I am typing this literally seconds after having just watched "13th" on Netflix. Named after the 13th amendment which abolished slavery except as "punishment for crime," 13th is a newly released documentary on Netflix focusing on the history of Blacks in the United States, more so the discriminatory incarceration of Blacks in U.S. prisons and the conception of modern slavery. It also touches on the history of slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights Movement, the years during Nixon, Regan, and Clinton's presidencies, and to put it in blunt terms, just how corrupted our government can be.
The documentary opens up with a quote from President Obama: "The United States is home to 5% of the worlds population, but 25% of the worlds prisoners. Think about that." The documentary then goes on to state that in 1972 we had a prison population of 300,000. Today we have a prison population of 2.3 million. Blacks make up 40.5% of today's prison population. 1 in 17 White males are likely to be imprisoned during their lifetime. The statistics of Black males? 1 in 3. When we look at Sunday nights football game and see 49ers star QB kneeling, we need to understand why he's doing it. Not to defy the armed forces or his country, but because he knows he's in a position to draw attention to something that is desperately still beckoning for attention. "Black Lives Matter." I know you're tired of seeing those words and hearing them. But just in the same way that you're tired of seeing them and hearing them, I'm tired of being apart of a race where my people are still being treated unfairly, going through the same treatment our ancestors were forced on the boats with, but in modern times.
Let's be frank, nothing has gotten better for a long time. For either side. We have an African American president (although not for much longer), but look at the amount of Black lives lost due to police brutality since he's taken office.
I think some people have a common misconception that the slogan "Black Lives Matter" is only about Black lives. It may have started that way but it's grown into something bigger. A chant for every race that has continuously been criminalized and treated poorly and the idea that all lives matter and are worth value. The reasoning behind every civil rights movement stays the same, to be treated like a human being. I'm having such a hard time understanding why the world can't value human life. In an article in Time Magazine written by John McWhorter with Kaepernick kneeling on the front cover, McWhorter writes "...The idea that to not stand while the anthem is played signals a lack of allegiance to one’s nation is simplistic to the point of stretching plausibility, seemingly designed more as a way to hate on someone than to grapple with the complexities of the real world." Which couldn't be more of an accurate response to Kaepernicks actions.
If you simply see Kaepernick kneeling during the anthem as an act of defiance for his nation, then you're not paying close enough attention to the complex issues crippling our nation.
