Cartoon by: Stephanie Garrido
“I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong,” said Mohammed Ali in 1967 when he refused to be drafted into the armed forces. “No Vietcong ever called me a nigger. Lots of Americans have.”
Athletes are normal people with some superior abilities. In the U.S., athletes are often looked at as idols because of their abilities and are held up as role models. Some deserve to be, some do not.
Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers quarterback is a role model and a hero. His protest of the ongoing police brutality that minorities endure is noble and powerful.
“We have a lot of issues in this country that we need to deal with,” he said. “There are issues that need to be talked about and need to be brought to life. We need to fix those issues.”
Kaepernick has been accused of being anti-American and is being targeted by racial slurs. Videos of angered Americans burning his jersey flooded social media, but those same people were not burning the jerseys of Ray Rice when he brutally knocked out his girlfriend in an elevator or Ben Roethlisberger when he was accused of rape.
Kaepernick is not the first African-American athlete to stand up for the rights of others. Baseball legend Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier then became a leader of the Civil Rights Movement.
“I cannot stand and sing the anthem,” Robinson said. “I cannot salute the flag. I know that I am a black man in a white world.”
Kaepernick agreed.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” he said.
Robinson endured terrible hatred and Kaepernick is feeling similar wrath. Both overcame hatred with courage.
Robinson and Kaepernick are role models for me, an African-American student athlete at Southwestern College. I have decided to join them in standing up by kneeling down. I encourage other SWC athletes to join us.
There may be blow back. During the Summer Olympics, African-American gold medal gymnast Gabby Douglas did not put her hand over her heart during the national anthem.
“I’m so overwhelmed at what our team accomplished today and overjoyed that we were able to bring home another gold for our county,” said Douglas who insisted that she was not protesting.
Regardless of what she said, some people praised her for standing up on the two-year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, while others spewed hatred at the 19 year old for not being patriotic enough.
In 1968, Olympic sprint medalist Tommie Smith and John Carlos took a fusillade of hate when they raised their fist in conjunction with the Black Power Movement that was sweeping the U.S. Smith was on the podium for a gold medal, Carlos a bronze. Both were sent home blacklisted by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
“We are just human beings who see a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country,” said Smith in an HBO documentary on the Mexico City Olympics.
Kaepernick has been called un-patriotic because he refuses to follow an unwritten custom and place his right hand over his heart during the national anthem, or in other words practicing his First Amendment rights.
Kaepernick has influenced athletes across the nation to stand, or sit down, for what they believe in. Professional athletes are free to voice their opinion on important topics, and should. Student athletes too.
I think most rational people of all races see the same problems with the mistreatment of African-Americans that I do. Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
