This is not to say that if Colin Kaepernick had been allowed to keep playing in the NFL — and kneeling during the national anthem — that George Floyd would have lived. Or that streets across America would have avoided the flood of sorrow and righteous rage that we have seen the last several nights.
It is only to say that if you did not listen then you must now try to understand why suffocating those sparks in 2016 and 2017 helped lead us here, to America on fire.
In the 12th episode of The Counter, Steven Ruiz and I recounted Kaepernick’s story — what should have been learned and why it wasn’t. His message should resonate more than ever, but the same people who obscured it then are using similar tactics to obfuscate or outright ignore the meaning of uprisings in Minneapolis and D.C and Brooklyn and Louisville and Raleigh and Indianapolis and Los Angeles and Philadelphia and so many other places.
Those who stifled Kaepernick still do not listen now. Yes, the NFL put out a bizarre statement vaguely addressing the situation, saying the NFL family was “greatly saddened by the tragic events” — without acknowledging what caused those events. The word racism does not appear in the statement. Nor does the word police. There is no reckoning here, and the league was rightfully castigated immediately by the internet and players. Charles McDonald of the New York Daily News dropped a scathing column that you should not miss.
A former league vice president, meanwhile, wrote a mealy mouthed mea culpa for CNN saying now was the time for an NFL team — namely the Minnesota Vikings — to sign Kaepernick. As if some sort of public relations “win” would have meaning now.
We also discussed inadequate responses from most NFL and college coaches and looked ahead to what needs to happen next: White men around the sport of football acknowledging the pain and fear that a majority of their co-workers have felt for their entire lives, and committing to being actively anti-racist as the difficult work of dismantling broken system commences.
You can find the show at these links, or listen below.
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | TuneIn
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