I know many of you have no idea who Colin Kaepernick is, and couldn’t care any less about what he did. But bear with me.
Kaepernick told NFL Network on Friday night that he chose not to stand [during the National Anthem] because: ‘I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. 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.’
(USA Today, August 28, 2016)
Let me state from the outset that nobody should question or even criticize Kaepernick’s right to protest in any way he chooses. What’s more, his heart might be in the right place.
It’s just that this protest smacks of grandstanding. And it’s only slightly less lazy and misguided than people who think (re)tweeting slogans about injustice is tantamount to fighting for justice.
Of course, Rosa Parks and the “Greensboro Four” famously showed the meaningful way to stand up by sitting down for racial justice.
But one hardly needs to go back that far. After all, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade showed a better way for athletes to stand up just last month at the ESPY Awards. They opened the show with a joint plea for cops to stop killing blacks AND for blacks to stop killing each other … at a far more alarming rate.
Sadly, this rate rose again in Chicago just days ago. In this case, two black thugs killed Wade’s cousin when she got caught in the crossfire of their drive-by shooting. This would be remarkably ironic if it were not so commonly tragic.
The point is that there are many ways Kaepernick can stand up for his cause without showing wanton disrespect for the pride so many people have in the American flag. I urge him to find another way.
He claims he’s using his voice to “bring awareness” to racial injustice. Except he seems unaware that people have been raising their voices to decry racial injustice all over this country in recent years. Which raises two questions:
- Where was Kaepernick when people (of all colors) took to the streets to decry the killing of blacks like Trayvon Martin, Dontre Hamilton, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, and Charles Kinsey, to name just a few?
- Is Kaepernick unaware that their outcry found its most defiant expression in the slogan, “Black Lives Matter!”?
Frankly, it’s delusional for Kaepernick to think that sitting down during the National Anthem will bring awareness to racial injustice, instead of attention to himself. His defenders argue that he was just sitting down and minding his own business. But he had to have known the media would eventually call him out on his passive-aggressive stand.
And saying he will refuse to stand “until things change” makes about as much sense, and will have about as much impact, as saying you will refuse to eat at Burger King until they stop serving beef.
Meanwhile, this is probably the first time many die-hard Football fans have heard any media mention of his name in years. That’s because he became a shell of himself after Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks outplayed and humbled him during the 2014 NFC Championship game.
He now seems afflicted with the quarterback version of the “yips” that have reduced Tiger Woods to a shell of himself, making more news off the course than on it over the past few years.
So, even as Kaepernick is doing little to help the San Francisco 49ers succeed, he is now drawing attention away from teammates who are doing lots. Hence, nobody should be surprised if his team releases him before mid-season for distracting too much, while contributing too little.
Having said all that, when it comes to rabid emotion and slavish devotion, sports rival politics and religion. No doubt this is why some “proud American” decided (in the aftermath of WWI) that sports arenas are perfect venues to imbue this emotion and devotion with patriotism. Only this explains beginning practically every sporting event with the National Anthem these days, obliging everyone attending to stand to show respect.
But, with all due respect Kaepernick, just imagine how it must have rankled black veterans of that war and WWII — who for decades had to stand up for the National Anthem, which I’m sure they did, at segregated ball parks. Mind you, I suspect they stood for the Negro National Anthem at some parks too … as a form of passive-aggressive protest.
In any event, this rite reeks of fascist-style nationalism. How soon before some proud American decides this American tradition should include the few seconds it takes to recite the Pledge of Allegiance too?
Never mind that, by constitution, loyalty to this country should not depend on such communal rites, especially when all you want to do is enjoy a friggin’ game. Not least because most people turn to sports to escape the very political tensions Kaepernick stirred up by sitting down.
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Monday, at 12:22 p.m.