Stephen
Kershnar
Colin Kaepernick and the National Anthem
Dunkirk-Fredonia Observer
October
16, 2016
Colin Kaepernick began a preseason
game by sitting during the national anthem. Afterward, he explained, "I am
not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses
black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it
would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the
street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder." His protest
is tied to the Black Lives Matter movement. He stated that he would continue to
protest until, “[the American flag] represents what it’s supposed to
represent”. In the 49ers final
preseason game, he knelt in protest, rather than sit, as a way of showing
respect to members of the U.S. military.
In the first few weeks of the NFL season, a significant
number of players joined him, including a bunch who raised their right fists
during the national anthem. This was a reference to the Black Panther salute at
the 1968 Olympics. Legendary running back Jim Brown, former Seattle Seahawk
Juggernaut Marshawn Lynch, and U.S. women’s national soccer team player Megan
Rapinoe publicly supported him. Kaepernick's jersey quickly became the
top-selling one NFL jersey.
According to Mike Florio of NBC, Kaepernick and other NFL
players will not be punished. Unlike the NBA, the NFL does not have a rule requiring
players to stand for the anthem and the Collective Bargaining Agreement does
not authorize teams to discipline players for not doing so.
Kaepernick’s protest started after he started dating a
Muslim, Nessa Diab. This has an odd appearance given that, with only one or two
exceptions, Muslim countries are brutally unfree. In 2014, he signed a six-year
$114 million dollar contract. Still, he is morally permitted to focus on the
type of injustice that speaks to him and it surely counts in his favor that
would be willing to risk such a salary to speak out for what he believes.
The evaluation
of Kaepernick’s protest has so far focused on his right to protest and role in
encouraging discussion. This is mistaken and irrelevant. It is mistaken because
while working for his employer, Kaepernick has no legal right to protest. Legally,
an employer may order to employee not to antagonize customers by engaging in in
political activity when on the job. Also, Kaepernick is on other people’s private
property and, with certain exceptions, individuals do not have a right to
express themselves on others’ property unless you lease it or the owner gives
you permission.
It is
irrelevant because even if Kaepernick has a right to protest, this still does
not address whether he ought to do so. People have a legal right to do quite a
number of moral wrongdoings. For example, a right of free speech allows one to
say horrible, but true, things about others, including disclosing their darkest
secrets (for example, a woman is an adulterer or the daughter of a prostitute).
Merely sparking discussion is not a good reason to protest. Al
Sharpton’s anti-Semitic rants in the 90’s sparked a lot of discussion, but that
didn’t make them worthwhile.
For
Kaepernick’s protest to be morally permissible, it has to be true and worth
bringing to people’s attention. Kaepernick’s Black Lives Matter motivation
largely rests on the notion that the police are killing blacks at a
disproportionate manner and, in some cases, doing so intentionally.
Writing in
the Wall Street Journal, Manhattan
Institute scholar Heather McDonald shows that this is likely false. She argues
blacks make up a lower
percentage of police-shooting victims (26%) than would be predicted by their
much higher involvement in violent crime. In contrast, McDonald notes, whites
make up 50% of police shooting victims. For example, in 2013 black criminals
committed 23% more murders than white criminals, despite the fact that in the
U.S. there are five times fewer black people than white people. Similarly, a
recent study by Harvard economics professor Roland
G. Fryer Jr. found no evidence of
racial bias in police shootings.
Still,
there are good reasons to protest the country, even if these are not the reasons
that move Kaepernick. The U.S. is a lockdown nation. At any point in time, roughly
one out of every one hundred adults in this country is incarcerated at any
point in time. Similarly, roughly
one out of every thirty five people is under the control of the criminal
justice system (incarceration, parole, or probation). More generally, the U.S. has 4% of the world’s population but 22-25%
of its prisoners. Free countries do not keep large numbers of its own people locked
up like animals. In Three Felonies a Day,
Harvey Silverglate argues that there is so many laws that even many ordinary citizens
inadvertently commit felonies. It is unclear how those offended by Kaepernick’s
kneeling would respond to criticism focusing on all these people in cages.
When
it comes to blacks, Michelle Alexander author of The New Jim Crow, points out that in some inner city communities,
one out of three black men will be incarcerated at any time. She argues that this
makes the country look surprisingly like the South during the time of Jim Crow.
On
average, the government on all levels takes somewhere between 33% and 40% of
the middle class’ and upper income’s income. The amount is higher if one
considers the cost of regulation, tax avoidance, and so on. Free people should
not have to work Monday and Tuesday for the government.
The
fact that the government takes an incredible amount of people’s income every
year and still has a staggering $20 trillion debt is a testament to just how
bad the government is. The government’s incompetence is exacerbated when one
considers the trillions wasted on Middle Eastern wars or what it spent to
import tens of millions of low skill immigrants who, along with their children,
get massive amounts of welfare and other benefits.
Perhaps
the national anthem celebrates the American people rather than a free country and
our pathetic government. Also, many of us are not in the mood to have our football
contaminated with political expression. Still, one can’t help but think that
somewhere or other a protest is in order.
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