Falling into today’s African American NFL protests, 71-year-old President Donald Trump threw gasoline on the fire, telling a rally in Huntsville, Alabama Sept. 22 that players who took a knee during the National Anthem should be “fired.” Trump’s remarks prompted a national backlash, spurring denunciations from the NFL, team owners, sponsors and celebrities. Whether Trump likes it or not, 70% of NFL players are African American. No owner in his right mind would pit themselves against their key employees. Trump didn’t help matters when he equivocated Aug. 13 denouncing in Charlottesvile, S.C. white nationalists protesting the removal of a Statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. When Trump spoke about violence on both sides, referring to Antifa [anti-Fascists] at the Charlottesville melee, he antagonized African Americans, cementing his label as a white supremacist.
When 29-year-old former San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick didn’t stand for the National Anthem Aug. 26, 2016 at a pre-season game with the Green Bay Packers, then followed it up Sept. 1, 2016 kneeling during the Anthem with the former San Diego Chargers, NFL protests were born. While the NFL didn’t know how to deal with Kaepernick back then, they’ve come full circle to the view that professional athletes have a Constitutional right to speak their minds. When asked why he kneeled during the National Anthem, Kaepernick wasn’t shy about taking a stand against police brutality and racial injustice against African Americans. Driving Kaepernick’s protests were high profile police killings. “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 said Aug. 27, 2016 after the Chargers game.
Responding to Alton Sterling’s July 5, 2016 killing by Baton Rouge police then Philando Castile’s July 6, 2016 killing by St. Paul police, Kaepernick had seen enough, deciding to take a stand against police brutality and racial injustice against the African American community. “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 [police] getting paid leave and getting away with murder,” Kaepenick said. Kaepernick mentioned nothing about the five Dallas police officers gunned down July 8, 2016 by Micah Xavier, a black militant angry over recent white-on-black police killings. What puzzled many people about Kaepernick’s protests were the convenient stereotyping of white law enforcement as racists when, in fact, he knew little or nothing about the specific circumstances in officer-involved-shootings.
In the wake of a violent 2016 summer, it didn’t take long for other black athletes to jump on the police brutality and racist bandwagon. As the 2016 election wore on, Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton branded Trump as sympathetic to white supremacists, fingering his former chief strategist Stephen Bannon as a racist for his former job as editor of Breitbart News. Bannon once called Breitbart “a platform for the Alt-Right” but denied any racist or white supremacist ties. By that time it was too late, the national media labeled the Trump campaign racist, xenophobic and anti-LGBT. Fast-forward to Trump’s Sept. 22 remarks at Huntsville, Alabama, cementing his racist label. His comments about firing NFL players refusing to salute the flag prompted the NFL, its teams and players to double down on Trump as a racist president.
Trump’s Huntsville speech prompted prominent NBA stars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and others to jump all over the president, repeating the Democrat narrative played 24/7 on today’s anti-Trump news networks that he’s racist. Watching the Dallas Cowboys Sunday night all kneel with their coach Jason Garrett and owner Jerry Jones before the National Anthem shows how far issue is overblown. If today’s protests have any relation to Kaepernick, then you have to take him at his word: The flag and Anthem represent black oppression. Former 1968 Olympic gold and bronze medallists Tommy Smitt and John Carlos, the first to raise their fists for Black Power, praised Kaepernick for taking a stand against black oppression. Instead of taking a knee at the national anthem, multimillionaire athletes should buy less Ferraris and private jets, and pony up cash for education, housing and medical care in black communities.
Turning a private sports enterprise like the NFL into a platform for public protests about police brutality and racial injustice is inappropriate. Billionaire owners have to back their key employees, making a mockery of sports fans looking for entertainment not lectures on African American social and economic problems. Kaepernick pledged $1 million to charities dealing with poverty and black oppression. If NFL, NBA or other professional black athletes wish to do more than grandstand, they need to donate to charities dealing with problems confronting the African American community. Branding white police officers racists every time there’s an officer-involved-shooting ignores the dangers of inner-city policing. Kaepernick started the ball rolling but it’s up to high-paid athletes and celebrities to pay their share to reduce poverty and increase opportunities in the black community.
