spangled
Banner is much more than a poem set to the music of an old British song. The flag is more than stripes and stars on a
piece of cloth hanging from a pole.
These symbols represent our country, in all of its imperfect glory. It
represents immigrants from Europe fleeing from religious persecution and the
repression of an archaic caste system.
It represents the farmers and shopkeepers, millers and blacksmiths, who took
up arms and demanded the right to govern themselves. It represents the millions of Native
Americans murdered and pushed aside in the name of progress. It represents boatloads of Africans brought
to this country in chains. It represents
Japanese internment camps, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution,
the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, women’s suffrage, civil
rights legislation, the Citizen’s United Supreme Court ruling, and the
inexplicable rise of Donald Trump. This
is, and has always been, a country built by imperfect people, with imperfect ideas,
and yet we continue to search for a “more perfect Union.”
Colin Kaepernick
represents so much of the progress we’ve seen in this country. There was a time when a bi-racial child would
be shunned by society. Abandoned by his
biological father, his mother gave him up for adoption to a white couple who
had lost their own children in infancy.
A changing America gave him the opportunity to attend integrated public
schools, go to college, and get drafted into the NFL. He has built his platform through hard work
and perseverance, and he has every right to use it as he sees fit.
Let the
conversation continue…
