OPINION: Kaepernick making good use of First Amendment right to protest

By Tahra Hunter
GSS Correspondent

After San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem on Aug. 26 before a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., he received plenty of criticism.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick, a 28-year-old African American, said in an interview with NFL reporter Steve Wyche.

According a Reuters poll, 72 percent of Americans agree that kneeling during the national anthem is unpatriotic, while 61 percent do not support the stance he is taking. Still, 64 percent say Kaepernick does have the right to protest thanks to the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech–which he does.

As mentioned, Kaepernick says he will not stand for a country he views as discriminatory toward African Americans. 

I believe, however, that if Kaepernick were to kneel for a different cause–to honor those who have died in war, for example–people wouldn’t be as critical; it is because he knelt for a very unpopular subject that he has received negative comments.

One of his detractors, surprisingly, is Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg, 83, denounced Kaepernick’s act as “dumb and disrespectful” but said she would not arrest him for it.

“I would have the same answer if you asked me about flag burning,” she said in an Oct. 10 interview with Yahoo News’ Katie Couric. “I think it’s a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn’t lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act.”

Ginsburg was the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project before becoming a justice; for someone who has argued in the past for equality–such as her fight for gender equality in United States v. Virginia–it is shocking that she sides with those who decry Kaepernick’s act.

Critics should also consider that a football stadium isn’t just venue for one of America’s favorite pastimes, but also a platform to millions of watchers. For someone passionate about treatment of African Americans, it would be almost idiotic not to take advantage of the opportunity.

Refusal to stand during the national anthem has since caught on with other professional athletes, including U.S women’s national soccer team midfielder Megan Rapinoe and 49ers safety Eric Reid, and is prevalent in high school sports as well.

In one case, in Brunswick, Ohio, a high school football player named Rodney Axon knelt during one of his games and is now receiving death threats from his own community.

If what Kaepernick is kneeling for isn’t a legitimate reason to protest–and more than half the country believes it isn’t–then I don’t know what is. This country is long past the point when we could sweep our problems under the rug; it is time to face our monsters, whether they be inequality or something else.