Colin Kaepernick’s deliberate act of protest to sit out the national anthem caught the nation’s attention, and this initial sentence framed most media headlines: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.”
But the meat of Kaepernick’s cause actually came two sentences later:
“There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
Hold it right there:
“Getting away with murder.”
That is the story.
There is no need to interpret why Kaepernick is not standing for the anthem — he has told us.
In taking a baton handoff from Carmelo Anthony and the incredibly underrated WNBA protests, Kaepernick has used the most specific language on police accountability of any recent athlete.
Kaepernick is recentering police accountability with crystal clarity.
“Accountability” is not the “murder” part, it’s the “getting away with” part.
Why is the word “accountability” so hard for Kaeper-critics to understand?
Because criticizing Kaepernick is dependent on not understanding it.
They can’t criticize lack of police accountability, so they change the subject.
So they bring up crime.
But civilians go to prison in droves while police who murder almost never do.
So they bring up fallen officers.
But the men who shot the officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge were killed immediately as cop killers often are. Finding a cop killer not dead or convicted is even rarer than finding a killer cop arrested at all.
Again, people aren’t just protesting police murder, they are protesting “getting away with” murder — the ultimate expression on the non-value of Black life in America.
And while a political convention or presidential race panel won’t dare explain this super-simplistic point, Colin Kaepernick can.
So instead, they change the subject once more to imaginary military slights he never stated.
Last night, Kaepernick clarified that too: “I have great respect for the men and women that have fought for this country. I have family, I have friends that have gone and fought for this country.”
And then, Kaepernick explained the tragic hypocrisy:
“This country isn’t holding up their end of the bargain… men and women that have been in the military have come back and been treated unjustly, and have been murdered by the country they fought for, on our land. That’s not right.”
No. That’s not right. It’s criminal.
Walter Scott, killed by officer Matthew Slager on video, was a US Veteran. So was India Kager, Kenneth Chamberlain and others. Scott was not only shot while running away, but the original police report was falsified so Slager could “get away with murder.”
Slager, who is still awaiting trial, wasn’t just a “bad apple,” he was part of a police cover-up. Slager never honored Scott’s past military service. He murdered him.
A flag does not inherently represent soldiers. That is a lifetime of political brainwashing talking.
Claiming Kaepernick’s act as an insult to soldiers is as logically twisted as claiming standing up for the flag honors Micah Johnson and Gavin Long — the two military veterans who killed police in Dallas and Baton Rouge.
Neither statement makes any damn sense.
And yet some people are actually more offended with Kaepernick protesting police getting away with murder than those “getting away with murder” itself?
Now THAT is offensive.
Why? Because what they’re really saying is “White Feelings >Black Lives”
And this is what Kaepernick is really trying to tell us (and by us, I really mean white people).
While most subject-changing Kaeper-critics avoided his message for accountability, here is one rare exception from a sportswriter who calls Kaepernick a “f–king idiot”:
“First, who is getting away with murder? That’s a strong accusation. Who in particular has committed murder in this country and not been charged with it? If you’re going to make this statement then you need to give us particulars that motivate your decision and your beliefs. I don’t want bland generalities, I want specifics here.”
There is a lot of denial, privilege and entitlement to unpack here.
First, Colin Kaepernick owes you absolutely nothing. He is not responsible for your education — which is only a mere web-click away. There is practically a cop-killing web video library that has emerged in the last two years, and scores of other reports and data. Research them.
Second, after Alton Sterling was killed on a video last month, Kaepernick was actually very specific. These were his remarks in an Instagram post:
“This is what lynchings look like in 2016! Another murder in the streets because the color of a man’s skin, at the hands of the people who they say will protect us. When will they be held accountable? or did he fear for his life as he executed this man?”
There is video from three different angles of Sterling being shot while restrained on the ground, yet the officer has still not even been arrested.
If those videos are not enough, if you want to “wait for all the facts” over your own eyeballs, then there is nothing to discuss.
If we also need Kaepernick to hold our hands through videos of Sterling, Natasha McKenna or Eric Garner, then there is nothing to discuss.
Hell, if the prerequisite for convicting a killer cop is a video, then that’s merely a license to murder without one.
And if you believe Walter Scott was murdered (a point David Duke would surely concede), but still would have believed the conspiratorial lies on the original police report, your concession is useless, not justice.
No more subject-changing.
Let’s break down Kaepernick’s comments on Sterling, line by line:
“What lynching looks like in 2016!”
Lynching was not just characterized by rope, but by the ability to avoid conviction in a court of law. Sunday was the 61st anniversary of Emmett Till’s historic murder. The 14-year-old Till is not only relevant because of his brutal murder, but also because a jury acquitted his murderers the next month.
“Another murder in the streets because the color of a man’s skin, at the hands of the people who they say will protect us.”
Kaepernick specifically points out the higher standard police get sworn into as public servants. While many whites are also tragic victims of police violence at lower rates, there is a pattern of police behavior that values white life and takes risks to save white life — even when white people are actually pointing guns directly at police.
“When will they be held accountable? or did he fear for his life as he executed this man?”
Again, Kaepernick specifically used the word “accountable” with Alton Sterling — a deliberate word he spoke again multiple times last night.
He is also questioning the absurd “fear for life” law that allows either the murderous or racially irrational “fears” of (often) white officers as a legal loophole. Ex-Seattle Police Comissioner Norm Stamper agrees. Chapter 5 of his book “Breaking Rank” is titled: “Why White Cops Kill Black Men.”
Stamper writes: “White cops are afraid of black men… We say that officers treat black men the same way they treat white men. But that’s a lie. In fact, the bigger, the darker the black man the greater the fear.”
Did the cop who executed Alton Sterling do so out of intentional murder or from a deep affliction of hyper-irrational racial fear ignited by a simple twitch? It is doubtful that Sterling’s heartbroken son cares.
And neither should we. The officer must be held accountable.
Or in Colin’s words, we must stop him from “getting away with murder.”
And in this era of increased incarceration and state violence against of Black women, that also goes for Rekia Boyd, Sandra Bland, Aiyana Jones, etc.
Kaepernick is not saying anything new. The numbers are absolutely staggering. The Daily News’ own Shaun King writes:
“When the officers who killed Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Mike Brown, or Natasha McKenna never even go to trial for what they did, seeing an officer indicted and charged with manslaughter or murder feels a little like fitting a camel through the eye of a needle. Of the 1,200 people killed by American police in 2015, only seven cases resulted in charges — a ridiculously tiny number… Not one single police officer was convicted for an on-duty death in 2015.”
This is what an epidemic of “zero-accountability” looks like.
Do we need Kaepernick to crunch these numbers for us too?
So far, the only numbers Kaeper-critics seem to care about is his salary. This was best symbolized in tweets like this from CBS sports journalist Doug Gottlieb:
“$61m guaranteed… Very oppressed #ColinKaepernick”
Gottlieb failed to state just how many millions an athlete must make to stop police from personally assaulting them (see: James Blake or Thabo Sefolosha) or to stop cops all around the country from “getting away with murder.”
Of course, Kaepernick was referencing all “people of color.” Last night he kindly elaborated that he was speaking for people that “don’t have a voice” and platform to “affect change.”
Said Kaepernick: “I’m going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed.”
Critics, take note: stand WITH.
Not sure if Colin can be any clearer.
But valuing Black lives has never really been about reading comprehension, and Colin knows this.
Which is why he is standing up by sitting down.
If you don’t like the messenger, then take it from a more respectable sports icon and military veteran Jackie Robinson who wrote in his autobiography shortly before his death (h/t @profloumoore & @edgeofsports):
“I cannot stand and sing the anthem, I cannot salute the flag. I know I am a black man in a white world in 1972 and 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.”
As long as we keep changing the subject from “getting away with murder,” Colin Kaepernick, and the oppressed people he stands with in 2016, do not have it made.
