As many have heard by now, San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, made a deliberate decision to sit down during the national anthem. The result of this action would open a dialogue, one with many Americans, notably fellow NFL fans, scrutinizing Kaepernick for this choice. They were calling him out for being unpatriotic and many suggested that he was disrespecting the flag and the nation that gave him this very right to protest. Hear me out for one second, what if Colin Kaepernick's actions ARE patriotic, and "American".
I hope that you will not dismiss this article before even taking my perspective into account. The United States of America was built on a foundation of freedom and liberty. You are able to take excerpts from any famous document and find that liberty was the premise for the United States’ establishment. Now imagine being a black person, you buy into this idea of freedom, it excites you to be able to do whatever you want (all things considered), unfortunately, this famous quote, “all men are created equal,” does not apply to you. You are not given the same rights and privileges as other white Americans; in fact, you face discrimination on a daily basis. You are looked at as uneducated, unmotivated, lazy and thuggish. I realize that this is not everyone’s view, but we would be fooling ourselves if we did not acknowledge these stereotypes of black people. Being black there are things you must do consciously and unconsciously, you have to do more than the average person to set yourself apart. You sometimes have self esteem issues, you have to validate yourself, remind yourself that black is beautiful, and all other aspects of black culture is something to be proud of.
Black people face disadvantages on a daily basis in any particular time in history. Kaepernick states "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color." The flag to Kaepernick, and to many other black people, has been a symbol of oppression. Through slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynches, and now institutionalized racism. It is so easy to criticize Kaerpernick’s actions, and say that he should have chose a better method of protest, but the fact remains that objectively Colin Kaepernick is correct. The flag may symbolize freedom, and opportunity, which I am grateful for, but at the same time, the flag represents too many horrible experiences for people of color. I want to make sure I get my point across, black people were dehumanized, l mean that in a literal sense. Black people were treated as property, three fifths of a person, beaten to death, held in chains. You must remember American history before scrutinizing Kaepernick for his decision to not stand up for the national anthem, as the rights that are in American’s documents do not apply to all American citizens.
Martin Luther King articulates this message with such ease, “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.” America’s greatest values, that of liberty and freedom, was, and still is its’ biggest contradiction.
