#TakeAKnee
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| Kaepernick featured on the Oct. 3 issue of 2016 in Times Magazine. |
Football has always been a favorite American past time that embodies the epitome of American culture. Therefore, no one would expect football to be apart of one of the biggest political debates. In 2016, football became the poster child for the hashtag, TakeAKnee. TakeAKnee exemplifies problems that were prevalent in 2016, and how the hashtag manifested into other political debates in 2019. TakeAKnee incorporates the issues of immigration, black lives matter, and the issue of free speech.
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| Collin Kaepernick sitting during the National Anthem. |
Before #TakeAKnee
In order to understand the movement #TakeAKnee and how it has impacted the NFL, we have to go back to the movement #BlackLivesMatter. The movement started when George Zimmerman, a white man, was aquitted for the murder of seventeen year old, Trayvon Martin. Martin was on his way to buy snacks when he noticed someone following him. Zimmerman was a part of the neighborhood watch and called police due to “suspicious” activity from Martin. The result was a shooting that lead to the death of the seventeen-year old. Slowly the movement started to tackle issues surrounding violence against black people, specifically in the hands of law enforcement. Police have been given paid leave during investigations or acquitte, despite video evidence of police using excessive force and shooting multiple times even though the individual was no longer a “threat”. As the years passed by people have seen how police have continued to kill unarmed black people like Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Laquan McDonald, Mario Woods and many others. Protests and riots ensued for police to be held accountable for these deaths.
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| Mario Woods, a citizen that was killed by a San Francisco police officer back in 2015. |
“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 told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. “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.” - Colin Kaepernick
Kaepernick has stated that the killing of Mario Woods was what influenced him to take action. Mario Woods was a twenty-six year old black man who was shot by San Francisco police at least twenty-one times during an altercation. Woods was said to have been holding a knife and under the influence of methamphetamine but was shot facing away from the police. According Lindsay Gibbs, “In a relatively short period of time, his protest of police brutality and racial injustice in the United States has captivated the country and sparked a debate not only about the state of race relations in America, but about what exactly it means to be a patriot.” After his protest Gibbs mentions continues by stating how other players in different sports also joined in protest. Also, going into schools from college to youth leagues.
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| The Packers link arms in support of Collin Kaepernick and his message of unity. |
#TakeAKnee’s Impact in 2016-17
Colin Kaepernick taking a knee was a silent protest that no one was expecting, especially in a broken society. Nevertheless, Kaepernick’s silent protest was one of the most influential protests with it’s message of Black Lives Matter, spreading into social media such as Twitter. To understand how influential the protest was, #TakeAKnee influenced other forms of protesting in multiple sports teams, while incorporating the opinions of veterans, as well as encouraging conversation that brought awareness to what was going on in the world such as the death of Treyvon Martin and Eric Garner.
Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during the national anthem sparked a new era of silent protests in sports history. In the span of two months, after Kaepernick kneeling, more sports teams were joining his fight against police brutality. Players from the Women's National Basketball Association protested in the playoffs, Rapinoe, a non-black professional soccer player, kneeled during the national anthem, and forty-nine football players protested by either kneeling, sitting, or raising a fist during the national anthem on game day. While the Kaepernick Effect spread to many professional sports teams, it did not stop there because 52 high schools and 39 colleges, including Howard University and Notre Dame, were silently protesting as well.
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| Backlash from fans towards Kaepernick's decision to kneel. |
The silent protests sparked various conversations between people, and some of those people included veterans. A great deal of sports fans were angry that Kaepernick was kneeling during the national anthem because they found it disrespectful to veterans and current army men. While angry comments, such as “If Kaepernick really cared about black lives he would be in Chicago telling those primates to stop killing each other” and “Kaepernick #7 have you thanked a ‘vet’ lately? For your right to disrespect our flag”, appeared, others were discussing the real reason Kaepernick was kneeling, police brutality and how to change it. Veterans also took a stance on Kapernick’s kneeling and most were in support of it. Veteran Richard Allen Smith stated in a letter he wrote that, “[he] wanted to put something out there in the world … to say that " ‘There are veterans who not only agree with Colin Kaepernick’s right to do that, but also agree with the substance of the action,’ ” Smith said. “And are willing to stand up and say Black Lives Matter and this is an important issue that we need to address in our country” (Walker). Many veterans also felt that Kaepernick’s kneeling was a prime example of the freedom of speech that veterans fight for on a daily basis.
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| Trump's comments about football players kneeling during the anthem. |
#TakeAKnee Develops Throughout Time
While Kaepernick’s protests started out as a fight for civil rights in 2016, two years later the message that #TakeAStand holds is significantly different. On March 24, 2018, Trump told NFL players that he believes they should remain standing for the national anthem and if not, they shouldn’t be in the NFL. This started a protest from Black Lives Matter activists who believed Trump to be racist for disagreeing with NFL players but it has become a lot more relevant as of 2018. For example, taking a knee is also represented as honoring a person, like a family member who is serving in the Military overseas.
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| Kaepernick's slogan from his new Nike campaign. |
Also, as of 2018 other sports besides NFL have joined the take a knee fight such as professional soccer teams, college sports teams, High School Football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, and pan american games. Another important thing taking a knee became popular for is honoring lost loved ones of players. The most recent event tied to the #tTakeAKnee is free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has not thrown a pass in an NFL Game since the 2016 season, became the face of Nike’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” Ad campaign. Released Monday afternoon, the ad has a close up, black and white photo of Kaepernick with the words “ Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.”
This recent event proves that Kapernick’s choice to take a knee that day in 2016 truly sparked a movement for a lot of people including the Nike’s company. Even though he isn’t playing on the team doesn’t mean he’s not still out there pushing for positive change in the world. #TakeAKnee has grown monumentally in the past two years in a way most people probably didn’t expect and because of that it's come to mean something different for everyone out there.
#TakeAKnee’s Impact in 2019
The #TakeAKnee movement has changed since 2016 to encapsulate other subjects like, white privilege, immigration, and additionally, has spread over to the #MeToo movement. In an article by Chauncey Devega, scholar, David Leonard was interviewed about white privilege in sports and how it has affected minority groups and the connection it has to #TakeAKnee. He takes a look at the protest from the angle of what white people think, which in short, is that black athletes are selfish compared to white athletes because they protest using their sports platform. Leonard states that he has heard white people say, “I support the cause, but not the method or not the place”. Here he explains that white people love what the athletes are fighting for, yet they do not think the way they are protesting is appropriate. That then begs the question, what is an appropriate way to protest?
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| Tweet showcasing how #TakeAKnee has evolved to something bigger such as #MeToo. |
Several tweets regarding issues besides the kneeling at NFL games have still included #TakeAKnee to show people want the same results by using the hashtag to back their other beliefs. For instance, twitter user, Raynard Jean Queintin gave his opinion about Trump’s ban on military kids’ citizenship overseas from a veteran’s point of view still involving the hashtag. Although some argue that Kaepernick is disrespecting the flag, veterans like Queintin are still encouraging his method to protest and using it on twitter to support other causes.
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| Tweet showing the #TakeAKnee has also grown into a movement about immigration. |
Another tweet that took on #TakeAKnee, was written by user, Richard Angwin who brought up a point about how as a country we need to get our priorities straight with what battles are worth fighting. He discusses that, as a country, if we put the energy that we are using to fight against black men kneeling and put it towards helping sexually assaulted women (#MeToo), then the United States would be a better place. His point goes back to what David Leonard said about people disagreeing with the method but supporting the cause. What people are fighting is not the point of the protest at all and we need to refocus on the issue that needs to see change.
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