Kneeling Kaepernick: American disgrace?
I am a man. I am a white male between the ages of 35 and 50. I know about as much about being an African American as a horse knows about being a fish. However, I’m also a veteran who has dedicated the majority of his adult life to serving this country. I fully understand the sacrifices made by myself and other veterans of the military.
The protest by Colin Kaepernick and other professional athletes has exactly nothing to do with us or those who have gone before us. Media outlets, social media and meme generators would like you to believe that it does. They would point to these athletes and say, “how can these millionaires possibly know anything about the struggle? How can they simply disrespect the veterans and the men and women who fought so hard to give them the right to sit out the national anthem?”
This is the exact reason why veterans fought so hard for these rights. They fought so that an American citizen could protest if something is wrong in this country. That all people — no matter the color of their skin or the size of their bank account — could have a voice and air their grievances. If only the oppressed have the right to speak about oppression, then their voices will never be heard.
I grew up hearing countless tales of how honorable knights would ride out of their castles and come to the aid of the poor and the oppressed. I was also taught about bullying. If I saw someone being bullied, I was to do my best to stop it. To me, these athletes may not be oppressed now, but some of them come from these communities where oppression is prominent. The athletes see something wrong and are using their public position to try to start the conversation in hopes to one day bring about change.
In his speech in the movie “The American President,” actor Michael Douglas said, “America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, ‘You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.’ You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.”
And essentially, that’s the point. These athletes are exercising their right to sit, or kneel, and bring attention to a grievance they have with the nation as a whole. They believe there is a great social and racial divide in this country. As I mentioned earlier, I can’t tell you whether it’s racism or not. I can empathize with African Americans, but I can’t truly know.
There’s a line in the movie “White Men Can’t Jump” where Wesley Snipes tells Woody Harrelson’s character, “Man that is the problem, white people listen to Jimi but you don’t hear him.”
By making the argument about the athletes and not the issue they’re trying to bring attention to, the nation is listening, but not truly hearing them.
Donald Trump is running on the campaign slogan “Make American Great Again.” People are agreeing with him that this country needs to improve. Yet, no one is questioning his patriotism for saying so. Kaepernick and the other athletes are saying the exact same thing just in a different way.
Whether you feel there is a social or racial divide in this county or not, the point remains that there’s a group of this nation’s citizens who feel they have been mistreated or unfairly profiled, and are scared of the people who are hired to protect and serve them.
This is a problem, and it needs to be fixed.
George Schmidt is a writer for EdinboroNow. He can be reached at sports.spectator@gmail.com.
