Colin Kaepernick robbed in broad daylight
It didn’t take long for the knee-jerk fury of white Americans to target Colin Kaepernick following his sit-in protest during the playing of the nation anthem prior to a preseason game. Journalists raced to his locker room to question his audacity to sit when they thought he should’ve stood. They framed the issue around the person of Kaepernick and how he offended the delicate sensibilities of some white Americans. And they robbed Kaepernick of the narrative he had presented to the nation.
National news and sports media missed a golden opportunity to penetrate the bubble of white privilege that protects most white Americans from gaining deep insight into the daily struggles of non-whites. They missed the opportunity to highlight real issues that affect the communities where most of the NFL’s elite players were raised. But, media did more than miss opportunities to frame the national narrative around a positive and productive discourse; they maliciously robbed both Kaepernick and the nation of a quality conversation focused on prevalent issues affecting every aspect of life in a multicultural society that was built on an economic foundation of white supremacy and privilege. White journalists stole that narrative of protest from Kapernick, and that theft continues today.
Former Seattle Seahawks player Nate Boyer, who is also a former Green Beret, counseled Kaepernick on a more respectful method of protest. (For the record, I’m also a military veteran with honorable service). Respectfully, I reject Nate Boyer’s naive intervention in Kaepernick’s chosen method of protest. Boyer has little knowledge of the severity of the issues to which Kaepernick seeks to draw the nation’s attention. Moreover, he offers no solutions. The insulting part is Boyer’s counsel demonstrated his personal concern that Kaepernick prioritize respect for the symbols of white nationalism over the issues of black Americans suffering from generational outcomes of white supremacy, privilege and nationalism. Ironically, Kaepernick’s decision to kneel followed the advice of a white nationalist rather than tradition of black sit-ins.
ADVISING COLIN KAEPERNICK
If Kaepernick needs advice from former NFL players, he should start in Cleveland, where Jim Brown organized the 1967 Cleveland Summit to support Muhammad Ali’s protest. He should listen to athletes who were there, like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose outspoken commentary about Kaepernick’s protest shows his strong support.
If Kaepernick seeks guidance on solutions to the issues versus how to avoid offending angry white Americans, he should consult with former Cincinnati Bengals player, Johnathan Holifield.
Holifield, who lives in Cleveland, is pioneering the space of Inclusive Competitiveness ®: a strategy and framework to develop community systems that empower underrepresented populations to compete in a 21st century tech-driven globally competitive innovation economy.
Kaepernick’s pledge of $1M to charitable organizations is honorable. But if he truly desires to disrupt 20th century exclusionary economic policies, systems and practices, he should invest in a series of national town halls featuring Johnathan Holifield, the Architect of Inclusive Competitiveness ®, a national economic imperative that media continue to ignore.
HYPOCRISY OF PROPER PROTEST ADVICE
No offense to Boyer, but I can’t see how taking a knee during a racist anthem will address the issues Kaepernick is protesting. But it does seem to be an appeasement to make angry white Americans feel better. These are the same white Americans who lack deep knowledge of the issues impacting black Americans, and whose understanding and empathy remain narrowly focused on their own priorities.
Imagine how silly it would be for Boyer, who was an NFL long-snapper, to offer Kaepernick advice on how to play quarterback. That’s the irony involved in his coming off the sidelines to instruct Kaepernick on how to conduct a better protest … after Kaepernick has demonstrated successfully how to capture the nation’s attention in a single minute of chilling out on the bench.
Also, for some unknown reason, legendary players, Rodney Harrison and Jerry Rice also weighed in with criticism of Kaepernick’s protest. Reminiscent of his glory days, Harrison rushed in out nowhere and blindsided Kaepernick with the accusation of not being black. It was unnecessary roughness delivered as a cryptic dilution of the validity of Kaepernick’s capacity to protest horrific conditions that tens of millions of black Americans endure as a result of systemic institutional biases.
KIDNAPPING KAEPERNICK’S COMPLAINT
Sadly, this new narrative around what qualifies as acceptable methods of protest is a hijacking of Kaepernick’s extremely poignant point. He isn’t the first athlete to leverage a disruption of pretentious patriotism portrayed by robotic standing during the playing of the national anthem. And Kaepernick won’t be the last athlete to use a disruption to draw attention to much bigger issues.
Note: It’s not about his method of protest or whether he is black, or black enough (whatever that means). Unfortunately, Kaepernick has allowed the sacrosanct silliness of group think to hijack the point.
HISTORICAL TIES
Kaepernick’s point of protest regarding the systemic economic starvation of black Americans and the derivative effects of being deprived of opportunity, is exactly the same as it was in 1967 when athletes surrounded Muhammad Ali at the Cleveland Summit organized by Jim Brown.
The issues are the same ones that prompted Tommie Lee and John Carlos to raise their gloved fists in 1968 during the playing of the national anthem at their medal awards ceremony. Even earlier Jackie Robinson was trying to draw white America’s attention to the same issues that Kaepernick is pointing to today. The nation has not listened. And despite establishing a day that commemorates his legacy, America has not even listened to Dr. Martin Luther King. With each protest that draws the national spotlight, the nation responds with anger and platitudes, always requesting that the protester adjust in some way to the needs of the oppressor.
For more than 50 years, black Americans have tried every manner of protest to elevate their voices above the media gatekeepers and the clamor by white Americans for black acquiescence and compliant acceptance of second-class citizenry. And for 50 years, the media have responded to black protests by framing the focus on personalities and protest methods, relegating real issues to the back of the proverbial bus of American priorities.
WHITE-HOT OUTRAGE
At the end of the day, the writing is on the wall. White America doesn’t want to discuss these issues of life, death and lack of access to opportunity in between that affect black Americans. The presidential candidates aren’t addressing any of the root economic causes of the structural and derivative violence that has long engulfed many cities. Donald Trump paints all of black America with a broad negative brush without addressing the responsibility the private business sector has in creating those chronic conditions. Secretary Hillary Clinton speaks of the economy and jobs in innocuous terms that amount to improving business conditions for white Americans that will somehow result in more jobs for black Americans. But nobody speaks of black Americans being the job creators and the strategies, plans and investments required for that to occur.
Meanwhile, when a black man stands up, or sits down, in protest of the status quo, a large segment of white America goes ballistic.
But white Americans are not outraged about the economic starvation of millions of black families.
White Americans who express outrage toward Kaepernick’s method of protest are not concerned about the fact that 1 million black boys who have committed no crimes will go to prison in the next five years. None of those angry white Americans have given serious thought to developing strategic interventions to save those kids.
None of those journalists who stoked the flames of white nationalist hostility want to talk about the lead poisoning of millions of black families that Paul Krugman wrote about in the New York Times (just yesterday).
None of the outraged white mob cares about the fact that every week on average two black people die from police shootings and finding ways to disrupt that annual atrocity.
None of the narrative that targets Kaepernick from an angry white American landscape addresses the real issues, like the fact that unemployment in black America is nearly twice the rate of unemployment in white America (regardless of education status) and has been for generations.
No white-hot outrage emerged when The Nation magazine published the results of an economic report that revealed the average black family would require 228 years to accrue the wealth of the average white family.
But when a black man sat down while the national anthem played all hell broke loose across much of white America. Today, tens of millions of white Americans now want to talk about how and when black people should respectfully protest so they do not offend those white people who could care less about the reasons why black people protest.
PRODUCTIVE ADVICE
If Kaepernick plans to continue his protest, however he chooses to do it, I’d like to offer my own advice. After all, other veterans are running toward the field of battle with an arsenal of ideas. Here’s mine:
Commit funds to contract ScaleUp Partners to produce a National Town Hall on Inclusive America on June 4, 2017 (the 50th anniversary of the Cleveland Summit). We will showcase an all-star lineup of celebrity voices alongside the people and organizations actively engaged in solutions that will help lay the foundation for a 21st century Inclusive America. This will be a forum national media cannot ignore. And it will initiate an ongoing conversation that can be carried out in a series of local town halls that ask the question: How can we build a 21st century Inclusive America?
This historic collection of active efforts, raised voices and collaborative commitment to changing the status quo could stem from your poignant protest, Colin Kaepernick.
We can establish a historical marker in the post-Obama era that could become a permanent turning point in U.S. history away from exclusionary policies and practices of the past toward a future frontier of economic inclusion and opportunity for all. And we can tie the 50 years of protests by professional athletes together, from 1967 to 2017, and move the framing of the national narrative from protest to solution-oriented discourse.
DISRUPTING THE DISTRACTIONS
Today, the primary debate regarding how Kaepernick should remain respectful to white people’s sensibilities around sacrosanct nationalist symbols, like the flag and anthem, must be reframed. Media amplified and reinforced this hijacking of Kaepernick’s protest and empowered an angry white fringe of America to steal his point and the national spotlight. The guy got robbed in broad daylight and the whole nation watched it happen.
After Labor Day, let’s change the narrative to where it ought to be: on solutions. But, to get to a solution-focused discussion we need to better understand the depth and scope of the problems, which extend far beyond the rote rhetoric of family dissolution and individual work ethic.
BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE AMERICA
Let’s commit to overhauling the systemic institutional bias that permeates all of our institutions of influence, wealth and power. Let’s take that first step in having a productive conversation at a National Town Hall. And let’s ask the poignant question: How do we develop a new foundation for a 21st century Inclusive America with access to opportunity for all?
