'Ungrateful' and 'Should Be Fired' Are Not The Right Responses To Athletes Taking A Knee

New York Times
"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 in a press conference after first sitting out during the anthem, Indepenent.co.uk recorded. "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."

Kapernicks stand wasn't well noticed at first. He had been taking a knee during the National Anthem for 13 months before anyone took real notice said Independent news.
The influx of viral videos depicting the police shooting of unarmed black men spurred more and more of Kapernicks fellow athlete to follow him in bending the knee.

Independent said President Trump became a main catalyst for the protest when Friday he expressed the idea that NFL players would be fired for kneeling during the national anthem.

“Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a b**** off the field right now, out, he's fired. He's fired,'”

Trump is not the only well known voice to comment on the issue.  On Sept. 23, radio host Joe Walsh tweeted about the issue in response to Stevie Wonder taking part in the silent protest. Huffington Post scrounged up his tweet which "described the music icon as “another ungrateful black multi millionaire.”

A statement which implies these athletes should be grateful to what? The Huffinton Post analyzed the cultural implications of this statement.

First Huffington post found that this statement implies that African American athletes did not earn all there wealth and prestige. Second, if the athletes didn't earn anything, then someone must have given it to them.

Huffington Post postulates that in the light of the attitude of the statement and our current culture, the statement can be read as saying "their success is not earned, but rather given, benevolently, by white kingmakers with the implicit understanding that in return for their success, they (the athletes, actors, singers, dancers, artists, and so on) must pretend that racism, and indeed race, does not factor into their identities at all."

Walsh's Tweet can also be read as saying something more simple, like 'Black athletes should be showing gratitude from a country that gave them freedom and opportunity for wealth.' But this would also be wrong because although the U.S. has given many freedom, it enslaved African Americans for a long time and stalled on giving them rights for even longer.




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