My apology to Kaepernick
Bianchi: I’m sorry we didn’t listen to your message when you took a knee four years ago.
I am down on one knee right now for something I really need to say.
In fact, it’s something many of us should be saying right now.
Something many of us should be feeling. Something many of us have been cumbersomely carrying for four years; four long, tension-filled, politically polarized, racially divided years.
Maybe you too should take a knee and join me in saying this:
I’m sorry, Colin Kaepernick.
Please forgive me.
I’m sorry we did not listen to your peaceful and silent protest before.
I’m sorry for letting your message get lost amid the patriotic, political pandering and posturing of the day.
I’m sorry we couldn’t get it through our thick heads four years ago that you took a knee not to discredit the military; you took a knee to try to the save the lives of George Floyd and many other unarmed black Americans who have been killed by police since you first knelt during the national anthem in 2016.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL.com in 2016. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
He told us then, but many refused to listen. He was protesting against racial
injustice and police brutality; not against the American military.
Even four years later, this fact seems to get lost even by some of the best and brightest among us. Drew Brees, one of the most beloved players in the NFL, faced massive backlash and apologized Thursday after using his two grandfathers who served in the military during World War II as a backdrop for saying he doesn’t agree with those who take a knee during the national anthem “disrespecting the flag.”
In hindsight, Kaepernick protested the right way.
He didn’t burn or loot. He knelt in peaceful protest.
Kaepernick even went to U.S. Army Green Beret
Nate Boyer and asked the most respectful way to protest, and Boyer told him to kneel during the national anthem, don’t just sit on the bench.
Says former Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, who was just appointed to an NBA coaching committee on racial injustice and reform: “Right now, we have a group of powerful people all the way up to the president who say, ‘I’m not against protests as long as they’re peaceful.’ But when Colin Kaepernick took a knee — took a knee!; that’s all he did; he TOOK a knee! He didn’t say anything, let alone do anything to hurt anybody — he got called an SOB by the same president and by a lot of fans.
“What I’m taking from all this is that these people are against violent protests and they’re against nonviolent protests. So, basically, what they want [black Americans] to do is just sit down and take it. ‘Yeah, we’re oppressing you, but you know what you should do? You just take it and be happy because, in a lot people’s words, this is the greatest country on earth.’ Well, it may be for white people, but it certainly has not been for black people.”
Yes, Kaepernick still has his detractors who point out how he hijacked his own message by wearing a Fidel Castro T-shirt and socks portraying policemen as pigs during his first news conference after taking a knee four years ago. But his critics are quickly disappearing as he becomes a symbol and a martyr in the fight against racism. He sacrificed his multi-million dollar job as a quarterback in the NFL to stand up, er, kneel down for a cause he believed in.
Now, everywhere you look, you see Americans — white and black — mimicking Kaepernick and kneeling down to protest what happened to George Floyd. Taking a knee has become a powerful symbol of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Army units have been photographed in recent days taking a knee. Policemen across the country have taken a knee. The Minneapolis police chief took a knee at Floyd’s memorial service Thursday. Senators in Washington D.C. have taken a knee.
The entire country of Britain was asked to take a knee earlier this week. Soccer teams in Europe have taken a knee. College football teams at Missouri and Miami have taken a knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds —the amount of time it took Floyd to die underneath the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
A few days ago, LeBron James posted a meme showing a photograph of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck next to a photo of Kaepernick kneeling at a football game. James captioned the photo: “Do you understand now? Or is it still blurred to you?” Yes, LeBron. We understand.
Thank God, we understand.
Like Muhammad Ali, John Carlos and Tommie Smith before him, Kaepernick is being seen in a