Back in 2016 former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling for the national anthem, eventually igniting a movement across the country where other athletes of various ages, sports, genders, and race, also began kneeling in an attempt to raise awareness to social injustices in the United States. We are now more than halfway through 2024, some 8 years after Kaepernick began kneeling, allowing us a long look-back at the movement. Was Kaepernick’s means of protesting by kneeling for the flag good? Bad? Right? Or wrong? Depending on your perspective you likely have opinions relating to that question, and now that we have a long review period we can better analyze how we in America feel about freedom of speech, the means in which Americans demonstrate, and the success of the kneeling movement.
Taking a deep dive…
As someone who has studied the field of sport psychology extensively, the kneeling movement immediately grabbed my attention when it began in 2016. As a white male and someone with family members who are veterans, my first reaction, like many others, was surprise and discomfort watching individuals kneel when our national anthem played. Admittedly, I didn’t even have time to process what I was seeing as my emotions pushed out critical thinking — that is, until I was able to take the time needed to better understand what was happening. As the days and weeks went by, kneeling became quite polarizing, leaving me with many of the same questions a lot of Americans had, including:
- Being a white male I know I have privileges afforded to me based on my demographics that other minority men — and women of any color — do not have. While I do not take comfort in saying that (as I did nothing other than have been randomly born a white male), what I did not know was how great this divide was, as I have only walked in my own shoes. Because of that, my first question in 2016 was pretty straightforward — are things really that bad for minorities in America?
- After asking myself about the status of race relations in America, I quickly thought that things certainly must be bad or Kaepernick (and later, many others, including legions of white athletes) would not be consistently drawing this kind of negative attention kneeling before our flag. I say that as Kaepernick literally lost his NFL job, and many others fell to similar circumstances in their respective leagues. Yes, things have to be bad for people to take such a stance!
- After accepting there are big issues, the next question I began to think about was the means in which Kaepernick and others chose to protest. As mentioned earlier, while I am not a veteran, many family members and personal friends of mine are, making flag-kneeling something that felt uncomfortable every time I saw it. But then I also thought as Americans we are afforded freedom of speech and the right to demonstrate, and there are no “conditions” or script one must follow to raise awareness. Flag-kneeling most certainly got attention, would other demonstrations do the same? In other words, how many Americans would have looked and thought about racism in America if Kaepernick had simply blogged about it, or done something else less threatening? Personally, I don’t think nearly as many people would have ever become aware of the social injustices Kaepernick was calling to our attention, nor do I think we would have talked about it as much as we did without flag-kneeling.
- All of this thinking led me to the same place every time: What if I felt oppression, how would I feel, and what would I do to raise awareness? I ask you the same question, if you felt discriminated against on any variable (i.e. race, gender, sexuality, etc) what would you do? How would you raise awareness? And if you say something simple like post a tweet, do you really think that would turn many heads and lead to future change?
You can be both a patriot and think deeply, with empathy, about what flag-kneeling was about. No one person owns the American flag, and all American citizens are afforded the right to demonstrate. While you might initially say you would never kneel before the flag, might it also be true that you have never been discriminated against? And if you haven’t (like me), do we really have a seat at the table when it comes to how others should display their pain and suffering?
In the case of flag-kneeling, maybe it’s not as simple as black and white, right or wrong, good or bad. Rather than dichotomize the choices, we might instead simply try to understand what people who feel marginalized are trying to say, and the means in attracting attention should not be the focus, but instead the shining light of discrimination. Was the kneeling movement successful? That’s difficult to gauge with precision, but what the movement certainly did was raise awareness, get people talking, and hopefully direct more careful thought to what it was all about — and not just the individuals doing it, and the controversial ways they chose to demonstrate.
Final thoughts
I have developed my opinions on this matter through my own personal experiences (through a white man’s view), combined with countless conversations with people from diverse backgrounds who are personal friends or professional clients. My views are certainly not “right,” and I expect others will have varying opinions on flag-kneeling from their own personal perspectives that are different than mine (and that’s great!). So long as we stay respectful and always work to listen to what others experience, only then can we fully process flag-kneeling, and hopefully grow and move forward to a better tomorrow.
