You might want to be sitting for this: I agree with Colin Kaepernick.
When the 5th-year QB was benched last season, nobody batted an eyelash. He was under a new coach and system, and his struggles had become apparent on the field as well. When Kaep remained seating during the national anthem, however, the twitter-sphere immediately erupted in vitriol and disbelief.
To put into context what has happened since the end of last professional football season (February), these are the blacks who were shot by the police in that time:
- Alton Sterling
- Philando Castile
- Korryn Gaines (who was holding a child)
- Charles Kinsey (who was lying down with his hands up, and who is thankfully still alive)
In that same span of time, all of the officers in the Freddie Gray case were either acquitted or had the charges dropped, which followed the pattern of cases such as the officer who shot Tamir Rice and George Zimmerman, who used his newfound freedom to attempt an auction of the gun which he used to murder Trayvon Martin.
Yet people are dumbfounded that Kaep would have “the nerve” to say that he isn’t standing for a flag that doesn’t represent him and that police officers are literally getting away with murder.
Those — like the human embodiment of moldy cheese, Rush Limbaugh — who stand aghast at such accusations have all planted themselves under the argument that Kaep has no business speaking about race because he was adopted by white people or because he is rich and therefore is not affected by it.
Besides the fact that this argument pretty much equates to “we pay your check, so you just need to smile and put on our version of a minstrel show,” it is also DUMB. AS. HELL.
To say that Kaep never experienced racial prejudice is to simply flat-out ignore EVERY SINGLE STATISTIC which states unequivocally that people of color do, in fact, face more discrimination based simply on what they look like. It doesn’t matter that Kaepernick went home to a white mother and father every night; he is still visibly black and therefore at a disadvantage in the subconsciousness of those around him.
The other reason that this argument is asinine at best is the idea that people have to experience something to empathize with it. Say we lived in a perfect world in which Kaepernick was never on the receiving end of some bias; even so, he can sympathize with others for the simple fact that he isn’t a bag of cow feces. Saying Kaep can’t be invested in BLM would be like going up to Bono and screaming “you can’t care about starving children anymore because you haven’t starved!”
The problem isn’t that Kaep is a celebrity standing (or, in this case, NOT standing) for something; earlier this week, NBA superstar Dwayne Wade spoke out against gun violence, and nobody questioned why he was doing so despite being “rich enough” to move away from areas susceptible to gun violence.
Our presidential campaign shows that the problem isn’t even someone claiming that America isn't great right now.
And the problem certainly isn’t freedom of speech, otherwise Kaepernick would not have been assaulted by racial epithets and accusations of 'being a traitor' for exercising his.
No, the issue is that America wants to watch our favorite violent sport and not think about social issues. The reaction to Kaep shows that people don’t want to discuss issues of race anymore because it’s no longer “fashionable.”
And that’s exactly why Kaep will continue to sit during the national anthem.
