Kaepernick has every right to protest
It seems like everyone is allowed to have an opinion about sports and politics except for the players.
Gov. Scott Walker is the latest in a line of prominent politicians weighing in about NFL football players taking a knee during the National Anthem. Walker wrote that he wishes players would stand for the anthem and that the NFL would focus more on taking a firmer stand against domestic violence.
I agree with Walker that the issue of domestic violence is of crucial importance. The NFL has a terrible track record when it comes to holding its people accountable. Given the enormous influence professional sports and its players have over people young and old in this country, it seems like a small thing to ask that they be held to decent standards of behavior.
Where Walker and I disagree is when he lumps an act of peaceful free speech with domestic violence. They are not remotely comparable.
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback (and Milwaukee native) Colin Kaepernick started taking a knee during the anthem last year, as a way to protest the unequal and often oppressive treatment of African Americans. He started by sitting on the bench during the song.
Former player and veteran Green Beret Nate Boyer wrote an open letter to Kaepernick about it, expressing concern that the act was disrespectful. Kaepernick heard him out and asked for his take on a better way to protest. Boyer suggested taking a knee:
“For me, that’s a sign of reverence,” he told NPR. “You know, people take a knee to say a prayer. And then also, military personnel, it’s very common to see an image of a soldier, or a marine, or an airman, or a sailor, take a knee in front of a fallen brother-in-arm’s grave to pay respects. So I just thought it was better, and it showed more about — that he’s paying attention as well, he’s not, in a
sense, sitting it out. He’s engaged.”
You wouldn’t know it by the vitriolic response from right-wing politicians and pundits. They’ve twisted the protest, either willfully or by misrepresenting it as an attack on the flag and the veterans who have fought for this country.
What country did they fight and die for? One with compulsory “patriotism” under threat of professional or personal penalty? Or one where protesting inequality is seen as a patriotic act?
Regardless of whether you agree with Kaepernick’s reasons for protesting, as Americans we should at least be able to agree that we all have the right to protest.
In Madison, police chief Mike Koval issued a statement, saying he’s canceled his NFL subscription in response to the kneeling protests. That’s his right to do so. But there’s a world of difference between expressing your opinions and going out of your way to rail against how other people feel so moved.
Koval, Walker, and many others are engaging in something called “concern trolling,” in which they claim to have sympathy for the person or cause being supported, but simply disagree with the method of protest. As white people, though, we don’t get to tell black people how to feel about their own oppression, or how best to go about protesting it. No one in a position of power gets to dictate the terms for how marginalized groups are allowed to demand equality.
Professional athletes are as entitled to having political and social opinions as the rest of us. Given their elevated platforms, I’m heartened to see so many using it for a good cause rather than simple self-aggrandizement. We should encourage more of that, not less.
And sign Kaepernick to the Packers roster, already.
Aaron Rogers said it best: “This is about equality. This is about unity and love and growing together as a society and starting a conversation around something that may be a little bit uncomfortable for people.”