It’s easy to make a statement just for the sake of making a statement, but a professional athlete sitting during the National Anthem to protest racial
injustices in America won’t save any lives.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been sitting during the anthem at each of the past two games of the NFL preseason. Kaepernick says he won’t stand for the anthem of a country that oppresses African-Americans and other people of color.
The media has extensively covered this most recent racial protest as an extension of the broader Black Lives Matter movement and the overall racial tensions that have resulted from recent police shootings and even the contentious presidential campaigns.
But Kaepernick’s protest, if you will, is not aimed at improving race relations, facilitating the dialogue between police departments and the communities they serve, or to change the tenor of Donald Trump’s divisive approach to courting African-American voters.
Instead of leading a march of professional athletes protesting after a recent shooting, or donating money to an organization that promotes improving race relations, Kaepernick did the least amount of work possible; he just sat down. He literally could not have done less unless he stopped breathing while he sat.
Sure, the national anthem is an easy target to use to gain media attention. The anthem itself has detractors, not only because it’s nearly impossible to sing its high notes, but because some historians have long argued one of its rarely sung verses actually celebrated the death of freed slaves that fought for the British during the War of 1812.
What is now known as the National Anthem and titled “The Star-Spangled Banner” is derived from the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry” written by Francis Scott Key in September 1814. Key, an American lawyer, sento to negotiate the release of Americans aboard a British war ship, watched the Battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Bay during the War of 1812.
The lyrics recount Key’s view of the American Flag visible during the heavy fighting and emerging through the night as the Americans repelled the British forces. The original poem was later put to the tune of a popular British hymn of the time called “To Anacreon in Heaven”. The Star Bangled Banner was not recognized as the official national anthem of the United States until President Herbert Hoover signed a Congressional Resolution in 1931.
The song we sing at sporting events and other important public events only contains the first verse of Key’s poem, ending with the now-famous “and the home of the brave.” But another lessor known verse contains some controversial lyrics that have come under fire for their mention of slaves.
In the third verse, Key’s poem mentions that “No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave.”
The reference to slave is thought by many historians to point to slaves that were offered freedom by the British if they fought against American soldiers. The verse seems to revel in the deaths of these slaves that had agreed to fight against the U.S. just to secure their own freedom, even though they were fighting against a country that denied them equal rights. Of course, slavery would not be abolished for another 50 years.
Many famous Americans, including movie stars, athletes, signers, and politicians, have commented on the state of race relations in America. After several police shootings of unarmed black men or use of excessive force by police, more famous individuals have spoken up to help bring attention to the root problems of race relations; broken schools, systemic bias in the justice system, and a growing economic disparity between the lower and higher income earners in the country.
It’s a national conversation that has to happen, is happening, and should continue. These are important issues that have complex causes and even more complex solutions if we are serious about solving it.
But simply sitting during the singing of the national anthem that means so much to so many Americas, as a symbolic gesture of protest about racial discrimination, is not helping to move the conversation. If anything, using the national anthem is a distraction from the real issue at hand, and just another divisive distraction that will further delay real action.
Let’s get real about the problem. Let’s work together to solve it. That’s hard work.
Then we can truly be the land of the free and the home of the brave.