A Swing and a Miss: Pandering to White Privilege
Sorry, but I need to push back against all of you who are posting on social media how great it was when the Yankees and the Nationals knelt for a brief 20 seconds before the national anthem was played.
It was not wonderful. It was not “woke”. It wasn’t even supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. All it was was a bunch of overpaid athletes pandering to the very worst of White Privilege.
Let me explain.
Let’s go back to Colin Kaepernick’s original protest. In 2016, he initially sat, then knelt, during the playing of the national anthem before each game to protest police brutality against Black men.
Got that? Knelt DURING the playing of the national anthem.
This created a huge uproar amongst White people who interpreted his actions as a Black man disrespecting the anthem and the flag. The fact that his actions were a protest was completely lost in the outrage over his supposed disrespect. His simple but eloquent protest was overshadowed by White privilege which deemed his behavior as unacceptable, even un-American.
He was told to keep his personal beliefs off of the playing field. That protest of any form was inappropriate in a work environment. That (White) fans did not pay to see protests.
That last one was my personal favorite. Just because you bought a wildly over-priced ticket to a game played by wildly over-paid athletes doesn’t give you the right to trample on other people’s Constitutional rights. Sit down and shut up.
Now fast forward to 2020. Demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism are occurring all over the country. People of all races are in the streets protesting.
Which posed a problem for the Yankees and the Nationals. They couldn’t not acknowledge the Black Lives Matter movement but they also didn’t want to piss off (White) fans like Kaepernick did.
So they compromised.
They laid a black cloth on the field, the players and the coaches knelt and held the cloth for a 20 second moment of silence. Then they all stood up as usual for the playing of the national anthem.
Problem solved!
Except that it wasn’t. If you want to truly protest police brutality and systemic racism, you have to kneel DURING the playing of the national anthem.
The anthem with racist lyrics.
The anthem written by a wealthy slave owner.
The anthem that come to think of it, should be replaced.
I’d call the Yankee’s and National’s “protest” a swing and a miss. Sorry fellas, but it’s not a protest if you’re not pissing anyone off.
