Colin
Kaepernick has the courage to stand up for what he believes. To him, and many
like him, standing for the national anthem represents deference to white
authority and power.
We see the vulgar comments of the President and his Secretary of Treasury
Mnuchin. They claim that those that kneel should be suspended or fired. They
claim it as un-American. Practice free speech in your spare time not on the
field, they say.
White men telling black men what to do. A new thing or perhaps an old evil?
Those in authority tell the players to play and not disrupt their leisure time
by voicing opinions that are, to them, better unsaid or at least not thrust in
their faces as an unpatriotic act.
Who can tell another American when to protest, when to disobey, and when to
remain silent when free speech is their right? A right isn't a privilege; a
right can't be taken away. Our nation has codified the rights of every citizen
in the Constitution. It is the highest law of the land and nothing Congress
does or the President says can restrict that right in any way. That's the law
and we are a country of laws.
Free speech isn't a black thing. It isn't a white thing. It's not racial, so
this isn't minorities acting out here; this is American's whose right to free
speech is denied by virtue of the sports they play. Sure, they can protest by
kneeling but if the consequences are that you may be fired regardless of skill
or suitability, then politics have entered the NFL. It's not the act of dissent
that politicizes the sport it's the oppressive reaction and its arrogance that
justifies the protest.
It's Trump and his ilk---white, powerful, arrogant, and abusive of that power--that've
thrust politics into the arena of sport. In this he's unified those who oppose
expression of political opinion on the field under his banner of being more
patriotic which also just so happens to be a much whiter perspective.
We can patronize a sport that leaves players physically handicapped. We can
acknowledge the violence in the NFL and its repercussions. We have a choice.
For many players however they do not. Some come from poverty and hardship, and
playing professional sports is the only way out of the ghetto and the cycle of
poverty.
Wouldn't you expect the athletes to stay hush if it meant their money train
would end, and they'd find themselves jobless...blackballed like Kaepernick?
The collective has a response for the unrighteous denial of Kaepernick's career,
which is for all players to become Kaepernick's.
If everyone
in the League kneels, then they are all doing what Kaepernick did.
Kaepernick may be a victim of the League yet. His career has paid a price for
doing something within his right: to express freely, at a time of his choosing,
his political opinions and not subjugate himself to the authority of other men
who have no right over him.
So maybe it wasn't about being black in the beginning. Corporate media talks
about how the whole Kaepernick thing was done, over, and dealt with. It was as
if they couldn't see the spark...the embers burning in rage beneath the humble
submission to authority. Uncle Toms are invisible so this new wave is news to
them.
Many of us didn't give up on Kaepernick because his story was a uniquely
American affair. His cause is that of black people in America who for too long
have had to subjugate themselves to the authority of others who are almost all
white. This continues in a modern form of slavery yet when the slaves speak
out, outcome the tools of oppression used to suppress free will and force
obedience.
So to resist the worship of our anthem is to resist the subjugation to white
authority. Like before, the 'uppityness', the audacity of the subjugated to
disobey drives the rich and powerful crazy. They simply can't allow the bottom
to rise up because they're conducting mass control over our society through the
worship of a violent sport whose players like gladiators must subject their
bodies to physical abuse for the benefit of spectators no different from the
days of Rome.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
