When Megan Rapinoe stepped up to the stage to accept her Glamour Women of the Year honor on Monday night, she had former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick on her mind.
The USWNT star has had an incredible year where she’s enjoyed personal and professional success, but knows that it didn’t happen in a vacuum. As a part of her speech, Rapinoe took a moment to acknowledge Kaepernick’s sacrifices and the unjust system that still keeps him unemployed.
So while I’m enjoying all of this unprecedented—and, frankly, a little bit uncomfortable—attention and personal success, in large part due to my activism off the field, Colin Kaepernick is still effectively banned from the NFL for kneeling during the national anthem in protest of known and systematic police brutality against people of color, known and systematic racial injustice, and known and systematic white supremacy. I see no clearer example of that system being alive and well than me standing before you right now. It would be a slap in the face to Colin, and to so many other faces, not to acknowledge, and for me personally, to work relentlessly to dismantle that system that benefits some over the detriment of others, and frankly is quite literally tearing us apart in this country.
In the fall of 2016, Rapinoe joined Kaepernick by kneeling during the national anthem to protest systemic racial inequality. Since then, Rapinoe has helped lead the fight for equal pay in women’s soccer and garnered the attention of President Trump.
Rapinoe didn’t just stop at mentioning Kaepernick in her speech though. She went on to acknowledge her own white privilege and the black and brown activists upon whose shoulders she stands.
I’ve gained this incredible platform in such a short period of time, but I’m not going to stand on it alone. I refuse to do that. There’s going to be ladders on every side, all over the place. And I’m not going to act like it wasn’t Colin Kaepernick, Tarana Burke and the #MeToo Movement, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi of Black Lives Matter, the women of Time’s Up, Harvey Milk, Gloria Steinem, Audre Lorde, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, and the injustices that so many others face that have put me in this very position. And I’m not going to act like my whiteness has nothing to do with me standing before you now.
In a world where many like to pretend that race doesn’t matter or that privilege, specifically white privilege, is a non-issue, Rapinoe’s words have a powerful, lasting impact. This is how one becomes a good ally.
As an athlete and an activist, Rapinoe has never shied away from acknowledging and challenging the position she occupies in the world. In her powerful speech, she made it clear she’s not going to stop anytime soon.
[lawrence-related id=869318]