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Colin Kaepernick Deserves Better Than This

This article is more than 5 years old.

Keith Allison, Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.

This past week, I watched Whitney (2018), an incredibly well-made, if not poetic, documentary on the life and death of Whitney Houston. One of the many moments of the film that struck me, was the scene of Houston’s amazing performance of the American anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida. Who even remembers the half-time show that year?

This year, however, all eyes are turned towards the halftime show and the criticism surrounding this year’s event as performers have categorically declined the invitation to perform in protest against the NFL for its treatment of Colin Kaepernick. Artists, including Cardi B, Rihanna, Pink and Jay-Z all declined to perform during the halftime set in support of Kaepernick. Following his departure from the San Francisco 49ers in 2017, Kaepernick has not been able to get picked up by any other team in the NFL. Many believe he is being blacklisted for his infamous decision from 2016 to kneel during the national anthem in protest of institutionalized racism and police brutality, despite his excellent performance record. In 2017, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL in which he accused the NFL team owners of colluding to keep him out of the league. This case is still pending.

In response to the support Kaepernick  received, to include other players joining him in taking a knee, the NFL announced last year that they would be initiating a new policy which requires all players to stand during the national anthem or to offer them the option of remaining in the locker room during the anthem. This new rule was eventually put on hold after the NFL Players Union filed a grievance against it.

Finally, Maroon 5 accepted the offer to headline the halftime show and the band will be joined onstage by former Outkast member, Big Boi, and Houston rapper, Travis Scott. However, this choice has proved to be a PR disaster for the musical acts with Roger Waters pleading with them to take a knee during their show in solidarity with Kaepernick and over 100,000 fans have signed a Change.org petition asking the band to drop out of the show way before Maroon 5 had even confirmed their participation in this year’s event.

While the issue of racism has put the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show in a troubling light, we are confronted with the hyper-fast speed at which these events have evolved and been disseminated in the media—from the signatures gathered online and media blurbs released and shared through mobile apps giving us up to the minute news on this event to the minute by minute blows as to who is or who isn't performing. Aside from the obvious civil rights grievance at the heart of the matter, I wonder if this issue has not be catapulted into the headlines in the most oblique of manners. Sure, let’s encourage Maroon 5 to take a knee or even call in sick and even ask Gladys Knight to sing off-key. But why is the burden of “doing the right thing” placed primarily upon the musicians and not at the two teams playing in Atlanta, the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots?

Let’s be honest here—expecting the musical acts to drop out will not get Kaepernick back into the NFL. What strategy does have a chance at achieving this end is if the Rams and Patriots boycott their participation until Kaepernick is extended a contract. And let’s not pretend that this isn’t possible. Yes, I know, what I suggest is sacrilege—or is it? The Moscow Olympics in 1980 took place because the United States led a boycott in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan which resulted in 80 of the 147 nations competing. In retaliation to this, the Soviet Union and its allies boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, citing security issues. In 1970, the South African cricket team’s tour of England in 1970 was cancelled after anti-Apartheid protests. And the Montreal Olympics in 1976 was also boycotted by many African countries protesting Apartheid in South Africa after demanding that the IOC (International Olympic Committee) ban New Zealand whose rugby team toured South Africa after the deadly Soweto uprising, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of largely young black protestors.

We know that revolutionary acts often require sacrifice, but there is something quite urgent about what is going on within the NFL and the curtailing of certain democratic forms of expression while we see this unravelling in real time from our smartphones and computers as if incidental to democracy. While we can all turn on the television on Sunday and think that we have done our part by tweeting support to Kaepernick, a virtual shout out will not change the face of racism within the United States, nor, it would seem, within the NFL. Short of this, we can all boycott watching the game this year and hope advertisers take note. We hold power with media, and we hold even more power by resisting media in this particular case.

Revolutionary change usually happens through great sacrifice. And what a sacrifice it would be if on Sunday both teams decided to postpone the Super Bowl until that time when Kaepernick has been extended a contract and the NFL retracts any plans to make taking a knee a censurable offense! Colin Kaepernick deserves better than superficial political gestures which will merely result in the status quo.

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