2016 has been an outlandish year -- a year that seems so surreal, like it's been yanked right out of a comic book satirizing the United States. In the midst of a looming Clinton or Trump presidency, war in Syria, and North Korean missile tests, the people residing in the United States have decided to be upset about a dead zoo animal that was threatening a child, and a football player sitting down. So let's talk about what's gotten so many people all riled up, the application of free expression, and right to protest. Let's talk about Colin Kaepernick's peaceful, non-violent activism.
This year, as previously stated, has faced many problems worth people's attention, not the least of which being the continued seemingly unaddressed police shooting of people of color, particularly males. People of color have been targeted by authority and power structures in America as long as the mind can remember, and while gains continue to be made, this problem of police violence and accountability has been stagnate since at least the 1990s. The problem was thrust back into the national conversation after the 2013 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Since then there's been multiple landmark cases each year involving a male person of color being unjustly killed by police. Names such as Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Feras Morad, Alton Sterling, and Philando Castile became nationally recognized as the real harm, the real violence, the real tragedy that has continued without impediment for two decades. The problem becomes even more horrific when officers time and time again face no judicial punishment in the aftermath of cases.
People have had enough -- they want change, and rallies and protests have erupted, to bring awareness to the issue. So during the NFL 2016 preseason, a struggling quarterback for the 49ers decided to use his platform to do whatever he could to bring more attention to the issue, so he sat out the national anthem. This kind of political activism is something that we haven't seen in a while from major sports athletes. However it's not completely unheard of, in 1967 Muhammad Ali refused army induction, citing religious reasons for disagreeing with the war, he was stripped of his heavyweight title as people spewed hatred his way. People said he was disrespectful and un-American. Also in 1968, Olympians medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the podium each raised a black gloved fist to the air during the national anthem. This of course is the black power symbol, as the men protested the mistreatment of black Americans during the peak of civil rights debates. Once again, they were chastised for their actions, with critics saying they didn't respect the anthem and what it stood for.
We remember those moments as shining examples of activism, protest, and the beauty of free expression in America. Those are American moments. The critiques at the time we now remember as ignorant and bigoted, a misunderstanding of the protests taking place. Those critiques are eerily similar to the ones being lobbed today at Colin Kaepernick. Former NFL superstar Jerry Rice, the executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, Donald Trump, various Fox News anchors, multiple op-ed pieces, a bounty of white middle class Americans on Facebook, and of course everyone's favorite privileged white woman Tomi Lahren ripped into Kaepernick, calling him disrespectful, criticizing him for speaking on these issues with white parents, and telling him to leave if he doesn't like this country.
There are flaws in each level of reasoning: first white parents don't change the color of his skin (the cop isn't going to stop and ask who your parents are), and furthermore you don't have to be a person of color to recognize the gross injustice being inflicted upon them as a group. The argumentation demanding Kaepernick be punished for his 'disrespect' ignores a central piece of the US constitution, the first amendment says, "Freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the implied rights of association and belief." Finally, Kaepernick doesn't hate America, and he even acknowledges the strides we've made as a country in terms of race, but his protest urges us to do better, to be better.
Finally there are those who say that he didn't have to sit down during the anthem, that Kap could have rather discussed it at a press conference. Here's the thing -- no one would have cared. This story is national news, and hopefully the long term impact will be for the better, bringing light to the issue of police violence, rather than focused on nebulous issues of 'respect.' The American people don't care about big issues, they'd rather be focused on zoo animals and whether or not an athlete 'hurt their feelings.' We shouldn't run from our problems but toward them, to forge a better society rather than be complacent in the one that exists today.
