San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, sat down for two minutes during the playing of the National Anthem in protest of the injustice he sees in America.
He did not ask others to join him, he did not raise a gloved fist or streak across the field in a red, white and blue Bozo wig. Despite the words spoken by former teammate Alex Boone who accused him of disrespecting those who died under the bright light of freedom the flag represents, Mr. Kaepernick asked that we remember the people of color who have died in its shadow. The most overused word in political discourse today is “optics.” We are so preoccupied with appearances we miss the point far too often.
Colin Kaepernick issued a clear and concise statement supporting and respecting the military, even invoking the memories of family and friends who served. Unfortunately, as so often happens in today’s world of social media and false outrage, the sexier story was his sitting and not standing for a principle. John Carlos and Tommie Smith did raise gloved black fists during the medal ceremony of 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. The immediate outrage as always was over the act not the message. Fighting ignorance and neglect with peaceful protest, has long been the tradition of the Black community to raise awareness, sometimes ending in violent, penal or monetary retaliation. A price is generally levied by those who feel the most guilt. The International Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage ordered Carlos and Smith out of the Olympic Village, moved to have them stripped of their medals and ordered them home to America. The United States Olympic Committee initially protested the decision but eventually relinquished and Carlos and Smith returned to a segment of America in disgrace.
At my elementary school we all wanted to wear black gloves.
In what is now remembered as an act of bravery, at the time was roundly pilloried as unpatriotic and disrespectful. The world could see the plight of the Black man’s injustice but America wanted to cover injustice with the flag and deny it. A little known fact was that the White Australian silver medalist in that the 200-meter race was a man named Peter Norman. Norman had been tipped off to what Smith and Carlos had planned and chose not to raise a fist, it would have been patronizing, but wore a Project for Human Rights badge during the playing of the US National Anthem. Norman had nothing to gain and only his dignity to lose. Rosa Parks sat down on a bus, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knelt at the Edmund Pettus Bridge and now Colin Kaepernick is sitting again, in a football stadium.
Lost in its color and pageantry is the meaning of the flag, it gives you the absolute right to wave it with pride or turn your back when it is waved by those who would demean its value. I am old enough to remember being refused service in places in the South and not allowed to try on clothing in department stores in Washington DC.
Mr. Kaepernick makes a lot of money and plays a position on a football team that when I was as child would have been denied him. So before you throw your remote or bemoan the protestations of another rich athlete. How much money or prestige are you willing to sacrifice for principle and what if no one listened? …Thanks Kenny
Vote 2016