San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has refused to stand during the playing of The Star Spangled Banner, traditionally played before most football games.<\/p>\n
Like Gabby Douglas\u2019 \u201crefusal\u201d to put her hand over her heart during the playing of the United States\u2019 national anthem at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio last month, Kaepernick\u2019s actions have angered patriotic Americans on both sides of the no man\u2019s land that stands in for electoral politics here.<\/p>\n
The similarities between America\u2019s response to Douglas, who later said she neglected to put her hand over her heart in the heat of the moment, and Kaepernick, who has decided purposely not to stand, are striking. There is next to no nuance in the discussion around our national anthem and who has to stand at attention during its performance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But to be clear, Kaepernick does mean it; he is not going to stand for the national anthem until the grievances he has \u2013 and shares with millions of men and women around the country \u2013 are redressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, it\u2019s to bring awareness and make people, you know, realize what\u2019s really going on in this country,\u201d Kaepernick said in a locker room press conference Monday. \u201cThere are a lot of things that are going on that are unjust, that people aren\u2019t being held accountable for, and that\u2019s something that needs to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he would continue to sit during the national anthem, Kaepernick said, \u201cI\u2019ll continue to sit; I\u2019ll continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed. To me this is something that has to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice are getting paid leave for killing people,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s not right; that\u2019s not right by anyone\u2019s standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Myke Tavarres will be joining Kaepernick in his silent protest.<\/p>\n
Kaepernick\u2019s critics now range from those who take umbrage at his perceived slights toward the US military to those, like former congressperson Joe Walsh, who question Kaepernick\u2019s very \u201cAmericanness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walsh, a talk radio host and Donald Trump supporter, tweeted Monday, \u201cAre we certain that those tattoos all over #MuhammadKaepernick\u2019s body are Bible verses? Or from the Koran?\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaepernick\u2019s protest, and the ensuing nationalist backlash from liberals and conservatives alike, is the latest in a long and storied history of athletes performing politics outside of acceptable boundaries.<\/p>\n
He currently stands among sporting greats like baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who refused to stand and sing the anthem at the 1947 World Series<\/a>; Muhammad Ali, who refused to fight in Vietnam; and John Carlos and Tommie Smith, track athletes who performed the Black Panther salute at the 1968 Olympics instead of holding their hands over their hearts.<\/p>\n For the folks who have thus far lambasted Kaepernick over his actions, their primary objection is that sports should be somehow \u201capolitical;\u201d what they actually mean is that the politics of sport should never diverge from the politics of the status quo, and any deviation should not only be considered unamerican, it should be considered unsportsmanlike.<\/p>\n They have called for his team and the NFL to sanction him for his actions, effectively eliminating an individual\u2019s freedom of speech in defense of the status quo \u2013 one that is killing his friends and neighbors, including those who served in the military.<\/p>\n Luckily, Kaepernick\u2019s family, teammates, coaches and the head of the NFL Players Association are all on his side.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time for us to join him. It\u2019s time to have a frank discussion about poisonous nationalism, police who kill black men and women and and face next to no repercussions for it, and why we reify the military regardless of their own actions or requests or how the state uses them.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to sit in defiance, with clear eyes and full hearts, rather than continue to stand blindly in support of a toxic system.<\/p>\n Trevor Hultner is a writer from Oklahoma City. Visit his website<\/a>.<\/i>Reprinted from Center for a Stateless Society<\/a> with permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has refused to stand during the playing of The Star Spangled Banner, traditionally played before most football games. Like Gabby Douglas\u2019 \u201crefusal\u201d to put her hand over her heart during the playing of the United States\u2019 national anthem at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio last month, Kaepernick\u2019s actions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":291,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-27671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27671"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27673,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27671\/revisions\/27673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27671"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=27671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}