One was a legendary civil rights leader who was assassinated for his ability to bring people together and effect change. The other took a knee, donated some money and lost his job because he couldn't keep the offense on the field.
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To be fair to Kaepernick, he donated a lot of money and brought awareness to many great charities and causes. But, charity, while indispensable to the cause, is not activism.
When I moved back home after college, I couldn't find two books, one of which was MLK's Why We Can't Wait. It contains his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and also describes his process for determining where the Christian Leadership Conference would go and their decision making process. He talks about the strategies and tactics they use and the consequences of those decisions.
Colin Kaepernick ain't do nothing but sit his black ass down on the bench
Colin Kaepernick did no such planning because he wasn't planning on being an activist. Kaepernick didn't think the United States was living up to the promise of the National Anthem, so he decided to sit down. Nobody even noticed for two games. Then after someone reported on it he started getting flak from conservative America. Kaepernick responded to the criticism by meeting with a Green Beret, and choosing to kneel instead of sit. Conservative Americans continued to lose their shit because that's what they do.
To be clear, those who criticize kneeling during the anthem as disrespectful are just plain wrong. Kneeling has never ever been considered a disrespectful act. It has always been considered a position of reverence. No woman has ever thought it was disrespectful when their boyfriend finally got on one knee and made an honest woman out of her. My grandmother used to say get on your knees when you pray so you don't fall down.
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Activism isn't about being right, though. It's about effecting change. Too many leftist activists hear "by any means necessary" and think it means to do whatever you want. Instead, it means to do what is necessary. If the young activist must stand during the National Anthem to build rapport with his audience, he will do it.
Kaepernick captured the nation's attention and we have nothing to show for it. Another problem with Kaepernick's tactic is that it targeted the wrong actor. Nobody felt any pressure from Kaepernick kneeling except for the NFL, who doesn't have much to do with police brutality. The NFL would've done anything to get Kaepernick to start standing, but Kaepernick wouldn't stand until he felt that black people were no longer oppressed in this country.
When Kaepernick started all of this, the joke was that he was creating this media attention in order to keep his job. I do believe Kaepernick is earnest in his beliefs and convictions, but it blows my mind that people think NFL owners need to collude to keep a quarterback out of the league who can't complete 60% of his passes and pisses off a sizable portion of the NFL's fan base. Tom Brady could masturbate during the National Anthem and he would still have a job in New England. Aaron Rodgers just got his coach fired. Drew Brees will be canonized as an actual saint in New Orleans when it's all said and done. Here in Tampa, Jameis won one game and people started to forgive him before we started sucking again. Everybody loves the quarterback when he wins.
I didn't have much of an opinion on Kaepernick's until it came out that he didn't bother to vote in the 2016 elections. I wanted to scalp him. Even if he was dumb enough to believe that there was no difference between Trump and Clinton, I am sure that there was a District Attorney, or Sheriff, or Attorney General on his ballot who could make a meaningful difference for his cause. GQ Magazine was straight up wrong to call Kaepernick the "Citizen of the Year." Aristotle tells us that a citizen is someone who can hold office and vote. Kaepernick shirked that latter duty. It is not enough to donate money or use your voice to draw attention to a cause, because even non-citizens have that right.
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Too many leftists do not give enough attention to electoral politics when trying to effect change. I have even seen one activist say that we should not mention voting when celebrating Dr. King. However, Dr. King would respectfully disagree:
"When we planned our strategy for Birmingham months later, we spent many hours assessing Albany and trying to learn from its errors. Our appraisals not only helped to make our subsequent tactics more effective, but revealed that Albany was far from an unqualified failure. Though lunch counters remained segregated, thousands of Negroes were added to the voting-registration rolls. In the gubernatorial elections that followed our summer there, a moderate candidate confronted a rabid segregationist. By reason of the expanded Negro vote, the moderate defeated the segregationist in the city of Albany, which in turn contributed to the his victory in the state."
People really need to stop treating Kaepernick as if he some messiah being crucified by the NFL. Travis Scott doesn't need his blessing to perform in the Super Bowl. If you want to boycott the Super Bowl in support of Kaepernick and his cause for racial equality, that's your business. But eventually, activism is more than drawing attention and raising attention, and about effecting change. Leftists from Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter to Occupy Wall Street will have to learn that lesson eventually, or nothing will change.
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