While the NFL kneeling saga continues, it is becoming less clear what the kneeling is about.
When it began last season, the kneeling was a protest against alleged police brutality and the incidence of blacks killed by police.
This season, following criticism against kneeling NFL players by the president of the United States, NFL players picked up the pace in a series of kneelings, arm-lockings and various forms of unity expressions during the playing of the national anthem before the start of each game. Yet it is unclear what players are now protesting. Police brutality? Racism? Are they just mad at the president?
Highly paid athletes protesting in the comfort of billion-dollar stadiums under the protective gaze of security personnel does little to evoke the image of historic civil rights protests of the ’50s and ’60s. Those valiant heroes of our past were largely ordinary people courageously taking extraordinary risks, at great cost, in the name of racial justice. They stood for freedom.
It is that same freedom that now enables NFL athletes to protest whatever they choose in whatever manner they choose. So how have they chosen? They have chosen to protest during the anthem. They have chosen police officers killing blacks as their cause.
Whether justified or not, loss of life caused by a police shooting is traumatic for the community. Given the legacy of racial injustice in America, that trauma is magnified greatly when the person killed by the police is black.
The lives of black men and women do indeed matter, and NFL athletes have every right to protest the tragic loss of any life, including black lives.
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5 comments:
So tired of seeing and hearing about this.
What is an 'NFL' ?
Some people just don't get it , they can't face the fact that black on black is the real issue. Dumb as a brick!
Every year since 1967 I've anticipated the Super Bowl.This year I don't feel the same.Most of us either have or have had rules and regulations that we had to abide by wherever we worked.If I had had acted like an idiot I would have been terminated ASAP.Now NFL players have huge law firms backing them because of their rights.The NFL administration is scared to violate constitutional rights and our elected officials are dead silent.I refuse to be held hostage.
12:09, okay, I'll be the one to say it out loud.
Just STFU!
Everyone can protest anything. It's just when they are totally wrong and bringing politics into the only escape we had from politics is when it all went off the tracks.
Turn on CNN if you want this crap. I'm looking for a football game.
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