Yeah, and I get that that matters to you (doesn’t matter to me). Either way, like I said, I’m quite certain the vitriol aimed at Kaepernick has nothing to do with his conditions (or lack thereof).
I don’t like knee-jerk expectations of patriotism and I guess Colin Kaepernick doesn’t either. I do think he has painted himself into a corner in all this because when in his lifetime will it be clear to him that the government doesn’t oppress black people any longer? That is a rather subjective target. I get his point but I think he’ll be sitting for a long time.
As for all the kneeling and jersey burning and all - people just need to calm down already. At least it’s taken attention away from Gabby Douglas not holding her hand to her heart. People can just be too rigid.
A woman I know who grew up behind the Iron Curtain was pretty appalled when she saw American school children saying the pledge of alliegance. “Except for the God part, this is just like life during the Stalinist era,” she said. She saw it as a forced prayer, and she said it confirmed all the anti-American propaganda she heard during her childhood.
^ And the God part is objectionable in a country that is supposed to have a separation of church and state.
And the “under God” part was added in the 1950’s to distinguish us from those godless commies during the Cold War. Sigh…
One jingoistic HS coach and pastor took this mentality a bit too far recently:
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/09/football_announcer_reportedly.html
Wow, a pastor, even. smh
What’s odd is that a kneeling position signifies reverence and a humbling of oneself in many religious traditions. Kneeling in front of a king or ruler is another position of sublimation.
Kneel away. 
The vitriol over American Olympic athletes who didn’t put they hand on their heart for the anthem, was unbelievable too.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-oly-national-anthem-plaschke-20160810-snap-story.html
And Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf was basically driven out of the NBA for the same thing back in the day. Great, great scorer–maybe the best antecedent of Steph Curry.
This mandatory display of patriotism smacks of the Little Red Book
Poor word choice in the title. Any coach worth his/her snuff will tell you that there is a big difference between “kneeling” (what some people do to pray) and “taking a knee.”
Hmm:
Actually, when I first read that article, my first thought was what my father and older aunts/uncles recounted from the Imperial Japanese invasion and occupation of China from 1937-45.
Specifically, the fact that the Japanese militarist occupiers mandated all civilians in many occupied countries to show submission and obedience by bowing to every Japanese soldier they encounter. Failure to do so would often result in summary execution of the offending civilian…often with the bayonet.
This aspect made the remark about “letting our military personnel take a few shots at you” quite troubling…not only was this common practice in many militaristic regimes…it’s also a serious insult to the US armed forces as they are supposed to stand against such tinpot militaristic dictatorial tendencies.
@greenwitch some of us may disagree that we are not oppressed.
@PrimeMeridian herein lies the rub, only Gabby Douglas was villified. Other athletes, who were not POC, not one peep when they didnt put their hand over their heart.
That announcer says he was misquoted. I have no idea what the true story is, but he claims that he actually said something like, “let our military personnel take a shot at convincing you why you should be standing…”
Somebody pointed out that people are frequently talking, eating, walking around, and generally not paying attention during the national anthem at sporting events. But everybody decides to focus their ire on the people kneeling quietly and actually paying attention. It seems that having a larger purpose for not standing at attention is more upsetting than not paying attention because you’re eating a hot dog, have to wee wee, or making small talk with your date or kids.
So I got pulled over the other day for a traffic infraction. I had been daydreaming. The officer was friendly and gave me a warning.
I can’t help but think that if I had been African-American, would I have been given a warning or been shot to death. My interactions with the police have been mostly positive in my life. Would that the case if I were African-American.
Whether through racism or ignorance, police still kill too many African-Americans who pose no threat. When that slows down, I think this movement will end. However, we’re not there and I applaud everyone who raises awareness of the issue and support the use of body cams. Boston Police, who have made a concerted effort to be held in a positive light in communities of color, are now wearing body cams. That still makes us Boston Strong! I hope others follow this example.
I think this is a healthy debate and am proud of my fellow Americans who are in a unique position to raise awareness on these issues and choose to do so.
“think this is a healthy debate and am proud of my fellow Americans who are in a unique position to raise awareness on these issues and choose to do so.”
They’re in a unique position – and let’s face it. They’re risking their careers. We should be applauding their courage and convictions. Would I risk so much to make a point? I’m not sure.
I have no tolerance for some screaming about Colin, especially some of the owners. It smacks of “just stay in your place, and perform for us”.
An ex NFLer just went to jail for raping 15 women, not a peep. A kicker had his wife take out a restraining order, he got a one game suspension. Dont get me started on Ben Roethlisberger!
Colin takes a knee to protest police mistreatment of POC, which is well documented, and folks are about to lose their minds!
The reason people get their nose bent out of joint about it is because they have this idea of patriotism being about going along with the crowd, and in these times where we have created this image of the military as sacred and so forth (and no, I am not anti military nor do I not respect what they do, far from it) people have created this idea that protesting something bad in the country means you are showing disrespect to those who ‘protect the flag’ ie the military. It is basically akin to those who during the vietnam era protests had the chant “America, love it or leave it”, as if protesting what they saw as injustices or an unjust war was not loving the country. The old expression, that patriotism is often the last stronghold of the scoundrel, comes to mind, that they are using the idea of the anthem as this sacred thing that cannot be protested to prevent anyone from deviating from their idea of things.
And if the people are upset about the insult to the military, how come they aren’t burning Roger Goodell in effigy, when it turned out all those patriotic displays, salutes to the military, that have become common at NFL stadiums were not a gesture of the NFL, but rather something the armed services paid the NFL to do, rather than it being them deciding to salute the military. Kind of like a friend saying he wanted to throw you a birthday party, then sends you the bill.
And yep, a lot of what we do as supposed patriotism, the pledge of allegiance, the singing of the national anthem, the whole “God Bless America” as another sacred anthem, is quite similar to what people experienced in the eastern block countries. Technically they are ‘optional’, but the pressure to conform is severe, as you can tell from the whole Kapernick thing. My wife’s early years were in Hungary, and every day they would stand up, wearing their little red bandanas, and do some kind of pledge, and would sing either the international or some other communist hymn…and to me this is no different. What I never understood was what is the value of a pledge, or singing the national anthem, or other signs of fealty, if they didn’t come from the heart and mean something? To be honest, the one man protesting (Kapernick) is probably a lot more genuine in his beliefs then probably 90% of those standing during the national anthem are in terms of experiencing the singing of it as a true sign of devotion, most of them it is more akin to what we felt saying the pledge in middle and high school, something we had to deal with but otherwise couldn’t care less.