Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the National Anthem to protest the unwarranted state-sponsored killings, primarily of Black men.
He did not protest for the right or even the privilege to continue to have a job as a professional football player.
This is obvious to most and an unnecessary reminder for some. However, when one listens to this current discussion about protesting the NFL over the obvious blackballing of him, it’s clear that many are thinking about the two issues as one.
They are not the same thing.
At best, protesting the NFL will provide the pressure for Commissioner Roger Goodell to do what he should have already done and that would be to call in a favor from an owner to sign Kaepernick. This would relieve the pressure and “protect the shield” from the bad optics this drama has created. If that were to happen, all too many of those insisting on this protest, would then retreat to their normally unengaged lives. Those in danger at the hands of the police by the mere virtue of their skin color will still be in the same danger.
A protest is a tactic and not an objective. Kaepernick’s objective was to bring attention to the injustice of police brutality. Therefore, if the tactic of protesting the NFL will not address the above noted objective, what would be the point?
Protest works best when tied to a larger movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 was tied to the larger Civil Rights movement. Curt Flood challenging baseball’s reserve clause, which basically declared that a player, even when not under contract, was controlled by one team for his entire career, was tied to the larger struggle for free agency for baseball players and professional athletes in general.
Colin Kaepernick will be fine, even if he doesn’t play another down in the NFL. The cause he has courageously taken up will now allow him to pretty much name his price on the speaking circuit, should he choose to do so, all around the country. In fact, a case could be made that Kaepernick would be even of greater value to the movement if he does not play another down in the NFL. That would then make him a martyr of sorts and few things are more inspiring to get others to take action than martyrdom.
Protesting the NFL will do nothing to dismantle the police industrial complex which is at the core of the issue Kaepernick raises. So to suggest that the failure to engage in this particular protest is being unsupportive of Kaepernick really shows a gross misunderstanding of the scope of the issue. The fact is, police brutality, especially against Black men, is and always has been a fundamental part of the American DNA, and who does or does not have a job in the NFL will not change that one iota. To suggest otherwise would be the same as offering a band-aid to a cancer patient, as if it were a cure.
I would wager that Kaepernick himself would much rather see those of us committed to the issue of police brutality join organizations that have as their missions to address such or related issues. It might be the NAACP or the ACLU. Or if you are in the Washington DC area, it might be the Prince George’s People’s Coalition or Pan African Community Action, or in Jackson Mississippi there is Cooperate Jackson. And if there is no organization that addresses the issue to your satisfaction, then start your own, but be prepared to be in it for the long haul. Drive by social media activists and/or platform pimps will not serve the movement well. As the late, great Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael) often said, “The struggle is eternal.”
The seeds of the terrorism that claimed lives in Virginia this past weekend were sown long ago. Likewise, the oppression Kaepernick seeks to address existed long before he became a professional football player and will not cease whether he is in or out of the NFL.