Read this first, if you please...
...and then this...
I guess even the people who are supposed to understand what protesting actually is, are missing the entire goddamn point.
A lot has been said and done since a camera zoomed in on Colin Kaepernick as he sat in silence during the playing of the national anthem at the beginning of the San Francisco 49ers second preseason game. He had done the same thing in the previous game but it wasn't until that 2nd game that the media noticed. And since then, several other players around the NFL and other athletes in other sports leagues have either sat or kneeled in protest along with him. While we all have our right to our opinion on either side of the matter, just like these athletes have their right to protest, it seems like the opinions against these protests are steeped in some sort of weird "Trumpist" ideals as to why our country isn't great. When it comes to issues of race and equality, the truth is, our country hasn't been great for a very, very, very long time.
Let's start of with the article Mr. Armstrong Williams, a Black man, wrote regarding the protests during sporting events. I was trying to gauge what angle he was approaching the subject with, whether or not he was saying that the protests have no place in sports because sports are supposed to be an escape for those attending the games or watching them at home. I came to the conclusion that he was walking the fine line of saying that the protests make people uncomfortable, and that is the point, or saying since protests do make people uncomfortable, athletes should find another way to protest so that the sanctity of the sport, America's escape, can be preserved. My take: it's still bullshit either way.
Part of the growing problem when it comes to race and equality in our country is that people are getting tired. White people are getting tired of hearing people of color still talking about oppression and people of color are tired of white people not fucking getting it. When you have other people of color defending not speaking out or even speaking out against acts protest, that to me is truly baffling. We're not making this shit up, folks. It's happening right before our eyes and as we watch Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton try to out stupid one another in their bid to succeed our nation's first Black president, it' clear where our country's political priorities are. And they are still not with the oppressed (And by the way, yes, oppression still exists in these United States of America in 2016).
When you take a look at what Ruth Bader Ginsberg says, I'm not at all struck by what she said. I'm struck that it came from her, a Supreme Court Justice. One could make the argument that she is way too old to still be in service as a Justice, but I am not going to give her that out. This is how she feels and she is a person who decides on laws and the interpretation of those laws. That's a problem. Racial injustice in this country has never been affected by inaction, and Ginsberg, of all people, knows this. It's speaks of a general attitude when it comes to the social perception of modern day activism. No one is looking at why protests are happening, they are just looking at the protest and wondering what they are complaining about this week.
The question I'd like to pose is when are protests actually appropriate? I mean, the whole point of civil unrest is that it is social disturbance. The fact that these protests take place where they would normally not is to bring awareness to those who may not be paying attention. When Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black gloved fists during the medal presentation at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, they did this so that they could bring awareness to the world of what the Black experience in America was at that time. It was very effective, was it not? With all of the dialogue surrounding Colin Kaepernick's not standing for the national anthem, it is bringing attention to the thought process of the average white American: Leave our flag out of your silly protests because that is unpatriotic. Which is why we have the issues we have today still going on as they have been for centuries.
Sure, Black Americans aren't slaves any longer (depending on how you look at that concept) and we can vote. Hell, technically, we can be President (although we more than likely won't see another Black president anytime in the near future). We can ride public transportation and sit wherever we like, go to integrated schools (sort of) and socialize in generally the same places as white Americans. But when a disproportionate amount of Black people and other people of color are victims of police brutality, are being arrested and jailed disproportionately and unarmed Black men, women and even children are being gunned down in the street by police officers and others, can we truly be appreciative of this country and where we are as a people? When we are seeing videos on the news and online week after week showing these acts, showing dead Black bodies in the streets like dead animals, hearing people say protesters should be "locked up like animals" and hearing conversations, or the lack thereof, at work or the grocery store or amongst people who we thought felt differently about injustice, can we feel any differently than when it was legally ok to lynch us and hang us? I had a white police officer at my job ask me what is the point in protesting (in relation to the protests after the Alton Sterling police shooting) and I couldn't really process the type of response I really wanted to give him. So I said "when people feel hopeless, that is what happens".
Speaking of "safe spaces", I also remember student body organizations in several universities across the country creating safe spaces for Black students to come and be with their peers after several reoccurring instances of racial injustice and police brutality over the course of a very short period of time. These spaces were only for Black students and those students who helped organize them were criticized because some white students felt that was sort of reverse racist. What was missed on that whole thing by those who felt they were excluded was the feeling Black American have that we truly don't have anything in place to help us, as a group of people, to deal with the experiences exclusive to us. No one is creating these services for us because, outside of us, no one sees the need for them. So these Black students got together to help each other cope and heal from the tragedies that were directly affecting them and those that looked like them. Somehow, those spaces fell under the critique of probably the same individuals who feel like protests at sporting events by athletes, there to "only entertain, violate the "last safe spaces" where politics and religion aren't supposed to enter. Just plain 'ol American fun by athletes who look just like the people getting murdered outside the stadiums by people of authority.
I'm trying to imagine what would've happened if Colin Kaepernick just stood up and bowed his head in silence. What if he didn't wear his hair blown out in a huge afro? What if this wasn't a shell of the man who had taken the country by storm and his team to a Super Bowl with his brilliant athleticism a few years ago? What if the story of his white adoptive parents was never used as profile marketing fodder for said Super Bowl? What if Colin just went on, feeling as he did but not drawing any attention to himself? And what if, amidst no dialogue at all about this particular protest against police brutality, the shooting of Keith Scott in Charlotte, NC happened just as it did? The fact that these protests are still occurring because these tragedies are still occurring and people are focusing too much on the actual act of protest, the people protesting and the places these protests are happening instead of the reasons for the protests is indicative of how America views Blacks and other minorities. And that is that we should be happy to be here, living in a country where we have the freedom to do such things, during the time that we are living in. Because if this was 50 or 60 years ago, we'd all be hanging from trees. Oh, but yeah, we're getting shot and killed in the street on video now.
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