Many people are critical of athletes, pro, college and high school, who are protesting police brutality by taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem at their games. Following the example of San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick, these athletes are taking heat for their symbolic gestures.
“His actions are repulsive to me,” said one AJC reader in a forum discussing the issue. “I shall always stand for the anthem in a grateful and reverential way. Without a doubt, it is still the greatest country in the world and a land of opportunity for potential, hope, success and inalienable rights,” said another reader.
Young people often get branded as narcissists who spend their lives puckering and pouting for Instagram. So, why do we complain when they embrace a cause and take a knee instead of a selfie?
The protesting athletes don’t take these actions because they hate America, but rather want to use their moment in the spotlight to bring attention to injustice, said civil rights activist Harry Edwards, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of “The Revolt of the Black Athlete,” at a recent panel at Morehouse College.
“You don’t do what these men have done unless you care tremendously about America,” said Edwards, who has counseled athletes, including Olympian John Carlos and Kaepernick, on how to harness their celebrity to address injustice and prepare them for the fallout.
To read more, go to the AJC Get Schooled blog.
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