When Colin Kaepernick knelt during the National Anthem to protest police brutality against African-Americans, the right screamed bloody murder. They claimed that he was disrespecting the military and the flag and that he needed to apologize to the nation. He, rightfully so, refused.
More and more players began to kneel. Donald Trump decided to get involved and called for owners to fire any player that knelt to protest police brutality against African-Americans. The right stepped up their campaign to re-brand the protests as something against the military, and by extension, the flag.
Eventually, the Black Lives Matter movement ramped up these protests against police brutality against African-Americans, and rightfully so. The right began howling that they were not protesting properly. The right said that BLM needed to protest peacefully. They forget that Kaepernick started with a peaceful protest and they condemned it.
In fact, Kaepernick started kneeling at the suggestion of a military veteran. Kneeling is a sign of supplication. Kaepernick was supplicating himself to a nation that just wanted him to go away. He still has yet to be given a chance to return to the NFL because of his protest.
On Sept. 10Th, the Houston Texans played the Kansas City Chiefs, in Kansas City. To show the right that they were willing to meet them halfway, to assuage their complaints, no one knelt during the anthem. Instead, the players locked arms afterwards for a moment of unity.
They were met with boos from the crowd. The boos continued until the moment of unity ended. At that, the crowd started cheering.
These complaints against the peaceful protests of men and women who have never felt the same love from the country they love, have never been about the military, or the flag. They are about a sense of entitlement felt by people who have benefited from their place in society practically since it began. These are people who expect POC’s to just accept the status quo that is, quite literally, killing them. For the right, these athletes are not allowed a voice in America. They have one job: to “step and fetch it” for the amusement of the crowd.
In other words, it has always been about the racism.
I would admonish those on the right to remember, and heed, the words of President John F. Kennedy: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”