A Protest by Any Other Name

Colin Kaepernick is protesting injustice, protesting the abundance of black and brown bodies lining the streets of our nation while a dangerous demagogic politician pines for the good ol' days when strange fruit swung gently in warm summer breezes. The dialogue is reminiscent of a time when crowds of men, women and children gazed on in frenzied delight while wearing their Sunday best to the latest lynch-nic. Kaepernick is protesting for life in lieu of death without the advantage of justice, and looking to make positive change.

This young man has placed himself at the forefront of an international debate on what the principles of liberty and justice mean to the American people on an interpersonal level. Every major and minor news source has referenced Kaepernick in some fashion since his quiet protest began to gain considerable volume as it snowballed like a CDC disaster infecting scores of socially conscious athletes from the professionals to our children.

The merits of Kap's cause were called into question, his sincerity was and is scrutinized. In the beginning, Kaepernick was accused of an ungrateful lack of patriotism. He was accused of disrespecting the United States armed forces, while many vets – myself among them – have come out in support of what number 7 is trying to accomplish. His jersey was burned in effigy. His parentage and high-paying job were placed under the microscope of public opinion, while people willfully ignored the mountainous fact that racism is not cured with a bandage of financial security.

With all of that attention, it is easy for small things to slip through the cracks and miss an opportunity for discourse. What might this phantom be, you ask? I'll tell you. It's all in the headlines. No matter what any publication's stance on the protest, for or against, most headlines reference this particular form of action as a “national anthem protest.” Go ahead. Google “National Anthem Protests” and read the long list of headlines that pop onto the screen of your favorite device – I'll wait... ...Back? O.K., you may now be asking yourself what the big deal is. Well, what if I told you that the flag and the national anthem are merely the vehicle for these protests and not the target?

Let's get the language absolutely clear, this is a protest of human rights violations. Think of the good old U.S. of A as you would a company or organization. People don't protest organizations. They protest the conditions created and supported by those organizations. If inclement conditions didn't exist, why in the fuck would anyone need to take a stand? Gandhi did not protest food when he went on his hunger strike. It's a logical fallacy and irresponsible journalism to begin a piece on a protest of inhumane conditions by lackadaisically creating a debate on some imagined failure to support America's pervasive culture of overblown faux patriotism. It is especially so when it is done without making even the feeblest of attempts at lifting the veneer and removing the rotten decking beneath.

The propensity of our media to whitewash headlines (whether knowingly or unwittingly) contributes to the cerebral programming that creates dangerous conditions for persons of color when they dare to speak out about injustice. The atmosphere that causes black and brown people to be called down for the audacity of rocking the boat of the status quo is nurtured by our media deigning to control the minds of the masses. This often happens through headlines that create an opinion in the minds of the readers before they even begin to read the supporting statements. The preemptive presupposition that not standing up for the national anthem (not a matter of law by the way) is divisive and un-American serves only to give the frothing masses of those who would stand pat in the vile cesspit of their own cognitive dissonance an excuse to spew hate filled invective at those who "hate America." The irony inherent here is mind-numbingly staggering.

The old adage says, "If you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything."

Americans utter this proverb while behaving like crabs in a barrel whenever a person of color decides that enough is enough. It becomes an egregious social misstep when any person of color comes to the inevitable conclusion that the country of their birth operates and has always operated in direct contravention to their best interests. Headlines that misdirect the discussion on valid grievances before that discussion begins, serve only to legitimize the implicit biases of a nation in distress. It is past time that we examine the causes of protests rather than dissect the vehicles that carry them into our homes.

#Kaepernick #protest #BlackLivesMatter #SocialJustice #CivilRights #NationalAnthem