Colin Kaepernick, "Racism", and the Continuing of National Anthem Protests

Yesterday, the first Sunday of the NFL season, and the fifteenth anniversary of September 11^th attacks, was once again riddled with various “protests” by football players all across the league about “racism”. We all know how this started; Colin Kaepernick, a black person who was taken in and raised by white parents, and who made $19 million last season to be legitimately terrible at football, on the backs of a mostly white fan base throwing their hard earned dollars behind him, sat down during the national anthem a few weeks ago because he was upset about there being “bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder”.

Geez. That’s a pretty heinous accusation, particularly without any evidence or specifics right? And it brings to light a larger problem in the “racism” debate in this country, which is, “I don’t need to name a person, an institution, or a law. I’ll just cry “institutional racism”, it will make me feel better, and everyone will pat me on the back because that’s an approved viewpoint. Forget actual solutions, let’s just scream buzzwords!”.

Institutional racism is silly, and it’s what Kaepernick and those across the NFL are espousing. It’s a nonsense phrase, and it doesn’t identify any problems that we as a society can actually fix. I think racism is evil and terrible and vile, but where is the actual evidence of this vast racist plot in American society? The police have been getting battered recently, painted as anti-black murderers (by people like Kaepernick), but a recent study by Harvard University actually found that there was no evidence of the police shooting blacks at higher rates than whites.

Truthfully, the black community has a lot bigger problems than the police, like the extremely high murder rate (Blacks committed 52% of the murders in the United States from 1980-2008, despite being 13% of the population, and 93% of blacks were killed by other blacks), single motherhood (72% of blacks are raised by one parent), failure to graduate high school (only 69% of blacks graduated high school, as opposed to 86% of whites), the astronomical abortion rate (between 2007 and 2010, 36% of abortion deaths were black babies), the unemployment rate (during the third quarter of 2015, the black unemployment rate was 9.5%, as opposed to 4.5% of whites), and the high crime rate (25% of black adults have a felony, as opposed 6.8% of non-black adults). All of these problems have nothing to do with the police shooting unarmed black men, and they have a significantly larger impact on the day to day lives of those in the black community. But to hear Kaepernick tell it, the police are murdering blacks because they enjoy it, and then all of society makes sure they cover it up so they can continue the carnage. It’s an absolutely ridiculous position, one that isn’t based in fact.

 Is racism the reason the single motherhood rate is so high? Is racism the reason blacks are graduating high school at significantly lower rates than whites? Is racism making blacks murder each other? No, of course not. The culture in the black community needs to change, and destroying and slandering the police won’t do anything to solve that. It starts at home, with fathers choosing to stick around and be good dads, and an enormous part of that is guiding your children through life and helping to morph and mold them into productive citizens . You encourage them to be respectful, care about their neighbors, value the right things in life, and make something of themselves. So many black kids have their legs cut out from under them from the start because they have a poor foundation at home. Mom and Dad are not united in the raising of the child, oftentimes because dad didn’t bother to stick around. That simple decision to be present in the life of the family would do wonders to help fix the black community. Families led by a black single mother on average made 36% as much money as two parent black families. That’s an incredible statistic that also makes this huge point; dad sticking around is the number one way to lift the black family out of poverty. But no one says that because you get painted as a racist if you actually suggest ways to improve the black community, instead of just blaming white people for all the problems black people have.

And the protests themselves are silly, and do nothing to actually solve the “problem” that Kaepernick is attempting to fix. How does kneeling during the national anthem stop the police from  “getting away with murder”? It…. doesn’t.

“Oh, but Matt, it’s starting the conversation about it!” So we need to have a conversation, one that’s not based in fact, about how Kaepernick and others across the league feel oppressed, despite there being no evidence of it? Makes sense.

I’m not anti-protest, but what I am against are dumb protests. Kneeling during the anthem because you feel like blacks are being unfairly murdered by the police does nothing. This is not the lunch counter protests from the Civil Rights Movement, when the United States government was literally actively participating in racism against African-Americans. We aren’t living in the Jim Crow South anymore, when there were laws on the books that were designed to oppress blacks. It’s actually incredible that Kaepernick and others are protesting their existence in society, considering 2016 America is literally the best place in the history of the world for black people to live.

Here’s an example of a good, worthwhile protest, and one that actually involves racism. Back in March of 2015, a video surfaced of members of the University of Oklahoma’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity chanting about how they’d never allow a “nigger” in their frat, and talked about they’d hang them from a tree. Gross stuff, right?. Oklahoma’s football team, a group that is majority African-American, was of course pissed, and basically said, “If this group is still on campus come the start of the football season, we won’t play”. Perfectly reasonable. They identified a specific organization that was racist, and their protest was a legitimate one that put pressure on those in charge to respond to what was happening. They weren’t interested in having a “conversation” about feelings, they had evidence of racism and acted in a way that would actually make a difference and solve the problem, because again, racism is evil, and unacceptable in American society. I don’t have a problem with Kaepernick, Doug Baldwin, Arian Foster, Denver’s Brandon Marshall, or whoever else kneeling during the anthem, but I’m also allowed to say, “That protest is dumb, and does nothing to actually solve any problems”.  Kaepernick, unlike the Oklahoma football team, doesn’t have any evidence of racism, he just feels oppressed. I’m sorry, but your subjective feelings aren’t a good enough reason for me to jump behind your cause. Just because I feel something doesn’t mean it’s true, valuable, or helpful. For example, I might feel like I have superpowers, but if I didn’t have any evidence of that, you’d rightly say, “Hey Matt, you’re crazy, you don’t”. If I had a mental illness, and I felt like the radio was talking to me, would it be better for society to say, “Yes Matt, you’re right, the radio is talking to you”? No, of course not, they should say, “Hey man, that’s crazy, let’s get you some help”. Making black people feel like their victims does nothing to help them, it just continues to perpetuate the false narrative of a racist America that will do everything to keep them down.

Why isn’t Kaepernick protesting the real problems in the black community, like the single motherhood rate? Why isn’t he using his platform to encourage fathers to stick around? Why isn’t he pleading with black America to value life and education? Because those aren’t media approved positions to hold, and if you say anything about those problems, you’re a racist.

And think about this: what if Kaepernick kneeled because he was upset about America legalizing gay marriage, or the continued assault on the unborn through abortion? Would the media be on his side then, holding him up as the moral intelligent all-knowing God-King? Or would they be denouncing him as a bigoted homophobe woman-hater, and demanding the NFL suspend him? I think we know the answer. The problem is, deep down, we as Americans really only believe that speech we agree with should be protected. Heck, Paul Finebaum of ESPN was basically forced to apologize because he said he didn’t think blacks were oppressed in American society. So it’s now an indisputable fact that blacks are oppressed? Based on what? Because feelings? Come on.

One more thing: the worst response to Kaepernick has been this; “Well if you don’t like America, you can leave”. I hate that line of argument, because complaining about America and the government and our society is the most American thing possible. It’s what allows our democracy to exist. Imagine if Trump just stood up there and said, “Yeah, everything’s great here, and Hillary and I agree on everything. However, you should vote for me because I can stand outside on a warm day without having a medical event”. That would be ridiculous right?  Disagreement is what enables democracy to flourish and exist. But if you want everyone to fall in line and never disagree, I’ve got just the place for you! It’s called Soviet Russia. And we all know how that turned out, with millions either being murdered by the government or sent to Siberia. People who say, “If you don’t like it, leave” have definitely complained about American society before. Would they think,  “Well you can leave” was a valid argument if it was used against them? Of course not. So just don’t.

I’m interested to see how long these protests will go on. Even if they lasted the entire season, the “problem” won’t be solved, probably because kneeling on the sidelines literally does nothing.