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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.
