For those of you out of the loop, San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick has become the latest controversy discussion topic. After refusing to stand for the national anthem during the pregame, social media did the usual and got to trending. The news media outlets soon got on board, followed as always by a short-lived but fast-paced storm of statues and writings arguing for one side or the other. Without further introduction, here are my thoughts on Colin Kaepernick's actions.
First, I regard actions of protest in the name of personal beliefs and social justice to be noble. I do not agree with a number of protests I hear about in the news for various reasons, but change is the only way to improve as a country and action is the only way to promote change. The Black Lives Matters movement is similar to most social movements in that changing the people is as important as changing the government. Ignorance, sexism, racism, bigotry, and all types of hatred cannot simply be outlawed, such wildfires of hatred must be extinguished (unlike real wildfires, which should be allowed to run their natural course as nature intends). A government can ban blatant discrimination in places like the workplace or housing agreements, but hate speech and all the -isms will linger for decades, as we can clearly see today with the prevalence of racially driven violence, the dismissal of victims rights in sexual assault cases, the list goes on and the base problems remain constant.
We will never live in a perfect world, hate and violence will always exist. There is no perfect justice, no absolute balance can be achieved. The inability to perfect is no reason to not improve. We can all generally do our small part of trying to not hate, trying to not carry prejudice, to move away from snap judgments and assumptions. Nearly all of our ancestors were extremely racist and sexist, all we can do is move forward and get better.
Colin Kaepernick's statement about his protest was "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," referring to the numerous killings of people of color by law enforcement officials. America was built by slaves under the oppression of white men, it is a core fact of our history. Chinese slaves built the railroads, African-Americans boosted southern economies for the elite oppressors. Crimes against humanity, torture, genocide, we as a nation have done it all. We should not be proud of our history, just as well as we shouldn't be proud of the current state of things. We as a nation should be proud of our awareness to these problems and our drive to be better. Many do not join in the tide of modern society, an ever-connected globe sharing cultures and all. None of it is perfect, but the general trend goes toward improvement. I believe political correctness can go too far and be counter-intuitive to its purpose and I'm sure I'm not alone in this belief, but political correctness does serve as a societal measure of right and wrong. Once again, an extremely flawed system, but a system which still provides direction for improvement.
I love my country and all of the endless flaws that come with. I believe we should consider changing our national anthem due to heavy-handed racism, understanding I have no idea what could be possibly agreed upon to replace it. Verses past what we all know sing of killing the slaves who were given refugee to fight for Great Britain against America in the War of 1812. The actual verse states:
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
These are lyrics which make me uncomfortable. A grim reminder of our past which was all but forgotten to most of us. I'll be honest and say I didn't know of the verses before the Kaepernick story, and I'm sure I'm in the majority. If I were comfortable speaking in absolutes I'd say I will never sing or stand for our anthem again. Our anthem is something I now understand to symbolize aspects of American history that are unacceptable to represent America.
Another point to be made about the Kaepernick calamity is freedom of speech, one of the most cited rights of an American citizen. Mandatory pledges and anthems are an eerie expression of forced devotion to a government from the people. A powerful argument to make is that our troops gain numbers from individuals who share ideals of such freedoms, so for Kaepernick to protest according to his personal values is a patriotic thing to do.
It can't be ignored that the National Football League is an entity with public relations issues to think about, such controversies reflect upon their own reputation. Colin Kaepernick has signed contracts pertaining to conduct, he represents the 49ers and the National Football League at large. Furthermore, many bring up arguments of personal interest for Kaepernick, wanting to draw attention to himself for football reasons. In my mind, there's likely some serious truth behind the self-gain rumors, but I still believe what Colin Kaepernick did was positive. I was not offended by his seated position which means I was not the target audience. Any protest is primarily targeting those most easily offended. Many people complain about the numbers of posts about each latest controversial social issue, but keeping these issues fresh in our minds should, in theory, help us keep perspective on our own biases, -isms, and other shortcomings. The only way to change as a society is to change as an individual.
