Take A Bow: Kneeling NFL Players Are Winning The Race For Equality

Take A Bow: Kneeling NFL Players Winning The Race For Equality 

Photo by William Stitt on Unsplash

It's impossible to ignore the tension within the United States. It has attacked us like a cancer, invading our schools, streets, and family past times. There's nary an article that you can read without it mentioning the ever-controversial Commander-in-Chief, and it is even harder to escape the plethora of opinions both solicited and unsolicited that come with his Presidency.

One of the areas where political opinion was typically excluded was in sports. Many Americans escape the trails of daily life by going to their favorite bar, or house room to partake in the all American NFL game(s). We anticipate the season, track college players into pro, participate in betting pools and dabble or delve deeply into Fantasy Football Leagues. Now, that too has been littered with tension due to a myriad of factors from players taking a knee during the National Anthem to our current President tweeting furiously to express his disdain for it.

America's National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner was written by Francis Scott Key, a lawyer, poet, slave owner, and anti-abolitionist was inspired while witnessing the Battle of Baltimore. The Star Spangled Banner is sung at the start of every baseball and football game. Many celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Mariah Carey and many more have graced the opportunity to perform it.
Players would clutch their caps to their chest and gaze solemnly at the national flag as the song played. Some, would be brought to tears by the words, performance, or the entire experience of being a paid athlete at a major game with millions of fans within that moment feeling consumed with the privilege of being American.

Fast forward to 2017: The anthem plays, and players clutch their caps or helmets standing in reverence and beside them are three or four team mates, kneeling. Why? They're protesting. Why? Because for them, it's difficult to find unity in honoring a country that is blatantly, and often apologetically divided. How did it start? Colin Kaepernick. He took a knee and expressed that he was protesting police brutality and inequality of people of color. Where is Colin now? Unemployed.
Since Kaepernick's political protest, he has been blacklisted from the NFL and despite a good track record on the field, his career has seemingly come to close due to his political views. One may say that his refusal to pay respect to his country was disrespectful however, is honoring a country whose anthem was written by a man who oppressed (although later freed and defended) people of color?
The idea of singing a song written by a man who had no desire to end the oppression of an entire race of people strikes a chord with me and not one that's melodic to the ears. It rings within me with a pang of sadness and frustration.

Francis Scott Key was a complex man. He owned slaves. He freed slaves. He represented slaves pro bono. He was against the abuse of slaves.  He spoke out against abolitionists and was against their movement. These contradictions confuse me. Perhaps Key found it hard to justify unnecessary cruelty toward slaves and therefore felt compelled to advocate for slaves who fell victim to it. However, slavery itself was an unnecessary cruelty committed against an entire race of people. If Key could free his own slaves, why wouldn't he see the value of freedom for all slaves? These are questions that will remain unanswered as the long deceased Key can't speak for slaves or himself anymore.

So is taking a kneeling position during the anthem disrespectful? Perhaps. However, it is equally disrespectful to ignore that the foundation of this entire country has been built on the acquisition of wealth and prosperity and racism has been a by-product of that construction. I find it interesting when some say that NFL players are hired to play sports, not politics. Why? Because the National Anthem was birthed out of politics. Politics are everywhere. If someone has a platform to express their views, why should they be silenced? How is a player taking a kneel any different from Donald Trump taking to twitter? His job is to run the country and he often seems more preoccupied with airing his opinions on his twitter feed. He expresses his views (not solutions) on a regular basis and offends the masses weekly if not daily and for some reason people will either acknowledge his bigotry, or dismiss it because they have been outraged repeatedly to the point of desensitization.

Kneeling is a sign of submission. When someone kneels in prayer, they are humbly going before their god. When someone is to be executed, they are often put to kneel before their executor. NFL players kneeling is ironically and sadly appropriate since people of color have been kneeling for centuries to an oppressor that grants remorse as quickly as it grants abuse. Like the author of the Star Spangled Banner, the United States is riddled with moments of compassion and hypocrisy that also remain unanswered and likely never will be.

The NFL players are winning the battle for racial equality because they are a relevant topic of discussion, forcing Americans to face the dark areas of history that built it (be it literal or figurative) and the issues that stemmed from it's bloody construction. Discomfort isn't a bad thing if it sparks awareness, discussion, and eventually resolution. The point of protesting is to ignite those very things.

So I will continue to allow myself to be stirred into a place of discomfort when NFL players kneel when I am attempting to forget the issues and "just enjoy a game". There are far too many people dying from walking in the "wrong" neighborhoods with a hooded sweatshirt, or selling loose cigarettes, or waiting for aid in the midst of a natural disaster, several weeks after it's conclusion to believe that NFL players kneeling is the issue. They use their platform to draw attention to the bigger issues; the ones we try so hard to escape from and ignore. My hope is that their kneeling be symbolic not of a captive bowing down to their oppressor but that of of a track runner, preparing to sprint toward change.

I know that when we go to a game, we just want to see everyone play.
But it's hard to imagine that  watching someone play in any capacity is important when the nation has so much work to do. Playtime is over.