Is Colin Kaepernick's "take a knee" the start of a peaceful revolution?
An object lesson in the differing world views of large segments of society is offered in the responses to former San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Exercising considerable bravery, CK knelt during the playing of the national anthem at the beginning of a football game. He is intelligent and certainly was aware of the possible repercussions of this act, which, in fact, were realized.
The gesture, now progressively being more widely adopted, primarily but not solely, before NFL games is spreading. A slow burn like a grass fire, becoming ever larger, but slowly. The intent of the gesture, kneeling, was to protest inequality of the the races (or POC if you prefer) especially in regard to police brutality.
Two messages were thus received from one gesture: failing to stand for the national anthem. The original and genuine intent of protesting inequality is understood by many, especially among the more open-minded individuals.
But secondarily, there is a reflexive response, a non-thinking response, a simple or willful misunderstanding of the gesture. The yahoos see this act as of "disrespect to the flag". This they equate to disloyalty to all things American. Such belief however bases its premise that the USA is only capable of brave and wonderful deeds. That the USA is the shining Empire upon the Hill. And who dares challenge our national infallibility? Certainly not some African American overpaid athlete. How dare he dishonor the country that enriches him?
And therein is the key. Our country certainly enriched Mr. Kaepernick, but at the same time, for every CK, there are scores of thousands of blacks (or POCs or African Americans, whatever terminology you prefer) who live in abject poverty, hopeless for betterment, in despair.
When a putatively rich man knowingly places at risk for the benefit of of those less fortunate, that man is truly brave. As brave as any soldier who fought in our misguided wars.
The yahoos who denounce this brave--and long overdue action--only see this is a slap in the face to "the patriots", patriots who fail to realize that the fine ideals espoused in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights have been eroded so badly as to be barely recognizable. I am sure the Founding Fathers would be horrified to see what has become of this noble experiment (at least for white, property-owning males).
Casting as very loose generalization here, it occurs to me that the two sides are opposed not only to symbolism but as to fact. Standing for the national anthem versus kneeling during it. The facts are that this perhaps once great nation, in an ideological sense (although there is plenty of room to argue that point) did deserve to have its citizens stand for the anthem or while saying the pledge of allegiance. For many, this does not reflect the true situation in the United States. Who can be proud of a nation whose leadership knowingly ruins and ends the lives of millions? Who had a president who sat back in his large chair picking out targets during his "kill Tuesday listings" with as much concern as someone stepping on ants? Who now has a president who wants to kill the families of "terrorists" even those those families may be completely innocent of any so-called act of terror?
At present this kneel versus stand issue is but a minor incident, non-violent, well-intended when correctly understood. But as mentioned above, the movement is slowly spreading.
This peaceful gesture is far more eloquent than often-violent protests in the street. Think what got the civil rights movement started big time. It was not only silver-tongued Martin King's passionate oratory; it was the quiet dignity of Rosa Parks refusing to sit in the back of the bus.
The civil rights movement is an unfinished revolution, making some gains and suffering some retreats over the years. It is important and one of the few great things happening to America in the last century. But it is an unfinished revolution, not dead, yet only slowly progressing in the main.
What Constitutes a Peaceful Revolution?
The means to do this are complex but the definition is also complex. For the sake of this essay, we will consider only peaceful revolution (PR). Governmental revolution means a departure from the current course of governmental/economic/social events. These are of course largely determined by the strength of the prime factor: government.
Consider the old saying "the ship of State". How much deviation from the current course of things must occur to be considered a true revolution? 15˚? 30˚? 90˚? 180˚? The answer depends upon several factors. The first being is how patient are the erstwhile revolutionaries? Even a 10˚ course change, given enough time will be sufficient to render huge changes in course. "Incrementalism" means a 1˚ course change, which is immediately cancelled once the population thinks they are on the right track.
A 180˚course change is impossible without violent revolution. So what is the ideal change of course sufficient to redress the inequities in the society without provoking violence? The answer escapes me. 1˚ is not enough. 180˚ is too much. How to choose and what to choose become operative in determining the mechanism of change, the effectors of change, and the desired end results of a course change.
This new epigram of peaceful resistance is only in its infancy. Court cases will be brought to test the application of people's rights to display or not display "loyalty" by standing. Recently, two high school footballers were fired from their teams because they refused to stand for the anthem. This is a violation of free speech, no matter how you define it. Certainly if "money is speech", then kneeling is every bit as valid, if not more so, than granting personhood to money.
Currently the dissemination of opposition to the establishment (TPTB) ideas is in the hands of the alternate media in print and online. I am dismayed at the lack of coverage, and indeed outrage, at this curtailment of free speech in such otherwise progressive venues. The entire concept of free expression is now under attack by mindless yahoos, with the gleeful assent of the PTB.
Here is an opportunity to fruitful to miss. The message of inequality, co-joined with freedom of speech must be amplified thousands of times in thousands of ways. This essay is one of those ways.
Comments
No. Too many hateful and ignorant
people in this country.
I post on a site that's open to Dims, Pubbies, Indies, and just plain morons. It's pretty loose and the arguments are epic. It has been an eye-opening experience seeing how many people are angry about this issue. And they're willing to fight like crazy to keep this 'movement' from making any difference. It's pretty much based on racism (IMO) but disguised as 'standing up for law enforcement' and a number of other 'reasons'. I've even seen resentment in some of the people I've spoken to.
I will say this. I think (and have seen and read indications) that a LOT of the opposition to these take-a-knee demonstrations is because the other prevalent meme out there is ALL white people are privileged and racist. The opposition will never be won over by demonising them.
Never.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Amanda, you have the right approach
It was not my intent to demonize anyone, despite calling them "yahoos". Most, but not all of them, are severely limited in perspective, the perspectives being about both the preservation of free speech and police brutality (unequal treatment of minorities).
No no no no! I didn't intend to insult you
nor do I think you demonized anyone else. The only point I had to make is I don't think this 'movement' has a chance of succeeding because of how contentious the whole situation is.
I am sorry if I phrased my post poorly.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
No insult inferred.
If it were the start of a peaceful revolution...
There would be violence already happening with the "Take A Knee" rhetoric on full desplay.
Because that's how the PTB always spin real revolutions. Witness how fast they embraced the BS "Rape at OWS" claims to divide the left before they jumped in with both jack-booted feet.
If we start seeing violence and smears designed to divide the left, then it's a revolution.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Sadly, you may be correct
In fact you probably are.
@detroitmechworks Without in any way
Without in any way impugning the man or the gesture--both of which I completely support--I note that the energy of this is, at least in part, being sucked down into the "Ain't Donald Trump awful! Let's make him look like an ass on Twitter" drain. Note the recent actions of the Golden State Warriors.
Again, I don't object to them disliking Trump or opposing him; it's just that, when the focus is on Trump, one is not focusing on the establishment, which is opposed to Trump, except inasmuch as they can use him as a wet wipe for their dirty hands.
People think Trump is the establishment because he is President, when in fact the establishment cranks along just fine independent of the President if someone it doesn't like occupies that seat. The establishment has made lemonade out of the Trump lemon by using him as the repository of all its sins--sort of making him the ultimate sin eater--and focusing everyone's ire on that one man. Any revolution or rebellion on the left will face the temptation of ceasing to focus on the system which brought us centuries of racism and inequality with little help from Donald Trump at all, and choosing instead to rail against Donald Trump the individual. It will face the temptation of allowing itself to forget that these evils predate him and exist outside him, not just in the sense of the history of slavery or the old Jim Crow, but in the sense of recent history, as in George W. Bush and his merry band of racist goons, all of whom are using Trump to rehabilitate their reputations (when you have the ethics lawyer for the Bush administration on CNN talking about how the Trump admin's actions wouldn't have been tolerated under the Bush administration, you know you're looking at a subtle reconstruction of history, and of who people really are).
I believe CK probably understands this well--another thing he got into trouble for was saying that Trump and Hillary looked like they were in a contest to see who was the least racist, and that's not something you say if you buy into the standard partisan garbage, or even the standard left vs right narrative. But the Ain't Trump Awful narrative has immense gravity. The entire rest of the racist, classist, warmongering, corrupt, poisonous political establishment, and its media employees, will look fresh as a daisy by the time Trump's first term is over. They may even keep him on. It's not like they actually disagree with his morals, only his manners.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
It's the optics. They're all that really matter, after all. Unless you're one of those reality-huggers, or something...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
A Long Tradition
MLK took a knee in 1965, and:
https://globalnews.ca/news/3769534/martin-luther-king-jr-take-a-knee-his...
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Thank you for an instructive look back at kneeling
in quiet protest. I was unaware of this practice and I am pleased that some white athletes, and non-athletes are doing the same.
The Raiders should sign Kaepernick
They just lost Derek Carr, the starting Quarterback, due to injury, and the backup QB seems to suck. I'm sure Oakland would be a lot more receptive to him than the fans of other teams, since he played for San Francisco. I've been a Raider fan for most of my life and was somewhat traumatized when they moved to LA. Now they're moving to Vegas, so I'm done with them. I've also been very turned off by the NFL as a whole, except for maybe the publicly owned Packers. I would get into them again, for their last 2 years here, if they signed Kaepernick, even though they're going to move on me again.
Beware the bullshit factories.
I think TPTB mean to pass him over and marginalize him to
make an example of him. I think they want to set him apart from everyone else, to frighten others away from challenging the system.
I think your suggestion is great.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
I can't imagine a more humble revolution than
to kneel. It's not only peaceful, it's challenging the phony expressions of Godliness of the American Plutocrats or well to do US representatives.
I would say kneeling will be successful, if all people kneel in the offices and hallways of Congress, so that no representative can get out of their hiding places without jumping over kneeling athletes and other brave folks. I just smile at that imagery.
The kneeling has to become a visual that is impossible for the media to not report about. Let's kneel and show them the power of our backbones.
May be kneeling with raised fists should be done inside and outside of churches just to show the good preachers that they can't smoothtalk the injustices they so willingly ignore.
I like your thoughts on this, mimi.
We ALL should take a knee. I've thought about it - about what I would do if I attended a sports event. As an audience member, should I take a knee? I could sit, but I think taking a knee is more symbolic. I'm inclined to act on this thought. Thank you.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
The way the seats are set up in the stands
it' practically impossible to kneel by your seat. Now I suppose if we all really had guts we'd kneel out in the aisles but the PTB would put a stop to that very quickly.
I admit, last time I went to a Hawks game I did stand, and the guys next to me were more than ready to bitch out anyone who didn't. You're packed so close in there it could also get ugly, fast. That said, I won't go again. While it's fun for me to see my friend with season tickets, I really don't even like watching football at all. And the more I see of it, the less I want to participate in it by paying for it.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Good point on the seats packed together.
I considered it when I wrote my comment, but haven't been to a sporting event in a while. Used to be one had some room, but every dollar must be made.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Taking truth inside the churches
Many churches are simply siphons of money from the parishioners. Look at the world's largest land owner, the Roman Catholic Church. Look at the wealth inside the Vatican. There are Catholic charities, certainly but I wonder what percent of their donations actually go to help the unfortunate. I wonder if Charity Navigator tracks that.
But Protestant megachurches and televangelists are also businesses in the name of God. They render more unto Caesar than they do to Deity.
All organized religions become businesses to support the hierarchy. Even these so-called non-profits
benefit more financially while "ministering to the souls". As Marx said, "religion is the opioid of the masses".
Take a knee transcends religious or denominational concerns. It is about revealing hypocrisies of society. This gesture calls truth to power. I would like to see this more widely adopted--not just at sporting events, or even churches.
I kneel to no one and nothing.
Kneeling is a long tradition denoting subservience to one's "betters". One must kneel before monarchy and feudal lords of the manor. One must kneel to the "lord" in Catholic and other Christian churches, and one must kneel to "allah" in Islam. Kneeling, similar to bowing, is associated with reverence, submission and obeisance. Islamic State makes prisoners kneel before shooting or beheading them.
I kneel to no man. I kneel to no imaginary deity.
Colin can protest all he likes, but in my view, his choice of kneeling as a form of protest sends the wrong message and is using the wrong symbolism. Cops would just love it if every black person would kneel before them. But that's not freedom. That's submission to the powerful.
He kneels instead of sitting to respect fallen military
Here's the link, and it's verified as true on snopes (for what it's worth).
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/heres-how-nate-b...
Snopes ain't what it used to be...
but thanks for the link. Kneeling also has an anti-war message going back to the Vietnam War era.
Snopes
That's why I added the "(for what it's worth)" - for the snopes comment lol.
I can respect that you kneel for no one. I'm glad my youngest is off at college because, with all his awards and ceremonies I had to attend when he was in elementary, middle and high school, the pledge and the prayer really put me off. I'd stand, and I'd even bow my head, but it was really awkward.
I was sent to the principal's office...
I was dragged to the principal's office for staying in my seat during the pledge of allegiance back in the 1960s. Fortunately, I knew that the Supreme Court had ruled in 1943 that I didn't have to stand, but I still ended up spending the afternoon in the school office making mimeograph copies of the school lunch calendar.
I wish I had your cajones!
Only thing I ever did was pull out a book, other than my smart book or bible, as ordered, in basic training - it's all I had on me.
DS pulled it out of my hand & read the back aloud, chuckling. Made me write an essay as to why I had it.
He was handed a diatribe about the first amendment, why I was there, etc..
Went back the next day for my book and was given it without a word.
Kneeling is not simply a sign of obeisance or subservience.
Kneeling is an active gesture as opposed to merely sitting, which does not connote a specific intent.
Quoting Nate Boyer, former green beret, who advised CK to kneel instead of sitting:
Ed (language warning)
That's the exact quote I was referring to in this comment no one saw (or maybe it was the language I used, but I cuss a lot, sorry.)
Here it is:
Thanks Deja for the illustration encountering willful ignorance
"Don't bother me with the facts, I have my own opinions--And by the way piss off".
There is absolutely zero chance of having rational discussion with such a person who refuses to engage in any of it.
As the old saying goes: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig".
Sounds like my dad in his screeds.
Usually fueled by booze but not always. There is no reaching that.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
I disagree.
Sitting when everybody else stands is a visible and viable act of defiance (assuming the protester is not disabled). I wouldn't care if Kaepernick flipped the bird or thumbed his nose at the anthem. It's the overt religious symbologism (and yes, subservience) of kneeling that twerks me.
@ edg - there are different meanings to kneeling
sorry for reacting to your comment so late. It's because of a time difference that I missed the whole discussion here and read all of it just now.
As a foreigner, who hasn't been exposed to either religious manipulations nor political ones when I grew up in Germany and studied there before I left Germany for the US, I have to say that the discussion here is probably beyond comprehension for European foreigners in the US. Also the European media would have difficulties to produce a video that would appropriately transfer and cross over to the European audience the feelings exposed here in the comment thread.
If you say you kneel to nobody, fine, no problem. Nobody would force you to kneel.
But what I see is that the kneeling is just with one leg and the kneeling is accompanied by a raised fist.
I read in one of the links I went through, that the kneeling on one leg with a raised fist goes back to an image of a slave in chains, kneeling and raising his fist in defiance despite his chains, with the text "Am i not a man and a brother?".
Just seeing a kneeling without seeing the raised fist (and the chains) seems to me the reason for your kind of interpretation of kneeling being always a matter of "kneeling to a man, kneeling to a deity".
This kind of kneeling would symbolize the resistance of a chained slave (and you should see it NOT just as a slave issue in chains related to the US history of racism and exploitation of the black people) but to the resistance against the undermining and stealing of a man's dignity and against his exploitation.
Just replace the slave with a impoverished worker (being it black or white or any other ethnicity), replace the chains with the incapability of the common man or woman to have control over the digital and technology that is destroying their privacy, their freedom, their environment. This lack of control enhances their fears from being enslaved by it. You don't have to be a black person to be a slave, you don't have to be literally enchained to feel you are lacking that basic freedom of speech or freedom of assembly and or the freedom from terror.
While reading through the discussion here an image of a "kneel" that wasn't accompanied with any "interpretation" or "wording" by the kneeling person, but was understood by anyone who saw it, came to my mind. The image went around the world way back at the time (1970). It's this one.
Kneeling has a lot of different meanings. This one was not in resistance of an injustice, but in acknowledging the injustice done by the people who the kneeling person represents, the hopeless effort to "make up for the injustice done" and the silent cry out begging for foregiveness. Everyone understood this. And nobody had to make a comment or express an interpretation. At least that is how I remember it being covered in Germany way back in 1970.
"Warsaw Genuflection". Now I also looked up the meaning of "Genuflection"
and it confirms and explains all your points you made for not wanting to "kneel before any man or deity".
Just saying what came to my mind following the thread here.
BTW I don't remember to have any time knelt in my life other than when I had to do it at age 14 to become a member of the Protestant German Lutheran Church (which is not comparable to the US Lutheran churches I was told). The next time I knelt was when my son started to kneel in front of the displayed coffin of his dead father during a funeral service. No matter how complex the relation to a dead person, I could never hate enough to make statements which I heard some people make, saying that they wanted "to piss on that man's grave". One can kneel to respect a dead person's life, no matter what. It would be a lie to negate the fact that that dead person was not equal and a brother, no matter how much one might have disagreed with the dead's persons life.
I am telling you "kneeling" can have very complex motivations and meanings.
Peace.
Eloquent, as usual, mimi
The problem I've had with it is that it doesn't go far enough.
It's focused on race and police brutality, specifically against black people, which is not a basis on which to mount a revolution against the oligarchy/plutocracy.
And from what I'm seeing, the sheeple are being forced back into their cages on this one by this flag thing. The peer and societal pressure is so large regarding the flag and this country that even those who support the protesting maintain that we must "respect" the flag and "believe" in this country, with no talk about the blood stained and criminal history, imperialism and the absolute criminality of our government.
Not only that, we've got billionaires and celebrities all over it as well, trying to keep their images by supporting the protests, when in effect they are the opposition in the class war/revolution that needs to take place. It's actually ridiculous. People like Morgan Freeman making videos about Russia. Hell.
So my current take is that it's doing more hard than good the way its being carried out. It's been coopted, cut down, and neutered already.
@Big Al
What's done to one hurts us all.
American cops are routinely harassing, falsely arresting/taking the property of, beating and killing American citizens with impunity based on perceived vulnerability, whether due to skin colour, poverty or mental disability.
The fascists in Hitler's Germany harassed, arrested/took the property of, beat and killed Jews made identifiable by armbands, gypsies, intellectuals, dissidents, etc., and later euthanized 'Good Germans' deemed useless to the State due to age or infirmity.
What's the difference here, apart from the aged and infirm being killed off more indirectly in America due to being prospectively stripped of such as subsidized heat and meal ptograms for the poorest, and even health-care and pension programs into which they paid, long in the Psychopaths That Be's plans for 'later' in America? And not any actual use specifically of gas ovens for stated extermination purposes, instead (at this point) direct-killing by cop and often privatized/slave-labour prisons and those employing extreme callousness and cruelty - which has included medical experimentation - too-often involving a too-often peculiarly horrible death.
And in American it begins with predominately People of Colour, rather than with Jewish people, that, in each case, being more culturally 'acceptable' as a start to many thinking themselves unaffected by this.
In both cases, there was a planned global conquest going on and lots of propaganda brainwashing the public involved. But the Germans of the time lacked the advantage of having seen this before and that of the once-free internet which TPTB are trying to co-opt ASAP.
So, even if you answered with 'no' the old question of whether you'd press a button to retroactively kill Hitler before he began that murderous rampage of Jewish and other people and attempted global conquest, what about a rephrase?
Would you have overthrown Hitler and the rest to earlier stop the domestic mass-murders and other abuses and the multiple invasions already in progress, if you had a chance to go back and do it?
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Had it been in my power, the answer is YES
Good job again, Alligator
I wasn't impressed with anyone who took a knee until after Trump opened his mouth. Not one person knelt during the anthem to protest police killings until Trump called for people who knelt to be fired. Exactly what were those men protesting? My opinion is that they were protesting what Trump said. Does anyone believe that the owners care about POC being killed by cops? I believe that as much as I believe that the Saudis cared about AIDS in Africa and that was why they donated millions to the Clinton foundation.
There was one white person who took a knee on the Oakland A's baseball team just before Trump's tweet. He came from a military family and I thought that he was brave for doing this.
The people who say that it disrespects the flag don't seem to have a problem with people who wear the flag.
How many people had a problem with Kid Rock's attire?
Or these fine white Americans?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Thanks, snoopy for the kind words--and the images
I did mention Rosa Parks in my essay as you probably noticed, so I very much appreciate the quote in your comment:
Fox News Poll
71% of respondents supported the football players. Fox News.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Which poll was that?
I found this one that says 55% disapprove but didn't find one with 71% supporting the football players.
I just don't think it's
that big a deal. I don't tune in to a sporting event to hear the National Anthem, and I suspect I'm not alone. If white supremacists are sick'n'tired of watching N-words sit or kneel during the Anthem, then the simple solution is for television networks to stop airing it. Just go to commercial break instead. Done. Or keep teams in the locker rooms until the pomp and circumstance is over. Done.
But networks won't becuz... ratings. And, as tools of TPTB, Love to rub black faces in it, show blacks as unpatriotic; worse, ungrateful rich black bastids, dissing the country becuz... sumpthin' sumpthin'. And TPTB love poking us. Every chance they get.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.