The courageous protest by the former professional football player, Colin Kaepernick, has been so misunderstood and misrepresented that the point of it has mostly been lost.
After what seemed like an endless stream of shootings and killings of unarmed black men by white police officers, Kaepernick decided to do something. He didn’t riot or retaliate, scream profanities, or assault white people. Instead, he simply chose not to stand at the playing of the National Anthem before his games.
It was not an attack on the American Flag, on the military, or the anthem. His action was simply saying that, for him, the battles of war that our soldiers have fought to make us “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” as spoken in The Star-Spangled Banner song, are not being honored. The violence of white cops against Blacks and the indifference of politicians and the courts to tolerate and excuse it was what Kaepernick was protesting.
The National Anthem praises honor, courage, peace, and triumph. For Kaepernick, these characteristics are missing in too much of our policing today. And they are not virtues lived out by politicians or other leaders in the country. They do though, in my opinion, describe Colin Kaepernick’s actions.
People have used his stand against police brutality against Blacks as a way to shame and isolate him. His protest eventually cost him his career. You would think that kind of sacrifice would be honored, not vilified. You would think someone carrying the burden of social inequality and trying to fight it would be celebrated.
Even now that he has been given the opportunity to be in a Nike ad, some are burning their Nike sneakers, and even some liberals are shaming Kaepernick for promoting a big company accused of sweatshop merchandise sold at huge profits.
Playwright Harold Pinter once wrote, “It is so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked.”
This is being proven weekly ever since Kaepernick started his protest.
In a country where the American flag is plastered all over everything, used only as a selling point, it seems odd that no one cares about that. Apparently, there is no dishonor in buying an American flag doormat, American flag underwear, Koozie, or fanny pack, all of which you can purchase online.
And yet, there is no shame in any of this from any of us.
White Americans rarely see themselves in a highly privileged class, but not having to deal on a regular basis with outrageous hostility from police, endless suspicion, subtle and not so subtle exclusion, racial slurs, employment snubs, petty innuendos, and other unfair and sometimes violent actions simply because of your race, is indeed a profound privilege that nearly all white people take for granted.
Steve Martinot, Professor Emeritus at the Center for Interdisciplinary Programs at San Francisco State University, has summarized four moments of racism from Albert Memmi’s book, “Racism,” in this way: First, there is an insistence on difference, whether it is real or imaginary. Second, a negative value is placed on the person who is different from an assumed positive value given to the racist. Third, this negative valuation which makes the differences seem ugly and distasteful is then placed on an entire group. And finally, the negative valuation placed on that group becomes the justification for treating them with hostility and aggression.
That is what Colin Kaepernick is still protesting. Racism has no honorable justification. It should be opposed by all of us.
© 2018 Timothy Moody
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