Kneeling Athletes Offended Me — Until I Learned To Listen

When Colin Kaepernick first started the ‘take a knee’ approach to the national anthem, my knee-jerk reaction was to be offended. I considered it disrespectful. I didn’t really care about his reasoning because I couldn’t get past his behavior. I believe my opinion was strongly grounded in that I’m a Veteran and served my country for four years stateside and in Iraq.

I wasn’t alone in my opinion, either. I had family and friends who felt the same way — and they still do today. However, the difference between them and me is that I remained open to other points of view, and they didn’t. And therein lies the problem with many of us.

We’ve stopped trying to listen to each other.

We don’t care about a viewpoint other than our own. We’ll grab onto the latest headline or sound bite as long as it supports our side. There’s no empathy allowed, and that’s sad because empathy is what allowed me to listen to Kaepernick’s views on social injustice. Instead of seeing his actions, assuming he was disrespectful and ‘anti-American,’ I stayed open to learning more.

Kneeling is actually a sign of respect

In researching the circumstances surrounding the choice to kneel, I learned some nuances to the story. Originally, Kaepernick was sitting during the anthem. That action caught the attention of former NFL player and Army Veteran Nate Boyer, who suggested kneeling instead, since kneeling, in many cultures and societies, is a sign of respect.
Partners kneel when proposing. Catholics kneel in church. Military servicemembers kneel in front of a fallen friend’s grave. Now I saw kneeling in a new way. Kneeling enabled Kaepernick and others to show respect to the flag and our country while still drawing attention to the fact that not everyone is treated equally.

The other great part of that story is that kneeling became an option because two people, with competing viewpoints, had an open dialogue on a contentious subject and came to a middle ground peacefully.

Holy shit. Maybe there’s hope after all.

All men are created equal…right?

Another thing that opened my eyes was the social uprising that happened over the summer of 2020. Racism always existed, but, sadly enough, I didn’t recognize how blatant and widespread it still was. Even writing that last sentence makes me cringe. The ignorance that it speaks to is embarrassing, but I’m owning my truth and bettering myself on racial and social inequality issues. Between George Floyd, Ahmad Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless other victims, it seemed that as a country, we could no longer turn a blind eye or live in ignorance. Kaepernick was trying to bring light to what so many in the BIPOC community already understood — but the white community refused to acknowledge.

The shift is happening

I know not everyone will agree with athletes who kneel. Somewhere along the way, the kneeling conversation got hijacked into one only about patriotism and respect. But the real dialogue needs to get back to WHY Kaepernick is kneeling, why is there still racial inequality, and how to do we, collectively as a country, do better.
And there’s hope.

A Washington Post poll from September 2020 showed that 56% of Americans supported athletes kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality. This is a significant shift from just two years ago when only 43% of Americans thought kneeling was appropriate.

Final thoughts

Whether you agree with athletes kneeling or not, the conversation around racial inequality needs to continue. Don’t get stuck on the kneeling. Look beyond that to the original issue, and let’s work on that part. Because once racial inequality is resolved, no one will need to kneel.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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