Why Colin Kaepernick Should Take A Stand?
Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. (Bible, Ephesians 6:14)
O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for God , even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, God is more worthy of both. So follow not [personal] inclination, lest you not be just. And if you distort [your testimony] or refuse [to give it], then indeed God is ever, with what you do, Acquainted. (Qur’an, The Women 4:135)
He is a quarterback. Taking a stand is what he does.
He is a Black male born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the current climate of racial unrest he feels like he is in the red zone and needs to take a stand. Why are our Sunday leaders expected to courageously stand in the pocket in the face of imminent physical danger and to deliver the pass and are not expected to take a stand for their community and to deliver the message: Black Lives Matter?
Why? Because Kaepernick is paid millions to take a stand and sacrifice his body for his community of fanatics only. Don’t all quarterbacks have a bullseye on their backs and chest for standing firm in the pocket? So what is the problem with Kaepernick taking a stand by sitting down before a preseason game? Does he not now have a bullseye on his back and chest for standing firm?
Every quarterback knows that the next stand you take in the pocket could be your last. It is why fans love quarterbacks more than any other position. Despite the odds against them, they stand and deliver. Week after week they take a pounding physically but mentally it does not prevent them from facing danger and taking a stand.
The irony is Kaepernick is not known for standing firm in the pocket. In fact, quite the opposite. He won his stardom by running away from where other team leaders stand and deliver. Perhaps this is why his taking a stand now is so disturbing. Fans want to keep Kaepernick running and sacrificing his body for their cultural entertainment only, while ignoring an opportunity for cultural education and sensitivity.
Frederick Douglass wrote about the origins of this American winter ritual and cultural phenomenon. In his 1845 Narrative, Douglass wrote that slaves celebrated the winter holidays by engaging in activities such as “playing ball, wrestling, running foot-races, fiddling, dancing, and drinking whiskey.” Douglass explained these were acceptable activities for Black males. It is understandable then that Kaepernick, choosing to take a stand against this American ritual during their favorite sacred pastime, can make people quite fanatical.
Kaepernick physically sitting and refusing to stand for the national anthem ritual was sacrilege and upset the expectation of taking one for the team. The team expects him to perform and continue to take a hit and stand even if that means on the backs of Black lives in America. Frederick Douglass summed up well what the expectation for Kaepernick was in My Bondage and My Freedom in which he concluded that
“[a]ll the license allowed [during the holidays] appears to have no other object than to disgust the slaves with their temporary freedom, and to make them as glad to return to their work, as they were to leave it.”
Kaepernick, despite all the millions he is paid, was not glad to just return to his work on this day. So true to form, Kaepernick remains an out-of-the- pocket Black quarterback. Perhaps emotionally, Kaepernick has always been known as a runner but on this day he chose to sit down. Ironically this sitting was nothing less than a firm stand of moral courage. As a Black male and a lifetime 49er fanatic, I could not have been more proud of my quarterback and his willingness to stand in the pocket and deliver the message: Black Lives Matter!
