On August 26, 2016, Colin Kaepernick sat during the national anthem. When asked the next day why he had done so, his answer was simple:
I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” he told NFL Media in an 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 (Kaepernick sat Before He Kneeled).
A few days later, he kneeled and the “movement” was launched. Other athletes, both Black and white, also began to kneel to help get across the message. In some ways, his protest became more about him; about the way his team, and ultimately the NFL, treated him. Kaepernick was already having issues with injuries, and both the San Francisco 49ers front office and head coach at the time, Chip Kelly, expressed support for Kaepernick citing his 1st Amendment rights.
In early January 2017, after incoming President Trump made it clear how much he was against the protests, Kaepernick played his last NFL game in a loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He later opted out of his contract with the 49ers and is not picked up by any other teams. He hasn’t played in the NFL since.
Was he dealt an unfair hand for choosing to use the on-field, and peaceful, protest? It has not yet been proven. What is for certain, however, is that the right hates him for the so-called “disrespect” he showed to the country. Obviously, this hatred is misinformed. It is politically and racially charged, obviously. The very reason they don’t see his protest as being an expression of what is good about the United States, was also, in many ways, the reason he was out their protesting.
Had Kaepernick been white, and used that opportunity to, say, protest wearing a mask, or a “stolen election,” then white, conservatives would thrown their full support to him. Had he been using that moment to protest for the right to bear arms, they would have supported his cause.
The right did not support his cause, and did not even want to consider the reasons for it, because first of all Colin is a Black man and police being extra hard on “the Blacks” is acceptable, if not the preferred way. But they will always tell us this is not the case. They will instead tell us that the reason for their hatred stems from his disrespect for the symbols of our nation — the flag, the national anthem.
Summer 2020
Only a Foxified conservative can honestly believe that America does not have a major issue with racism. Even many liberals will qualify statements made about the degree of racism in the US in the following manner, sure, there are issues but I think it has gotten a lot better. Comments like these from m white, educated friends living in very white, well-to-do neighborhoods are often expressed. Packaged in such a way, it lets them feel as if they are doing something by admitting that “something untidy” does exist; but it also takes any pressure off actually getting involved — see, things are getting better, as if the mere recognition helps alleviate the racism.
The thing is, that “little bit of racism” still remaining, in the view of the white liberal, is still a lot of racism if you happen to be on the receiving end of it. In fact, that misinformed belief, that things are getting better overall, is actually making that “little bit” even more permanent. Conservatives, and racists, love to say that America is not racist because a Black president was elected. This stupid statement, in conjunction with the above-expressed liberal copout, actually ingrains racism into out system — it systematizes it.
How often do we hear conservatives say that a blatant abuse of force by a white policeman against a Black person is “just an insolated” incident? There are bad apples in any town or city, they will often say, when explaining away the deadly incidents. The favorite fall back is to recognize the egregious violence, but then to also attack the victim — well, if he had acted this way and not that way, then he’d be alive.
The “behavior excuse” is something many white liberals can get behind. Wealthy liberals are busy saving the world, brightening their teeth each day, removing gluten from the air, etc.; and so, if the real issues of racism cannot be solved in the allocated thirty minutes of social media time — likes, retweets, re-posts, hearts and the occasional comment — then racism gets packaged away for another day. Remember, the “things are getting better, though” statement appeases the need to dig down deeper; and, to really find out: are thing really getting better?
The NFL now admits it should have paid more attention to the reasons behind Colin Kaepernick’s protest. It seems we all should have. The right, however, needed the movement. It’s timing was perfect for playing into the emotions, and the narrative, of the upcoming presidential election of 2016. Trump’s airing of grievance for white America was articulating mid-America’s fatigue with the issue of racism. Fox, and the entirety of the right had said, a Black president clearly demonstrates a post-racism country. If Blacks are being killed by police, then the police are obviously reacting to threats.
The Ferguson unrest was fresh in the minds of whites, and Fox News played it perfectly hinting this could soon be your neighborhood if Democrats remain in control. Colin Kaepernick’s protest focused attention to a problem that many of us already agreed existed. His protest was then transformed into a protest of him and his “disrespect” for America — somewhere the issue of Blacks being murdered by the systemic racism of police across the country was lost. Liberals took to defending Colin and forgetting about his original reason; defending Colin, after all, was easier.
I know that mere posing of this question suggests at my own naivete. After all, in 2016, and even more so today, Fox News, and the right, would have never listened to Colin’s protest. There could be no upside for them to actually consider that maybe his protest was more than the emotional, and rabble-rousing, disrespect for the country they made it out to be.
The job of Fox is to obfuscate for the sake of invoking emotional viewing. The purpose of this viewing is twofold: increased advertising revenue and increased chances for Republicans to win elections. A real discussion would have actually increased the chance of Hillary Clinton being elected.
Once Trump won, however, there was no way to hear Kaepernick’s protest. Trump empowered all the reasons Kaepernick was protesting to begin with. The dumbing down of systemic racism by Trump, by the entirety the right’s machine (elected officials and all of its media), guaranteed that George Floyd, and many others, before and after, would be murdered.
Imagine, however, had a real effort been made to understand why Black Americans were being killed in far greater percentages than whites when being confronted by the police? Trump, instead, launched a voter fraud commission — even though he had won the election.
The summer of 2020 might not have turned into the powder keg of racial hate that it did. The property damage, the deaths from violence, and then from COVID infection, would have been avoided. The visuals sent to the world this past summer of the BLM protestors being attacked by the white racists like Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and others, were despicable. The right’s response to this last sentence will be to say “the BLM protestors were rioting” and the white racists were defending their communities — there were isolated incidents of senseless rioting. for sure. But most of the violence was instigated by president of the United States telling the white terrorists — as time would prove — to attack the Blacks.
January 6th
Remember the peaceful protest by BLM protestors in Washington, DC? Remember the response by the police, the military, and the president? Remember the visual of dispersing protestors in front of the White House so Trump could hold a bible upside-down?
The real issue of police violence against Black Americans was mocked; it was turned into yet another “us versus them” moment, and used to unite conservatives against solving the real problems our nation faces.
All the obfuscation, however, and the nearly criminal neglect of the Trump Administration to the problem; and, the abuse of power by Attorney General Barr indeed started to sway some Americans sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter movement. Some began to consider that the BLM protestors were really just trouble-makers. The movement was being hijacked by extremists on both sides, but more so on the right, and it suddenly became a matter of choice of either you respect the police, blue lives matter; or, respect the unrest, and violence going down — never mind that it was happening when the white racists, at the instigation of the president, showed up.
And then January 6th happened. The same American flag, and the same honor of our nation, they were so protecting when the hate for young Colin took shape, was used to beat the very police whose blue lives they felt mattered more than Black Americans. When they attacked the Capitol Building chanting hang the sitting vice president; kill the Speaker of the House, every protest, every comment that racism isn’t systemic, but just the result of bad apples, was laid out there for all to see it for what it is: a crock of shit.
If anyone has forgotten about the systemic racism, then just recall January 6th. If anyone dares thing for a second that we aren’t a tragically racist society in need of a major intervention, then just recall January 6th. If you ever hear Trumpists, Fox News, Republican members of Congress talking about how BLM protests, Democrats, President Biden — or more likely Vice President Harris — are disrespecting the United States, our history, our heritage: just remind them of January 6th.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Chris Liverani on Unsplash