The NFL #TakeAKnee Protests Are Not About Trump
It’s been over a year since former San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick was asked why he did not stand for the national anthem. “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 explained. "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." He continued some form of protest throughout the rest of the season, sparking intense debate both inside and outside the NFL about the appropriateness and validity of his “defiant” act. At the end of the 2016-17 season, he was left unemployed and effectively blackballed as a “distraction” by NFL coaches, executives, and owners. This blackballing got one of its biggest endorsements when, at a rally Friday night, when the president of United States referred to NFL players who have knelt and who currently kneel as “sons of bitches” who should be fired. Supporters of Kaepernick and other professional athletes who kneel as well as racial justice activists immediately called for people in the NFL to #TakeAKnee in solidarity with those fighting against racial injustice.
And many did. On Sunday, #TakeAKnee took many forms. All of the players for the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers (except one) did not come out of the locker room for the national anthem. The Jacksonville Jaguars linked arms with their owner (a Trump donor) during the national anthem. Individual players on teams such as the Oakland Raiders, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, and Baltimore Ravens took a knee as the anthem was sung. A few players on the Los Angeles Rams raised their fists. Media described these gestures of protest or performances of unity as a response to Trump’s antagonizing comments about the players kneeling during the national anthem.
But to characterize #TakeaKnee as a response to Trump’s attacks misses the point – and gives him too much undeserved power. Yes, many who joined in the protest did so to show they wouldn’t stand for his racist comments about black players and criticism of the NFL more broadly, but when we reduce #TakeAKnee to a reaction to his remarks, we lose sight of the real issues at the core of the protests: police brutality and racial injustice.
Kaepernick actually started his protest while Obama was still in office, and while most people focused on the act of kneeling – with critics calling this form of protest disrespectful, unpatriotic, and distracting – it was his off-the-field work that truly reflected his dedication to racial justice. Kaepernick didn’t start the conversation on racial injustice, but he became a tangible symbol of resistance to a system of policing that kills black people at alarming rates. He is a part of a larger movement and fits within a tradition of black activist athletes. And he honored the work of racial justice activists by committing $1 million of his own money to a range of social justice organizations. There was considerably less media coverage of this work.
It’s unsurprising that Trump, a man who identified white supremacists and Neo-Nazis as “fine people,” would denigrate a protest about anti-black racism. But Trump is hardly the only person who cares more about symbols and perceived disrespect than racial inequality and police killing black people with impunity. This response to professional athletes taking a knee is just one of many that willfully misconstrues the intention of this form of protest. #TakeAKnee isn’t about the anthem or any other symbol or ahistorical notion of patriotism, it’s about the pervasiveness of racial injustice. It’s about Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Mya Hall, and Anthony Lamar Smith.
And although a solid number of athletes and teams appeared to join in the #TakeAKnee protests via statements about unity, respect, and freedom of speech or by coaches and players linking arms during the national anthem, it’s worth noting that these gestures didn’t align with the ideas at the core of #TakeAKnee either. “Unity” optics weaken and misrepresent the intention of professional athletes kneeling and also contribute to the belief that #TakeAKnee is about Trump, freedom of speech, or some misguided notion of patriotism and not about police killing black people.
By attacking black protestors more forcefully than he did white supremacists or neo-Nazis, Trump only reinforces what Kaepnernick has been protesting all this time – the legacy and reality of racism in this country. And the president's insistence that the issue of kneeling had nothing to do with race further illustrates that he doesn’t get it. #TakeAKnee pushes for a nation in which life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all is a reality and not a lofty ideal crafted by white slaveholding men. And of course, it is impossible to not note the hypocrisy of people like Trump who demonize those kneeling as unpatriotic but promote the slogan “Make America Great Again,” an assertion that America is not already great.
It was powerful to watch yesterday as professional athletes followed Kaepernick’s lead and joined in a protest against racial injustice and police brutality, but the true test of #TakeAKnee will be what happens after this week’s games have been played. After all the statements and retweeted images of players kneeling or linking arms from the past few days, will more players in professional sports become consistently engaged in racial justice work, like that being done in the Movement for Black Lives? Will more fans join in racial justice work?
The conflation of principled dissent with disrespect is always alarming. Critics of those choosing to #TakeAKnee to protest racial injustice mistakenly identify righteous indignation with anti-black racism as disrespectful. These critics refuse to recognize the police killings of black people as a systemic form of disrespect, devaluation, and dehumanization. In the least, #TakeAKnee asks this nation to more intentionally reckon with its inglorious history of white supremacy and its centuries-long inability to live by its founding, democratic ideals.
#TakeAKnee is not now and nor has it never been about an individual, and it certainly isn't about Trump. It's about calling out systemic racism. It's about ending police brutality. It's about justice.
Treva Lindsey is the author of Colored No More: Reinventing Black Womanhood in Washington, D.C. Follow her on Twitter.
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