Colin Kaepernick: Prejudice, Privilege, and Patriotism

Disclaimer

This article contains strong language and strong opinions.  If you are easily butt hurt, please turn back now.  The opinions contained here are mine and mine alone and do not necessarily reflect those of goingfor2.com if you disregard the first warning and find yourself butt hurt please direct all hate at me, the author, Kellie Ruttar.  Unlike most of my rant columns, this article has very little to do with actual sports and my use of cheesy jokes and puns will be at a minimum.  If you’re still on board, strap in, this could be a bumpy ride.

Colin Kaepernick

Quick recap on the situation that started it all and inspired this piece:  The world has been buzzing with reactions to Colin Kaepernick and his refusal to stand for the playing of the national anthem.  Thursday marked the second game where Kaep did not join the masses on their feet and this time instead of remaining seated on the bench, he took a silent knee.  This protest is Kaepernick’s way to draw awareness and protest what he calls a country that, “Oppresses black people and people of color.”  This oppression comes in the form of police that have shot and killed unarmed black men in several locations across the country.  These actions have also created the Black Lives Matter group and inspired players in other sports to mount their own forms of protest and awareness.

I could go on and on with updates to all of Kaep’s actions, quotes, and behaviors, but that is not what this article is about.  I could give my full opinion on the actions of the police and also the Black Lives Matter movement, but that is also not what this article is about.  What this is about is how the actions of one man have created a media, both printed and social, uproar which has caused people to show where they stand on the issues of prejudice, privilege, and patriotism.

My opinion on Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback, has changed over the years.  I used to think he was a fun talent to watch on the field and I used to feel bad that he was not used to his full potential on the 49ers.  After getting fucked over in fantasy football by him two years in a row, I vowed I was done defending Kaep.  This just goes to show even I am not all-seeing, hard to believe right?

My first reaction when I heard of Kaep’s protest was, “Dude, no not the anthem!”  I’m a firm believer in honoring our nation and the silent moment of reflection while the song plays brings back great memories for me.  I was raised with this respect.  Almost exactly a year ago, I published my thoughts on the anthem and people not showing it the proper respect I felt it deserved.  If you want to check it out, here you go:  Football… America… Fuck Yeah.

If you don’t want to read my old work, allow me to quote myself on my opinion on the anthem:

I know this has become a country where we can all basically do what we want as soon as we want to but don’t forget how we got that way.  The National Anthem should be a few minutes to respect the men that gave their lives to preserve our freedom to enjoy sporting events.  So I ask all of you, this coming season whether you’re at the game in person, watching at a bar, or from the comfort of your own couch take three minutes out of your life to show respect.

Once again I will be eating my words.  I’m confident enough in myself I can admit when I need to change my attitude.

When I wrote my original anthem article, I had just come home from vacation in beautiful Wildwood, New Jersey where the anthem is played and respected by almost every visitor every single day at 11am, it is a ritual that means a lot to me because it reminds me of my childhood and it’s great to see everyone pausing a moment in solidarity.  I once again made my summer ending trip to Wildwood this year the last week of August.

So after a daily dose of patriotism for a gorgeous week, I come home to Colin Kaepernick refusing to rise.  My first thoughts were that it didn’t matter what he was protesting, some things are sacred and shouldn’t be fucked with.  My second thoughts were that this was career suicide.  I believe in an individual’s right to protest, but in order to cause change, your protest needs to be smart.  People seemed so enraged at the manner of protest, it seemed to me at first that no one cared why he was doing it.  I thought why didn’t he go the route of wardrobe protest like both men’s and women’s basketball have done for the same cause or a hands up don’t shoot pose like the Rams last year, or why didn’t he take to social media or something, why oh why the anthem?  In viewing the reactions of many over this, my thoughts have once again changed.

Prejudice

I find that prejudice can take three forms, two can be extremely dangerous.

The first, and most recognizable as dangerous, is prejudice in the form of hatred.  If you heard about Colin Kaepernick and your first thought involved the word nigger, this is your breed of prejudice.  If you just heard me use the word nigger and felt uncomfortable, you’re not alone, it makes me uncomfortable to be typing it and congratulations, although you may still be prejudice you are not infused with hate and there is hope for you yet.  There is power in words, I am a firm believer in that.  Words can move us to tears, bring us immense joy, or can be infused with such a violent and hateful spirit they make us uncomfortable or angry.  Silence can be just as powerful.  Ask anyone waiting for an apology that never comes or wishing to hear the voice of a loved one just one last time.  Actions can also speak louder than words.  What Kaep caused by simply sitting down has been an epic PR shit storm, but one that was necessary to help people recognize hate.

I’ll never forget the first time I encountered this type of hate-induced prejudice.  I was a young tween, back before tween was a word, and in Wildwood for the summer.  Now, I grew up in Connecticut and I will certainly not say that racism didn’t exist, but I did not see it up to that point in my life.  Like many ugly truths in New England, it was something kept quiet and not brought to attention.  This doesn’t make it disappear, but that is our way, we do not speak of that which is ugly or uncomfortable.

So perhaps a bit sheltered, perhaps a bit naive, I made friends with several kids from Philly that summer.  One day we were at the water park and a little black boy, couldn’t have been more than seven or eight ran up and cut in line.  To my shock, he was called a stupid nigger and pushed away by my new friends.  I was so appalled to have heard that word, I didn’t realize it existed in normal speech, I thought  this word went out of style with southern bell dresses and only existed now in history class.

I distanced myself from that group after that incident, I didn’t understand how kids could have hate on that level for someone they didn’t even know.  Unfortunately for some of our fellow Americans, it is a lot harder to distance from this hatred.  The only good thing about prejudice in the form of hatred is that it is easily recognizable, unlike our other forms.

The actions of Colin Kaepernick instantly incited this type of hate-filled reaction.  The out lash he saw on social media calling him a nigger, telling him to go back to Africa, and wishing him injury showed an extremely ugly side of society.  By reacting in this way, the public inadvertently reinforced why an unpopular form of protest was needed.

The second form of prejudice is that born of fear.  This is not as easy to recognize.  These people most likely say and for the most part know that all people are people regardless of their skin color.  They may say, “I’m not racist!  I have black friends!”  It is ingrained from listening to the hate crowd or simply not being comfortable with those that look different from you that likely causes this type of racism, although I’m just guessing here, I really don’t know what causes fear prejudice.  It can be seen in the locking of car doors when driving through a “black neighborhood,” clutching your purse a little tighter when a black person gets behind you in a checkout line or pulling your trigger when faced with a black suspect.

This is probably the most dangerous form of racism.  Unlike hatred, fear can cause a flight or fight response and it is too late to take back the actions after they are done.  Hatred, though very ugly, doesn’t necessarily lend itself to a lack of judgment to the rules of society.  I never met any of the police involved in any of the shootings, but I have to believe for the most part they fall into the fear group.  I am not saying it is impossible for a hate-spouting racist to end up with a badge, but I think the racism in these cases is much more subtle.

The third form of prejudice is ignorance.  These are the people who simply refuse to see a problem.  Now I wouldn’t call this group racist, just uninformed.  If it doesn’t affect them or someone they care about, the problem is unimportant or doesn’t exist.

I realize there are probably other forms of racism and prejudice, but most instances can be broken into one of these three.  Stopping racism once and for all is a long and hard road.  Once someone has crossed into the hate group there is little that can be done to save them, we need enough people intolerant of the hate to keep them stifled until they can die out and offer enough awareness to stop those in the fear classification from crossing over.

As the master Yoda says:

Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hate.

Fear is just being on the path.  The nice thing about walking down a path is you can always turn around.  Awareness is the key here.  Truthful media against injustices, people speaking out, peaceful protests by respected public figures, getting people to confront their zones of discomfort, perhaps an NFL quarterback enticing the public to see hate by refusing to rise for the anthem, all of these things will help those with fear to make their way back to the light side.  Once fear turns to anger, the anger must be redirected before it can become blind hate.

Erasing fear is a hard and daunting task, but it would be made easier if the ignorant were brought to knowledge and joined in the recognition and fight against racism.  If they don’t want to fight against it, just saying, yeah, it exists is a good start.

I ran a little experiment on my Facebook account, my friends and followers come from extremely diverse backgrounds and any time a social issue is raised, I see almost every side of the argument represented.  I asked:

What’s worse?

Consciously sitting during the anthem to protest something you see wrong in the country? (For the sake of this, the issue being protested is irrelevant)

Or

Sitting during the anthem because you’re oblivious and talking or texting because you either aren’t paying attention, don’t care, or don’t know you’re supposed to stand.

Some of the responses were very eye-opening.  Five people were able to answer my original question without bringing up race, two stated that being oblivious is worse, however, a couple of people also said it is our rights to not participate regardless of the reasoning behind it.  One interesting response was from one of my French friends who thinks both actions are disrespectful.  I asked if in his country the anthem was held in as high esteem, and he said it was not and found that a problem.  A Canadian friend stated it is up to parents to raise their children with the proper level of respect for every countries anthem, he respected Kaep’s opinion but hated his method.  I also saw some people’s opinions among the many tangents created by this thread that it is never okay to disrespect our service men and women by not rising for the anthem.

There were also those that defended Kaep due to what he was protesting, some were wholeheartedly behind him while others supported his stance but were a little apprehensive about his methods.

There were a few anti-Kaep memes posted, a couple of those people entered into heated debate with Kaep defenders which actually turned a little ugly.  There was a good portion of people who said if Kaep didn’t like our country, he could leave.  There were also those calling him a hypocrite for supposedly fighting oppression when he was so well off.

What really disheartened me about this research was the number of people who could not or would not answer me when I responded to their opinion asking if a white quarterback had protested in the same way against another issue, would they still feel the same?  A friend stated if Tom Brady sat out the anthem to protest child abuse, he’d have been a hero, and I agree.  I hate double standards.

I was also a bit surprised by the number of people who claimed there is zero oppression or racial divide in this country.  There were also those that stated Kaep isn’t allowed to have an opinion on this because he was raised with a white family and was rich.  When asked if rich people were not allowed to have opinions on injustice, these people would not answer straight.

Privilege

Some of the ignorance I saw on my above social experiment got me thinking about privilege on many levels.  Growing up, I felt I had a pretty normal childhood, it was not until I moved near Cleveland that I realized I had a lot more than many other people.  This is also when I started seeing racism more prevalent and those quick to point out when they thought it was being used against them. I’ve come to form the opinion that the less money a region has the more we see both sides of the racial divide.  When speaking about some of my childhood memories among friends I’ve been called privileged, spoiled, or a WASP.

When I started being confronted by these things, I realized I may be a bit ignorant as to the real-life struggles of those that were not as well off as I was.  There were certain things I took for granted that others may consider luxury.  This is one kind of privilege.

This same concept can be applied to the so-called “white privilege.”  If you don’t believe that white privilege exists, then you, my friend, are most likely the very definition of white privilege.

Allow me to give my concept of white privilege.  It is not about getting and receiving more than blacks or people of color.  White privilege is being able to walk down the street and not confront the types of prejudice we discussed earlier.  It’s not seeing stares of hatred or fear, it is not being followed around the department store because they think you’ll steal something, it is not having your ID scrutinized every time you try to make a large purchase on a credit card.  White privilege is the freedom to be ignorant of the oppression around us because it doesn’t affect you.  White privilege is the ability to get pulled over and fumble around in your glove box for your insurance card without the officer having his hand on his gun.

Please don’t mistake me, I’m not in any way against our police force.  There are so many great cops out there that protect and serve as they swore to do, and I honor them.  The problem comes in not seeing the signs of prejudice before we hand out badges.  Prejudice comes in sometimes disguised forms and exists everywhere.  In order to stop the horrible acts against innocent and unarmed suspects, we need to first recognize and deal with the fact that white privilege exists.  We also need to hold those that do wrong accountable.  Fear is a very scary motivator and someone so ruled by it, they fail to see a situation clearly should not be allowed back on the streets with a gun and put into dangerous situations.

There is also the privilege of wealth.  I find it ridiculous that people believe Colin Kaepernick has no right to protest oppression because he happens to have this privilege.  This is akin to someone telling me I’m not allowed to support rape or assault victims because I’ve never had to live with that horror.  This is the same as telling a wealthy person he has no right to support universal healthcare or free education because he can afford those things without help.  It’s like saying straight people can’t support marriage equality.  These notions are all ridiculous, but when it comes to the race card, people don’t feel the same.

Why when the issue is race do we all of a sudden want everyone to shut up about it?  Is it because it’s an uncomfortable topic?  Do black people questioning oppression make you look at your own actions of fear or ignorant prejudice and start to question your neat little bubble?

I’d like to quote a favorite novel of mine, Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk.  This is a fucked up piece of fiction but what do you expect from the man who brought us Fight Club.  Amid the insane ride of the story, there is a powerful message, and this book changed me.  If you can handle fucked up twists and themes, I highly recommend it.

It’s all mirror, mirror on the wall because beauty is power the same way money is power the same way a gun is power.

For the sake of our discussion, I’m going to substitute recognition for beauty, although beauty will get you recognized, Kaep is not everyone’s cup of tea in that department and being a sports talent will also get you recognized.

The masses are always clamoring for those in power to do something with their position.  We want those recognized to stand up for the causes that we believe in.  We get angry at celebrities that appear ignorant to the common man while they live extravagantly.  We want those with money to help the plight of the working man.  Everyone screaming for a higher minimum wage, more social benefits, CEOs to stop being greedy, etc, are all asking for those with money power to do something with it.

The people with the guns have used their power to send a message of prejudice, why can’t we allow Kaep who has recognition and money to use those powers to fight prejudice?

Mirror, mirror… Can you look into it and honestly say you like what you see?  Can you see your lack of involvement with the issues (ANY issue) facing our country and say that you are satisfied with your complacency?  Do you have the power to change things?  Kaep has power and he used it in such a way to get the highest level of response possible.  How many people are talking about the oppression of blacks now whether positive and supporting the movements or negatively showing those oblivious that this ugliness does exist?  Is this not the privilege of privilege?  The ability to reach the masses and attempt to effect change.

So many sports figures have made headlines for assault, drugs, even murder and yet they haven’t received nearly the level of criticism that Colin Kaepernick has received.  What is worse?  Harming someone physically or a peaceful and quiet protest?  People are using privilege to get out of convictions, receive shorter sentences in jail if a conviction can’t be overturned, or to pay off victims to keep them quiet.  Why can’t Kaep use his privilege to fight something he and many others in this country see as a problem?  Although initial reports were so focused on the actions the message got lost, in the aftermath, the message has come through loud and clear.  I thought Kaep was pretty stupid for choosing this way to get his point across, but the more dialogues I see opened, the more racism I see exposed, and the more people I see siding with him, I see that the initial shock and anger at the actions was exactly what was needed to keep the issue of oppression in the spotlight.

Patriotism

I see people claiming that Kaep must hate America if he refuses to stand for our anthem.  Protesting wrong doing in the country must mean you hate it right?  I mean if you loved America you’d be shouting our praises and turning a blind eye to any injustice that people claim is there.

Peaceful protest, and sometimes not so peaceful protest is what has made our country better.

Let’s take a brief history lesson.

Boston in 1773, the infamous tea party.  The Sons of Liberty hated America so much they dared to protest the taxation without representation of our country back when we were just a British colony.  Why didn’t those fuckers go back to England if they hated it here so much?  Can’t they just be happy they have a nice big chunk of land to live on, some people live on a little island for fucks sake?  Ungrateful pricks.

The years 1840-1920, a bunch of uppity bitches thought they should get to vote like men.  The woman’s suffrage movement in this country started with several small conventions and mounted several protests before finally being passed after the founders of the movement were long dead.  America was founded by men damn it and any woman who thinks she has the same rights as a big, strong man must hate America.  They were called the forefathers, not the foremothers.  Cunts should have stayed in the kitchen.

In 1924 the very first gay rights movement came out of a closet full of immaculate and fabulous clothing.  These silly faggots must really hate America because they thought they should have rights.  Don’t they know homos belong in rainbow parades and not in marriage halls?  You can’t wear pink and rainbows if you’re supporting red, white, and blue.  America despising fags gained the right to marry just last year.

Let’s pretend for a moment that the above history lessons weren’t dripping in sarcasm.  Would you be offended?  If at least one of those things didn’t offend you, and hopefully all three did, please have yourself sterilized or better yet, kill yourself, I don’t want you on my planet let alone in my country.

Let’s take it a step further.

The biggest America hater of all, Martin Luther King Jr. and his flunkies hated our country so much they fought to end segregation.  If they hated the way they were treated so much, why didn’t they go back to Africa?  I mean hell, we already freed the slaves, how much more did they want from us?

Ridiculous right?  If you don’t think MLK hated America but you think Colin Kaepernick hates America, you are a hypocrite.  Peaceful yet powerful protests.  It took time, it took sacrifices, but changes were steadily made.  We’re not all the way there yet and it’s time for a new generation of leaders to emerge.

There has been ugly backlash shown to every person that dared to look at our great country and see an opportunity to improve it.  If they hated the country, why would they care about injustices?  If America was such a lost cause, why would they bother trying?

I’m sure if back in the day of Rosa Parks we had social media she would have been called the same hateful things that Kaep was called.  Perhaps showing that level of hate and forcing people to see how real it was would have escalated civil rights faster, perhaps it wouldn’t have, we can’t know.  In this day information and words travel at the speed of light and can’t be easily taken back once they’ve found their way onto the web.  When you speak from anger and hatred you’re exposing yourself faster than you can say “better judgment.”

People bring up the argument of disrespecting the service men and women that have fought and died for our freedoms.  One of those freedoms, in fact, the very first one listed in the Bill of Rights, is free speech and peaceful assembly and protest.  There is nothing more American than that.  Yes, people have died and their sacrifices should not be forgotten or treated with any less respect, but I ask you this[wysija_form id=”11″], is everyone’s freedom actually equal?  Until such a time that people of all colors can be pulled over without fear for their lives, I say no, those freedoms are not equal.  The groundwork is in place.  There is still work to be done, however.

Education, awareness, putting aside selfish ignorance, creating dialogues that put people out of their zone of comfort, these things still need to be done.  Colin Kaepernick, I apologize for anything bad I’ve said about you, in enraging the public you have become the man in the spotlight.  What you do next is up to you, but don’t make my faith in you be in vain, take this momentum and this power of your privilege and continue to fight for what you believe in.

If you are still hating Colin Kaepernick, I say to you, why?  Don’t hate the man for what he has done, hate the actions of hate, fear, and ignorance that have driven him to act.  I feel there is only one way to close this article out, I urge all of you that see injustice, whether it be in the form of oppression against blacks or any other cause you feel passionate about to get out there, rage against the machine, and above all, know your enemy.

Word is born Fight the war, fuck the norm Now I got no patience So sick of conplacence With the D the E the F the I the A the N the C the E Mind of a revolutionary…

What the land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy Now something must be done About vengeance, a badge, and a gun…

Yes I know my enemies They’re the teachers who taught me to fight me Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission, ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite All of which are American dreams.

Thank you for your time, I realize this was a long read and I thank you for sticking with me whether you agree with my position or not.  Any comments, criticisms, compliments, hate or love should be directed to me personally on Twitter @kellieruttar

Next time my dear readers, we will get back to our regularly scheduled football fun.

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