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Take A Knee: National Anthem Protests

On August 26, 2016, Colin Kaepernick, then a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers,

famously sat out the national anthem before his game versus the Packers. Since then, sitting out

or kneeling during the national anthem before sporting events has become a national

phenomenon. In 2017, President Trump began voicing his opposition to this form of protest on

Twitter: “If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country,

you will see change take place fast. Fire or suspend!” Kaepernick no longer has an NFL contract.

President Trump wants any players who participate in the protest suspended or cut. Some, like

President Trump, believe that protesting the national anthem is disrespectful to the flag and the

military.​ The first amendment right to peacefully protest is one of the very things that the

flag and the military protect, and until people of color are afforded the same freedom and

equality as white people, people should be able to continue to protest the national anthem

without repercussions.

“To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other

way,” said Kaepernick (Kaepernick 1). He continued, “I am not going to stand up to show pride

to a flag for a country that oppresses black people (Kaepernick 1). This caused an immediate

controversy not only in the NFL but in the whole world of sports and entertainment.

“Athletes choosing to sit or kneel for the national anthem is not meant to be

disrespectful,” said former President Barack Obama (Obama 3). In fact, in sports, kneeling is
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often the utmost sign of respect. In almost all sports, when a player gets hurt, players from both

teams kneel out of respect until that player gets up.

The anthem ritual “at its best is a nod to our most comforting and self-flattering national

bromides. Suggesting that it’s more than that--that it’s an expression of support for the military,

the police, the flag or particular leaders in Washington--is asking for trouble” (Zorn 1).

“Refusing to stand for the national anthem is also a patriotic act” (Zorn 1). It is showing support

for the first amendment right to freedom of speech and the right of the people to peaceably

assemble.
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The above graph shows that, according to AYTM Market Research, more than 52 percent

of Americans disagree with President Trump that players should be fired for kneeling during the

national anthem (39.4 percent strongly disagree and 13.4 percent somewhat disagree). President

Trump’s comments backfired. In response, NFL players, coaches and owners kneeled together,

many arm-in-arm, at games the following weekend: September 24-25, 2017 (Zorn 1). This

included Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who had previously been an outspoken Trump

supporter. Some kneeled, some raised their fists in the air and some teams even stayed in the

locker room.

Doesn’t being an opponent of this protest make you hypocritical? Many people who

voiced their opposition were probably sitting in their living rooms while they watched the

national anthem during those games. Reporter Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune questioned, “I​n

the privacy of your living room, do you rise from your easy chair when a pregame national

anthem comes on the television? I’ve never seen it done at a viewing party or a bar, let alone a

small gathering of friends. And the very idea, ideologically consistent though it may be, seems a

little obsessive and weird--like stopping at the sight of the U.S. flag during a solo stroll down the

street to say the Pledge of Allegiance.” (Zorn 1). If you don’t even acknowledge the anthem

privately, is it fair to expect athletes to do so publicly?

Oscar, Aiyana, Trayvon, Rekia, Michael, Eric, Tamir, John, Ezell, Sandra, Freddie,

Alton, Philando. Those are just some of the names of black people who have been killed by the

police (Thomas 443). Most recently, Stephon Clark’s life was taken by the police because the
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officers mistook his cell phone for a gun. This is one of the things that Kaepernick’s national

anthem protest is about. “It’s even about that little boy in 1955 who nobody recognized at

first--Emmett [Till]”: a 14-year-old who was lynched because a white woman was offended by

him (Thomas 443). “Traditionally, the idea is that conservatives, liberals, and libertarians;

believers and atheists; the fortunate and the dispossessed; and hawks and doves can display their

love of America’s supreme values--liberty, opportunity, justice--if not necessarily of what the

American government has actually given us.” (Zorn 1). So why should people of color, who are

not privilege to the values of liberty, opportunity and justice, and those who support them,

display their love?

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Works Cited

Armerding, Taylor. ​Kneeling Athletes Are Disrespectful--And A Distraction​. The Salem News, 5

Oct. 2017.

Associated Press. ​100% of Black NFL Players Surveyed Have Experience of Racial Profiling.​

The Guardian, 1 Feb. 2018.

Thomas, Angie. ​The Hate U Give.​ HarperCollins Publishers, 2017.

Wilkinson, Branwyn. The Odyssey. Canisius College.

Zorn, Eric. ​Refusing To Stand For The National Anthem Is Also A Patriotic Act​. The

Chicago Tribune, 29 Sept. 2017.