As Another Season Approaches, the Controversy With the NFL & Anthem Protests Simply Will Not Go Away

Recently, I was going through the recent news section in my Facebook account, when suddenly, a picture stopped me. It showed a photo of the members of the Seattle Seahawks standing in a circle in their locker room, watching one prominent member, Michael Bennett, joyously burning the flag. Head coach Pete Carroll is also there, as is the recently departed (from the Seahawks, that is) RIchard Sherman, who is now playing for Seattle's NFC West rivals, the San Francisco 49ers.

This struck me as obviously fake at first glance, that frankly, I was surprised anyone would even think it real for even a second. I looked around the post, but the person putting it up had simply posted it as if it was an unquestionable fact. So I went ahead with the few seconds of effort that it took to find that it was fake, and posted it in the comment section, wondering how ridiculous people could be. After all, someone actually created this stupid image, clearly doctoring it to make it seem that NFL players have a seething hatred for America. Even worse, though, is that literally hundreds of thousands of people - it showed 725 thousand, or the better part of a million - had shared this status, even though it is so clearly fake as to be laughable, frankly.

Apparently, it originated last fall, in October of 2017. Clearly, it was meant to get people into different camps of political thought on the whole controversy regarding NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. Just one more distraction meant to divide behind outrageous and, let's face it, literally unbelievable images or sensationalist stories, even when they are clearly, obviously, and demonstrable not real. What strikes me as almost funny, if it was not actually so damn sad in reality, is that many people who felt that this image struck a nerve with them are the same ones who would applaud Trump when he goes on and one about "fake news."

It strikes me as strange, this tendency to simply post pictures and/or stories up without bothering to check any sources, even when there is something so obviously outrageous, that it virtually begs to be questioned. And yet, I understand how easy it is to simply see something that seems amazing, and repost it. I have done that a few times, although in my defense, the stories and/or images were not quite as blatantly fake or ridiculous as this picture is. After the 2016 election, however, I hesitate to post anything without first verifying it. 

Now, let's talk about this whole controversy regarding the NFL and the American flag. As surely everyone knows by now, NFL players have been accused of being unpatriotic when they take a knee during the national anthem to protest the killing of black people (mostly young men) by police officers. This protest began a couple of summers ago with Colin Kaepernick, who started the kneeling during the preseason as a form of silent protest. That protest generated considerable publicity, far more publicity than anything that actually happened on the field of play during these meaningless preseason games. The protest continued to grow into and through the regular season, and then continued into the next season. It is still plaguing the NFL, much like some other issues that the league was never able to fully, much less satisfactorily, resolve, such as domestic abuse and concussions. 

It did not take long for people to take sides and, of course, for then candidate Donald Trump to take notice and blast the players and the NFL, and to argue that the league needed to impose respect towards the flag and the anthem. People in the opposite camp felt that this was a free speech issue, recognized that no one was getting hurt as a result of these protests, other than those who took issue to the point where they took offense. Many critics said that the players should simply stand and show respect for the flag, that this was not the time for them to make a political protest or express their view points.

Here is one thing that I feel is so obvious as to hardly be worth mentioning, to the point that I am almost embarrassed to point it out. Yet, most Americans do not seem to "get" this point. Ready? Here it is: the playing of the national anthem before games (and public events more generally) is itself a political expression. 

Still, many Americans feel that a simple measure of respect should be paid to the flag and to the country it represents. They want to get rid of all of this political nonsense, and believe that either there is nothing to these protests in regard to a racism that they remain blind to, or simply ignore as unimportant. It is rather amazing to me how worked up they get over what amounts to a peaceful protest, yet how indifferent they are when it comes to other things and images, which they simply shrug off. Let me repost an image that also caught my attention, for an entirely different reason than did the obviously fake one of the Seahawks burning the American flag:

Now, this is a point that I believe underscores exactly what those who defend players taking a knee are arguing in the first place.

NFL players are not the only ones who do this. The protest spread to other sports, including the NBA, as well as college and even some high schools. Everywhere that it spread, it caused division. Yet, when most people, especially Donald Trump, blast players doing it, it always seems to focus on the NFL. It has not helped that the NFL itself has taken very strange, and frankly, often contradictory, positions on this. Trump urged the teams and the league to simply fire anyone taking a knee. The NFL held off on this, but at times, they seemed to flirt with a zero tolerance policy towards these protests. Then, they backed off. Individual teams, most notably the Miami Dolphins and the Dallas Cowboys, tried to impose zero tolerance policies. But the league then said that nothing could be enforced until this issue is resolved in a court of law. Other teams - and I am proud to say my two favorite teams, the New York Giants and the New York Jets - took a very different position. The Giants said that they would not impose any kind of punishment on players taking a knee, while one owner for the Jets said that he would outright pay any financial penalty that a player is given for it.

Through it all though, this issue (which I feel is better and more accurately defined as a non-issue, as it really affects no one's life, unless they choose to allow it to) continued to divide the nation. It generated heated debate, with accusations and, obviously, exaggerated stories and doctored images floating around.

My question, though, is why? Again, this is a peaceful protest. And it seems clearly telling to me that people would get up in arms about players taking a knee during the national anthem, yet they would shrug off images showing Confederate and/or Nazi flags being paraded by white supremacists on American streets last year. It is this kind of hypocrisy that outrages so many minorities in the first place, that kind of "Oh, well! What are you going to do?" attitude when it comes to images or expressions of white supremacy, while showing absolutely no tolerance for black players peacefully protesting the national anthem.

Here is another thing, though. Some of the lyrics to the Star-Spangled Banner, the official national anthem of the United States, reflect the racism that has been prevalent throughout American history (at least if we are honest with ourselves). Specifically, these lyrics, in the third stanza:

No refuge could save the hireling and slave 
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

So a slave or a hireling cannot be saved from the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave. If we consider immigrants from Central American countries, including Mexicans, to be "hirelings," then these lyrics are pretty much problematic, and downright threatening, to anyone at the time who was not white.

Given our nation's obvious problems, both historically and presently, with stubborn racism, the fact that fans of the national anthem also choose to ignore this little bit of racism in our national anthem also is telling, and very problematic. It seems symbolic on so many levels, much like the NFL's team name for the nation's capital being downright racist is symbolic. And shutting down any serious discussion on this subject, or dismissing it out of hand as preposterous or some kind of irrelevant detail, is part of the problem that leads back to this racism that stubbornly refuses to ever go away. It is this overly easy and convenient refusal to acknowledge any kind of racism that has led to the blatant racism that seems to be on the rise today, and which the entire world sees and recoils from, even as millions of Americans seem almost comfortable and at home with.

Again, let us remember Charlottesville. Let us remember that there are still many - numbering in the millions - who seem hesitant, at best, to condemn the white supremacists and outright neo-Nazis who went there to voice their racist opinions in a very public manner. Somehow, these same people, including the sitting President of the United States, are not particularly critical of these racists. In fact, they too often seem downright tolerant of them. But when it comes to NFL players, they loudly boo and hiss and demand that these players are fired immediately. They suggest that these spoiled millionaires probably should not even be in the United States. That, in other words, they are not real Americans.

And that is the problem to begin with, that it seems too easy for many people to suggest that blacks and minorities are somehow less American, and less patriotic. To them, these protests are not about them wanting a better, more fair country, but rather showcasing how much they hate America. That would be the all too convenient interpretation in this age of orchestrated misunderstanding and, let's face it, disinformation.







These are the articles that I used in writing this particular blog entry:

Germany’s National Anthem May Be Sexist. Is America’s Racist? Jennifer Finney Boylan By Jennifer Finney Boylan March 14, 2018:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/opinion/star-spangled-anthem-racist.html

Here is the link to the Time article that I saw, and posted in the comment section, of the fake quality of the picture of Seahawks players wildly celebrating while burning the American flag:

An Image of an NFL Player Burning the U.S. Flag Is Circulating on Social Media — It's Fake by ARIC JENKINS September 29, 2017:

http://time.com/4963312/seattle-seahawks-michael-bennett-burning-american-flag-fake/