San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick explained his decision not to stand for the national anthem this season. The move, made before the Aug. 27 preseason game against the Green Bay Packers, split fans.
Fans used #ISupportKaepernickBecause to show support as racists expressed their disdain.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL.com.
The pro footballer also declined to rise during two previous preseason games, but ESPNreported it went unnoticed.
Kaepernick’s backers expressed their agreement using a hashtag commending his choice.
Still, Kaepernick said he will continue to sit during the U.S. anthem for the remainder of the season.
“When there’s [a] significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it’s supposed to represent, this country is representing people the way that it’s supposed to, I’ll stand.”
The decision follows the continuing deaths of Black men by police in America. In July, the incidents reached a peak after Louisiana police shot Alton Sterling outside a convenience store. Within 24 hours, a cop shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Minnesota.
Following Colin Kaepernick's refusal to rise during the national anthem, Myke Tavarres is doing the same. Atlanta Black Star reported Kaepernick will remain seated for the pre-game...
When it gets right down to it, NOTHING in AMERICA applies to BLACK PEOPLE. Not the Constitution, Nothing Abe Lincoln wrote, No laws, the STAR SPANGLED BANNER; (all we've been seeing in this fucker is stars before it's permanent lights out); NOTHING. AMERICA's NOT FOR BLACK PEOPLE. The truth shall set you free. AMERICA'S NOT REALLY FOR THE MIGHTY WHITEY EITHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If the people living in this country, meant for us to be a part of this country, we wouldn't be going through the fuckin' shit we go through every single day of our lives to try to live amongst these EUROPEANS from EUROPE, who forced us here to work for free, now that everything's more or less to their liking at our expense, FUCK US, BE GONE, if you DON'T GO, WE'LL JUST KILL OR SLAUGHTER YOUR NIGGER ASSES.
We, as the self-imposed GLORIFIED ALBINOS OF HUMANITY, CAN'T STANDTHE BLACKNESS OF YOU NOR YOUR CONTINENT (other than the gold, diamonds, plutonium, land, even though it's hot as hell, and we look like fuckin' lobsters as we try to perambulate). Now you can just DIE. SEE YA!!!!
We need to go to the Dakotas and protest against that pipeline with the Natives. All Whites know is to destroy, hate, kill, count money. They'll ruin Jesus Christ if He stands in the way.
Only about three people have even sung that "song" where it's easy on the ears: Whitney, Marvin, Jordan Smith.
There's more to worry about than an anthem that's been in effect since 1931. Who's going to be alive tomorrow; who's not? How are the babies of the world and Syria doing? How many slaughtered today? How many bombs dropped on peoples' heads? How many white people still on earth?
How are the Flintstones???
God Bless you Elder Rahson Delay!! You made my day today!!
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States holding that the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protected students from being forced to salute the American flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance
Question: If I am home watching a game and the National anthem comes on, should I stand and salute or is it ok to sit down because there aren't any white people around me?
A person standing or sitting during the National Anthem does not stop the performance of the song. We're standing for a nation that hates the black man's guts. A nation that has lynched him from trees, fed him to alligators, called him "nigger" from sunup to sundown, compared him to every simian alive, has never respected him, became super wealthy over his forced free labor; shoots him down in the street like a Caucasian would never do to a dog, hates the black man with more than a passion, then gets rattled when ONE refuses to stand when it's sung; a song composed by Francis Scott Key, who didn't like him either.
White folks, you're lucky; we're lucky, bullets aren't flying everywhere every day from your guns and ours from all the bullshit we've taken from you due to no fault of our own.
To show how smart you're not: Why would a white people from a white land, go to a continent of people NOT ALBINO, slaughter them and TAKE THEIR FUCKIN' COUNTRY, CALL IT THEIR OWN and keep complete animosity and hatred flowing every day since they've been here??
Why DON'T YOU JUST GO BACK WHERE YOU BELONG?????????????????????????????????? THIS ISN'T IT and take your FUCKIN' NATIONAL ANTHEM with you and sing it and river dance to it in EUROPE????????
Go back to EUROPE, take your weapons, take your hatred, take your "beauty", take your women, men who think they're women, eat all the raw cows and drink all the blood you love in puddings and such, perform all your funky sexual deviance/sexual confusion you've pushed onto everyone else, calling it LGBTABC; sex you can't get enough of with cameras all up in each others asses, sperm and shit flying everywhere, moaning and groaning like cats and dogs, take your fuckin' pipes for every pipeline and dig the fuckers in EUROPE; take your laws, rules, regulations, human cages, executioners, killers, psychopaths, retards, cannibals, kinky shit you call ILLUMINATI; take all the NIGGERS THAT LOVE YOU TO DEATH (pun intended) regardless of how they're treated as long as the dollars are flowing, take Beyonce and make bets as to how long it'll be before she howls and prances totally naked in front of you for your "entertainment"; throw in Rihanna for good measurement; (a couple of 'kinda black women' for you to lighten up your mood); go to the 24/25/26 wealthy families that rule everything and just RULE EACH OTHER, FUCK EACH OTHER, FUCK THE DOGS TOGETHER, wear out each other's anuses, lollipop each other to damn death and leave ALL THE REST OF THE WORLD ALONE????????? PLEASE!!!!!!!!
ENOUGH OF YOU AND YOUR HATRED AND YOUR PALE, DOG-HAIRED ASSES, KILLING OUR BLACK BEHINDS and SAVE THE DAKOTAS AND THE ORIGINAL N.A.T.I.V.E.S. They'll be able to FINALLY leave those Concentration Camps you forced THEM INTO. Give all of us a Trail of JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, say! can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming; Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's re d glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there: Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In fully glory reflected now shines in the stream: 'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vuntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution! No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave: And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved home and the war's desolation! Bless with victory and peace, may the heav'rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust": And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
People in this country need a serious STFU for about 10 years simultaneously. Pure D silence, so we can find our lost minds. Where did they go?? How do we get them back?? We need them desperately. SILENCE!!!!!!!
Thank you very much!!!!!
The Mayflower's comin'!!!!! The Nina, Santa Maria, & Pinta are comin'!!!!!
All WHITE PEOPLE ABOARD!!!!!!!
Maybe we can dig up Noah's Ark and you can put all those fuckin' weapons on it, and North Korea, hopefully!!!!!
Don't forget the DAKOTA Pipeline and the PSYCHOPATHIC KILLERS of SYRIA'S WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND BABIES.
On your way back to the Caucasus Mountains, throw all your debased OVERBOARD. There'll probably only be 3 to 4 of you left, unfortunately. So Sorry!!!!!
Dig up Frances Scott Key and take his dust with you. Sing the Anthem on your way. Make sure your feeble asses are able to stand.
Lord Knows, there's something wrong with the self-proclaimed All Mighty YT. DRASTICALLY WRONG.
Tomi Lahren make sure you get onboard first.
We'll all be jumping for joy and jubilation on the last boat sailing.
THANK GOD ALMIGHTY THERE'LL BE FUCKING PEACE AT LAST.
The Star Spangled Banner is a WAR song. Maybe it should be played over Syria and Turkey and elsewhere where the Bombs are bursting in mid-air.
How many types of "Americans" live in "America?" Everyone living here originally from elsewhere has "American" attached to their name or should have. The Original "Americans" or "Turtles" or Whatever they were before Europeans took over the joint are in Concentration Camps called Reservations.
White people from EUROPE believe they're the TRUE AMERICANS. Something's not right about this "American" stuff. We're "African" "Americans" and have had about 3 generations completely decimated by now, haven't we?? We're not going to be here much longer. The last "African" "American" throw the key back and close the door tightly.
Some people have bad knees and can't stand worth a damn because they're in pain. Some folks are older than cat shit and can't stand.
Michael Brown can't stand for the Star Spangled Banner; Darren Wilson can stand really well and make babies. Let him stand for the Star Spangled Banner.
Isn't it funny every country has to have standby killers to protect everyone (???) in the country. There's always someone that has to die for living in a country. Has to protect all the others living in the country. Die to protect lives or protect someone's money??
No one can just live in peace and harmony. Right now, some woman just gave birth to someone someday who will die to protect a life brought forth.
Fuck to live; Fuck to die; get it all wrong and just plug something on some mother's once-upon-a-time kid and prance!!!
The national anthem was written by a big time slaver, anti-abolitionist and the song makes a point that the nation was proud of slavery.
Few people know this because we only ever sing the first verse. But read the end of the third verse and you’ll see why “The Star-Spangled Banner” is not just a musical atrocity, it’s an intellectual and moral one, too:
No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave, And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I still don't see why "No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave" was even part of the song since it was not "hirelings and slaves" they were fighting, but the British Army.
However, there is record of Keys often representing Blacks and slaves in court cases, etc. [I think that's maybe how the rumor started that he was Black] So, I'm still trying figure him out.
There's a whole bunch of them that are "black"; they don't know; we don't know; someone knows though. They're swinging silently, by neck, back in those damn family trees.
The “Colin Kaepernick Caper” continues to roll right along, gathering no moss whatsoever. Since Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the playing of the national anthem at a San Francisco 49ers preseason game last week, think pieces on patriotism, the right to dissent and protest, the racism in the “Star-Spangled Banner” and even Kaepernick’s football record have flooded the cybersphere. Another set of think pieces surrounds black athletes who have used their visibility to protest injustice within the United States. Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf are the ones who figure most prominently in this area.
And then there’s Jackie Robinson, the man who “broke the color line” and became the first African American player on a major league team. Back in 1972, his career in baseball safely behind him, Robinson penned his autobiography. In it, he spoke of the day he took the field in in his first ever World Series while the national anthem played in the stadium:
There I was, the black grandson of a slave, the son of a black sharecropper, part of a historic occasion, a symbolic hero to my people. The air was sparkling. The sunlight was warm. The band struck up the national anthem. The flag billowed in the wind. It should have been a glorious moment for me as the stirring words of the national anthem poured from the stands. Perhaps, it was, but then again, perhaps, the anthem could be called the theme song for a drama called The Noble Experiment. Today, as I look back on that opening game of my first world series, I must tell you that it was Mr. Rickey’s drama and that I was only a principal actor. As I write this twenty years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.
Many have condemned Kaepernick for speaking out against injustice because he has a multimillion dollar contract and lives a comfortable lifestyle. And because his record as QB of the 49ers is less than stellar in sports aficionados’ eyes. And because nothing in his background or career can compare to that of the great Jackie Robinson or the great Muhammad Ali. All those criticisms miss the point. Kaepernick essentially said there is something wrong currently happening in American society. This wrong Kaepernick spoke of was also around when Jackie Robinson said he couldn’t “sing the anthem” and “salute the flag.” Instead of comparing Kaepernick’s record with that of a Robinson or an Ali, critics—and racists—ought to focus on that instead.
If Kaepernick wasn't making millions of dollars and was an alcoholic on the street sitting on a curb while the Star Spangled Banner was playing they wouldn't give two shits whether the drunk stood or not.
Why should any of us stand saluting a flag, when if you're walking back to your car after the game, a cop could shoot you in the back then and there?
Blacks can get slaughtered anywhere/everywhere at the drop of a hat in this country and the killer can walk away scott free. What are we saluting after 600 years? Our deaths?
The Star Spangled Banner is a Battle song. It's rejoicing over "Bombs bursting in air." It should be played over Syria and Turkey.
Colin Kaepernick Donates $60K in Backpacks to Harlem and Bronx Students
Colin Kaepernick donates 60K in backpacks to New York students (Twitter/NessaOnAir)
A football star is using his public platform for good. San Francisco 49ners quarterback Colin Kaepernick donated $60,000 in backpacks to New York students for the upcoming school year. The giveaway was led by his girlfriend Nessa Diab of Hot 97. She shared why the Nike-sponsored donation was so important.
“Having a new backpack to start off the new school year helps give each student a fresh start,” Diab said in a statement on her website. “When we looked at everything when it comes to supplies, we found backpacks were an investment for most parents.”
One concern was the longevity of the book bags. Diab wanted students to use them for after-school activities and family trips.
“We wanted to ensure we found one that could last for more than a year and that was sturdy, durable and versatile for students to use for books, sports equipment or art materials, and traveling,” she said.
The donations took place in two locations. The first was Harlem RBI’s Dream Charter school during the middle school orientation. Patterson Family Day in South Bronx was the second spot. There, Diab encouraged students to remain in school alongside Bronx RBI staff.
Though Kaepernick was away at football training camp ahead of the NFL season, he sent the lucky learners a video message of support.
“We must invest in our youth because they are the future leaders of our community,” he shared. “I want them to know that we appreciate and care for them. In doing so, we must provide all the necessary tools for them to succeed and I will do whatever I can to ensure we do that as a community.”
The big donation follows the athlete’s announcement of gifting $1 million to various charities. Each of the targeted organizations aid communities affected by racial injustice and police violence.
Can't beat that logic! I have noticed many Black parents are accommodating their teens by allowing them to entertain their friends at home. People are setting up nicer home theaters and throwing more back yard parties, parents don't want their kids running all over the city, they know young Blacks are being profiled.
I can truly say I have never seen a car with white youths stopped and searched by the police but I have driven by dozens of cars with black and brown youths stopped and searched by the police with additional police units waiting to carry them off to jail.
Can't beat that logic! I have noticed many Black parents are accommodating their teens by allowing them to entertain their friends at home. People are setting up nicer home theaters and throwing more back yard parties, parents don't want their kids running all over the city, they know young Blacks are being profiled.
I can truly say I have never seen a car with white youths stopped and searched by the police but I have driven by dozens of cars with black and brown youths stopped and searched by the police with additional police units waiting to carry them off to jail.
THAT-TWEET-IS-THE-TRUTH!
But, I can truly say that I have never see a car with White middle-class to wealthy youths stopped and searched by police, but I have driven by hundreds of cars with Black youth, and/or adults stopped and searched.
Cops set up "road checks" an entrances and exists of Black neighborhoods and predominately Black apartments complexes.
Cops stop young Black males who are merely walking to or from the corner store, or from one house to another in their own neighborhood, or to or from work, etc., and EXTORT"searches" from them under the THREAT of "holding them for "SUSPICION".
That is not counting all of the incidents I read about, and have been told about where pedophile, rapist and homosexual cops that actually "strip searched" young Black males and young Black females on the streets, out in the open, beside a police car, etc.
And look at all the incidents of cops man-handling, hitting, and arresting elementary-aged Black children.
I just posted an article about cops kicking in the door of an 84 year old Black womanWITHOUT A WARRANT and pepper spraying and tasing her IN HER OWN HOME.
Thousands, and thousands of incidents of Black people being harasses, brutalized, tortured, terrorized and murdered by racist cops all across America, and these same racist cops have the freaking nerve to threaten to stop "working" because people are pointing all of their ABUSE OF AUTHORITY, EXTORTION, WRONGFUL DETENTION, WRONGFUL ARRESTS, INTIMIDATION, DOMESTIC TERRORISM AND VIOLATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, AND VIOLATIONS OF UNITED STATES CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS, AND FEDERAL LAWS AND EVEN THE LAWS OF THEIR OWN STATES.
Colin Kaepernickis a hero for sticking out his neck and standing up—or sitting down—against racial violence. He, like so many of us, is sick and tired of the police killing our people and putting their hands on our black girls and boys. And because of that, we should be out there buying his jersey in record numbers and rocking that number 7. I’m talking about black folks and allies alike, those who want to express their support for the man and what he is doing, and to challenge those white fans and those in the NFL, the media, and the cops who are out to get him.
Since Kaepernick took a stand and refused to stand for the racist, slavery glorifying “Star-Spangled Banner,” sales of his jersey have jumped from number 20 to number 1 on the 49ers website. He is receiving lots of support on social media, and some other professional players are rising to the occasion and lending their support to him. But so many more athletes should have Colin Kaepernick’s back. They can do this, and we must do this.
The NFL would collapse yesterday without black people. Let this be known. The players in professional football are nearly 70 percent black. Black labor is building the sport, keeping it afloat with the body blows and concussions they endure. True, they are paid well, but for the millions they make, it is a drop in the bucket compared to what the owners, the networks and the corporate sponsors are raking in. The ones working in the field are getting paid, but the masters are really getting paid.
Perhaps it is unfair to compare professional athletes to slaves. At the same time, the white reactions to Kaepernick’s protest tell you everything you need to know about the power dynamics in the NFL and professional sports in general. White fans have burned his jersey in protest, as if to lynch another black man for getting out of line, while league executives express their disgust for Kaepernick and treat him worse than a criminal.
And the police union in Santa Clara, Calif. has threatened to boycott the 49ers, claiming Kapernick has “threatened our harmonious working relationship” with the 49ers” and calling his statements about the police “insulting, inaccurate and completely unsupported by any facts.”
“If the 49ers organization fails to take action to stop this type of inappropriate behavior it could result in police officers choosing not to work at your facilities,” the Santa Clara Police Officers Association said in a letter. “The board of directors of the Santa Clara Police Officer’s Association has a duty to protect its members and work to make all of their working environments free of harassing behavior.”
Now since when do the police decide to boycott and choose where they patrol when someone offends them, unless this truly is a police state?
And how can players in a predominantly black league succumb to intimidation and demands that they shut up and throw the ball unless the NFL truly is a white man’s space, and the players are slaves, shackled with multimillion dollar contracts? Are Kaepernick and his fellow players free thinking black men who can speak their minds, or is it their job to entertain and make money for white America? What happens next is completely up to the NFL players at this point. One thing is for certain: These grown ass men should not have to tremble in fear. And if they want to be taken seriously—and want the pain and suffering of black people to be taken seriously–they must protest. It’s been done before.
In the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, African-American medalists John Carlos and Tommie Smith, along with Australian athlete Peter Norman, engaged in a potent form of protest against racism with the iconic black power salute. They were punished, ostracized, shunned by the white media, and each paid a hell of a price for his political statement.
Last year, the Mizzou football team joined student protests over racism at their school and went on strike until university president Tim Wolfe resigned.
And this year, WNBA players represented for black lives, raising the bar for athlete-activists. Members of the Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, the Indiana Fever, and the Phoenix Mercury wore T-shirts to show their solidarity with the victims of police violence. They and their teams faced fines from the league, but the protests gained momentum throughout the franchises until the WNBA rescinded the fines.
Now, the NFL players must look to Kaepernick as their role model, and they cannot be sidelined by fear. Only they can prove that the cotton fields are not made of AstroTurf. And that’s why we must buy his jersey.
By sitting down during the national anthem and standing up for justice, Colin Kaepernick is testing the limits of the Black athlete to engage in effective social protest. Ultimately, this is a test for the Black community, should it wish to take on the challenge. If Kaepernick stands alone on this, then he will certainly fall, and Black people in the aggregate stand to lose. But if other players and the community as a whole have this man’s back, we protect ourselves from the onslaught.
Are the days of the high-priced slave over? And what would it look like if Black athletes stood up in defense of their fellow player, and proclaimed that it is a new day?
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick toldNFL.com. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
The 49ers issued a statement in response to Kaepernick’s decision. It said, in part, “In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose and participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem.”
There was good reason for Kaepernick to sit down. That anthem — written by Francis Scott Key, a slave owner who owned up to 20 Black people, according to The Baltimore Sun — is one that glorifies slavery, which is in itself an outrage. The third verse of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” usually left unsung, is a celebration of the murder of slaves who fought with the British in the War of 1812 — that attempt by the U.S. to seize Canada from the British.
“No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,” that verse reads, “And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave / O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Like Kaepernick, Jackie Robinson reflected on the national anthem during his first World Series in his autobiography, “I Never Had It Made.” The first Black man to enter the all-white space of Major League Baseball said the anthem was a theme song for a drama called The Noble Experiment.
“Today, as I look back on that opening game of my first world series, I must tell you that it was Mr. Rickey’s drama and that I was only a principal actor.” He added: “As I write this twenty years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world.”
And it appears the onslaught against the 49er is just beginning. Some of the backlash is coming from Black critics. Rodney Harrison, former NFL player and an NBC analyst, apologized for claiming Kaepernick is not Black and does not understand racism and what Black people and Black young men face. But a sampling of comments from NFL executives tells the real story, as reported by Mike Freeman of The Bleacher Report:
“I don’t want him anywhere near my team,” one front office executive said. “He’s a traitor.”
One executive said he hasn’t seen this much collective dislike among front office members regarding a player since Rae Carruth.
Another said that if an owner asked him to sign Kaepernick, he would consider resigning, rather than do it.
Apparently, in the minds of some NFL executives, Black protest — which should be protected by the First Amendment — is a crime akin to murder and other felonious offenses.
Consider that Rae Carruth, the former Carolina Panther wide receiver, is in prison for conspiring to murder the woman who was pregnant with his child. And quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers — who was accused of raping two women, and apparently lives in a glass house — believes he has the moral authority to express his disappointment with Kaepernick, who should be thankful that people gave their lives so that he can play football. This is what Black people face when they do not realize their power and fail to channel it.
Further, Harry Belafonte offered a fitting commentary on the NFL quarterback:
“The fact that these people have all these ‘how dare you speak out against lynching’ and all the things that racism stands for, or the conclusions to racist acts permit. I think it’s a statement about America,” Belafonte said on “News One Now. “What I would love to see, is a few hundred other Black athletes take that as a symbol,” he added. “It doesn’t affect the game. It doesn’t affect the way that it’s going to be played, it just tells you a lot about what the people on the field are thinking in their every waking moment.”
If 100 Black athletes heed Belafonte’s call and step up by sitting down with Colin Kaepernick, they can provide a template for Black activism in professional sports. Professional football and basketball in particular are operated like modern-day plantations, with predominantly white owners and management presiding over Black talent — 68 percent in the NFL and 76 percent in the NBA. Based on the power dynamics in the sport, white executives have made a calculation that they can say whatever they want about Black people without facing consequences. If Kaepernick stands alone, they can continue to speak with the utmost confidence, with no motivation to change their stance for fear of reprisal. The NFL power structure will take him down, and run roughshod over him, as a lesson to other players who dare get out of line.
However, the prospect of displaying Black collective power is ripe with possibilities. The league would not survive without their labor, and untold billions of dollars are on the line, as these players must emphasize. The power of Black athletes standing together was on display in Missouri, when the predominantly African-American University of Missouri football team participated in a players’ strike to protest campus racism and demand the ouster of the university administration. In that regard, they succeeded, or at least the university was forced to meet the Mizzou team halfway, however reluctantly, because of the millions of dollars that were hanging in the balance.
Ultimately, as Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.”
When Black gladiators stand up to the empire, then we can begin to address the economics of the game, and demand that more Black-owned businesses receive contracts with the NFL or the NBA. Players can demand that a certain percentage of the billions in profits reaped from the sweat of their labor are redirected back into the Black community to support our banks, schools, charities and other institutions. Further, Black athletes can demand that the reporters who cover the game look more like the players themselves. Journalism, in this case sports journalism, is an overwhelmingly white proposition, which is unacceptable. As was reported in The Undefeated, while the locker rooms are Black, Black journalists are scarce, which means we are missing a great deal of meaningful, contextualized reporting because of it.
Surely, forcing the hand of the master is a daunting proposition for some. After all, leaving the plantation — psychologically — is frightening, and these players are concerned they will lose their contracts, their paychecks. And while players such as Cam Newton have a right to sit on the sidelines and proclaim that we’re all the same color, history has proven that society will not do right by you just for the sake of it. Rather, as was always the case, Black people are compelled to fight for what they want, so that white people are able to see them as human beings.
Colin Kaepernick has much on the line, but his own personal gesture demonstrates that no one is at rest when systemic racism still exists. As long as injustice reigns supreme, your money is not safe. Slaves are never safe on the plantation, and there will be no sense of security until we change the game in its entirety through a collective effort.
That spirit of unity that is required today was on display nearly 50 years ago, when the most prominent Black athletes gathered in Cleveland to support Muhammad Ali, who lost his boxing title and his license for refusing to serve in the Army in Vietnam. Ali, who is loved and admired in death, was reviled and vilified in his day.
“What should horrify Americans is not Kaepernick’s choice to remain seated during the national anthem, but that nearly 50 years after Ali was banned from boxing for his stance and Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s raised fists caused public ostracization and numerous death threats, we still need to call attention to the same racial inequities,” said Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in an op-ed in The Washington Post, also referring to the Black medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics. “Failure to fix this problem is what’s really un-American here.”
The questions that arise are whether we care more about empty, forced patriotism or the injustices that remain, and whether we are more outraged by protests than the racism and racial violence that sparked those protests in the first place.
Today, some may regard professional athletes as today’s version of high-priced slaves who are supposed to shut up, run and throw the ball, and entertain the masses. As they earn their millions, they are certainly generating billions for their masters. Once they band together, stand up and take control of their destiny, they will realize their power.
And the Colin Kaepernicks who arise in our midst will not be alone.
Someone needs to ask white men who they like that has melanin. If they can come up with an answer of two I'd be surprised. There's something wrong with these demon-like creatures posing as "humans." If they're not killing someone or something, they probably are the ones that need the God damned Cialis and some woman without a penis crying about Viagra advertised all over my TV. If they can't kill; they can't ejaculate; therein lies their problems. Maybe some anuses should be mixed in with the commercials; might help!!
Ironically, CK team mate just punched a 70 year old guy and his son. It was a whyte guy so I doubt if the national outrage will be at the same level of either CK or Ray Rice. God Bless America!!
It's not about someone sitting or standing during this "song"; it's whether or not you can find someone to hit those ridiculously high notes without breaking eardrums while doing so.
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