Black Balling Kap’: A Revelation of America’s Past

August 26th, 2016 —During the warm-ups of his first game to the 2016–17 NFL season, Colin Kaepernick was anxious about his first start after sitting out the prior two games to injury. On that same night though, Kaepernick deliberately confident in his premeditated alteration to the NFL’s pre-game ritual — a ritual he planned, restructured and cleared with Army Veteran Nate Boyer who encouraged Kap’ to kneel rather than sit out of respect for the veterans. Though this fact goes unnoticed,Colin Kaepernick actually sat during the National Anthem in the first two of the 49ers four preseason games as well. Reporters assumed it was because of his playing injuries and nobody seemed to bat an eye over the seated footballer. But this night? This night would be different. On August 26th, the world watched as he kneeled throughout the entirety of the National Anthem, and this time, he made it a point for reporters to understand that this was an act of protest, not an inability to stand.

Kaepernick said confidently in a post-game interview, “I’m going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed. To me, this is something that has to change. This stand wasn’t for me. This is because I’m seeing things happen to people that don’t have a voice, people that don’t have a platform to talk and have their voices heard, and effect change.”[1]

At that moment, the moment his actions became a protest, American “patriots” everywhere wished for the harshest of punishments to come raining down on the nappy…