They are well within their constituitional right to protest. That has never been my issue.
Kapernick’s no MLK. Of course people will be upset when you protest something. I guess my point is that the National Anthem is a very poor choice of moments to do so for a wide variety of reasons. It isn’t like you can sit down and have a discussion or even propose a coherent idea when you “take the knee”, but you sure as hell can piss a lot of people off and get everyone to look at you.
In the case of Kapernick, it was a 'hey everybody, look at me" moment of attention-seeking. Kapernick is not and was not being stifled. He’s a millionaire who has plenty of time and resources to say whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Furthermore, the topics he was supposedly drawing attention to were already heavily covered in the media.
More people probably knew Mike Brown’s name than Kapernick’s until he decided that he needed some national media attention. All for the greater good, of course. And now we’ve got a new trend for attention-starved athletes at all levels to emulate.
To the contrary: Judging by the discussions going on here, there and everywhere, it seems kneeling during the anthem is an excellent way to draw attention to one’s cause. As has been pointed out upthread, effective protests generally have the property of pissing someone off.
Was it? I for one haven’t seen him attention-whoring himself on the late-night circuit, cable news talking-head shows, Oprah, Maury, etc. Did I miss it? (I’m a little behind on my Maury.)
I understand and respect the fact that you think it’s fundamentally, over-the-top, no-excuses disrespectful to protest during the anthem. What puzzles me is your parallel conviction that Kaepernick’s motivations were wholly self-indulgent.
It’s pretty obvious when you see how much good fortune it’s brought him. Nothing like some death threats and racial slurs to really boost your ego.
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Nobody knew why he was kneeling until he got a press conference afterwards. The kneeling drew attention to Kapernick, not the cause.
Of course it was effective. @thefourthruffian already pointed out that the Westboro cunts are also quite effective. Acting like an asshole is very effective for getting people to look at you. Always has been, always will be.
Not wholly, just mostly. I’m sure he had himself convinced that he’s some kind of prophet of wokeness on a crusade for converts, and that he was the best guy to do it. Or something along those lines.
I see your point, but I’d be curious to see the correlation of the two. Violence has gone down recently but I don’t think inequality has. The crack epidemic in the US during the 90s also had a strong influence (drugs in general probably do). I’m not saying poverty is the only variable, but it clearly is an important one. Maybe in the US the inequality seems more because of all the TV shows showing the rich and what they have? Not sure.
I’m sure one of many examples showing how other factors influence violence and it is not a skin color specific issue.
Not to quibble, but did he ‘get a press conference’? From what I remember, he was asked about it by a reporter in the locker room after a game–no pressers involved. Of course, I could be 100% wrong on this score.
This is a matter of opinion I suppose, but I think it’s grossly unfair to compare Kaepernick’s actions to those of the Westboro Church. In terms of both disruptiveness and disrespectfulness, theirs (Kaepernick’s and W.C.'s) are qualitatively different forms of protest.
Hmm…You sure you don’t want to go with wholly?
I hope one of the players comes out on Sunday carrying a confederate flag.
Nothing like waving the flag of traitors and slavers to reeeeeeeally show the love for America. Guess it’s basically the same as silently kneeling.
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I don’t recall exactly, but the point was that he got to explain why he felt the need to divert everyone’s attention to Colin Kapernick while everyone else was being respectful.
I’ll concede the Kapernick has more class than the Westboro cunts, but they have something very important in common. Regardless of how you or he or anyone else feels about the national anthem, its importance, and what you choose to reflect on while it is playing, the simple fact is that it holds tremendous significance to a LOT of people who treat it, as Ruff pointed out, as a mini-Memorial day.
Like the Westboro cunts, Kapernick has shown that he has no respect for the people around him in that somber moment because he believes it to be a time where he should be noticed. Like Westboro, the attention should be on him, not on the important event taking place.
Again, I’m not disputing the effectiveness. I never heard of the guy until he did this, and now I’ve been talking about him for over a day now.
Whoa now, are you really going to sit here and state what the confederate flag represents to everyone…? My understanding is that many southerns take great pride in their heritage and the confederate flag is a symbol of said pride. Who am I to say otherwise? I assume it’d just be a peaceful protest over what they feel is an assault on their heritage and what greater podium exists to get that message acrosd than during the anthem on Monday Night Football?
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Was just thinking of this parallel…
People seem to be living in different worlds and don’t give a damn what the other side thinks or values.
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Umm, yea, no…
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The confederate flag represents the confederacy, as the American flag represents America. It’s literally a flag that represents a country that isn’t America (ie, the flag of a country, literal definition). What that “MEANS” to you, in this clearly bait sense, is up to you. This being the “flag of traitors and slavers” is also not up for debate, as it was the flag used by traitors and slavers.
I know you put some effort into baiting a response, but it helps if you don’t misinterpret it to achieve your goal.
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Isn’t this the claim made of the Betsy flag by the kneelers?
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Trump is not dumb.
This has little to do with the military, veterans, taxpayers or who is more Patriotic…
It’s all about race, anger and resentment…and Trump knows that if he stokes it, he wins…
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Ya, I meant “means” not “represents”. The point still stands.
Sure it does. Quietly kneeling because what America means to you is different from other people is completely the same as bringing in the flag of an enemy state that consisted of slavers and traitors.
Fwiw, I genuinely believe the confederate flag ploy would result in catching less shit that kneeling, despite it being the literal flag of a country who killed American soldiers while fighting to retain the power to enslave human beings.
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You stand to honor the flag. Kneeling is the opposite. It’s disrespectful unless America means oppression to Kaepernick, which is utterly retarded.
You don’t get to have it both ways. The Confederate flag MEANS a lot of things to a lot of people. Standing there, silently, holding it in protest of the recent assault on southern heritage is well within 1st amendment protection and is NO DIFFERENT than kneeling during the anthem.
Color me surprised this is the response, though… /sarcasm
Hey, we agree. He is trolling the media and the NFL. A large majority of Americans don’t like the kneeling and the overwhelming majority of football fans don’t.
Here is how I see it. He comes down on the popular side in an offensive (and dumb) way. The media and NFL turn on him and in calling Trump racist and hateful for his opinion, the NFL and Media tick off a majority of America and their fan base (who largely agree with Trump’s opinion). Total win for draft dodging Trump and his trolling.