Colin Kapernick SHOULD Stand Up

For those who may not know, Colin Kapernick, backup quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, has been kneeling to protest during the National Anthem before football games on account of the African Americans killed by police and affected by other injustices.  He has created quite the backlash among many, while being supported in various ways as well.  

The typical argument against Kap goes like this:  “How dare he kneel during a song and in front of a flag that symbolize what the men and women of the Armed Forces fought to defend and the freedom they secured for all of us in America!”  

Interestingly, Kapernick’s protest has nothing to do with the military.  He is protesting a system believed to be unfairly bent towards upholding certain Americans’ values at the expense of others.  It seems for him that the American flag does not first and foremost embody the great sacrifices of military personnel, but rather our stars and stripes serve to remind him of racial discrimination and profiling from some who are sworn to protect and serve.  (And no, I am not anti-cop nor do I think that police are the problem…it runs much deeper, and it effects BOTH sides.)  

It is wrong for me to declare that how someone feels about the ensign of our country is an invalid feeling to experience.  I cannot tell Kap that he is wrong for seeing the flag this way.  In fact, my first and foremost priority, if I want to be a compassionate person (and resemble Jesus), is to seek to understand how this young man could possibly be feeling what he feels.  In even the briefest of attempts at understanding, I realize that Colin Kapernick is not alone.  It seems that the majority of African Americans have a similar feeling when one of their own is shot and killed by a police officer or when they look at incarceration rates in our country which lean heavily towards locking up minorities.  

“But black on black crime is such a huge problem, and the media is not telling the whole story!!!”  If as a white person, this type of statement is my first and only response, or I am tempted to find statistics that prove racism does not exist in this country, I am failing to put myself in my black brother or black sister’s shoes long enough to validate his/her feelings being a citizen of America.  Why do African Americans feel unjustly treated in the US?  

There is of course no simple answer to this question.  I have not had enough conversations to speak for an entire race of people.  But I am aware, by God’s grace, of how lacking in the compassion department it is for me to dismiss their feelings and experiences as somehow misrepresentations of reality, or, even worse, racist jargon perpetuated by liberal media designed to force white Americans to apologize for wrongs of our ancestors.  

Is it too much to ask that we slow down?  Is it too much to ask that we table any judgment until hearing from people who have a different perspective than we do on life in America?  Is it possible that two entirely different people would have two entirely different AND valid experiences growing up in this country?  

If we slow down for a minute, perhaps these questions come with common sense answers.  Of course my experiences as a white, middle class American will be different than those of a millionaire’s kid or of an orphan.  Then they certainly will be drastically different from someone of a different skin color who grew up in a different neighborhood with different cultural norms and societal influences.  How could Colin Kapernick’s experience be the same or anything close to my own…or your own?  We are different people.  And our experiences will inform how we feel about any number of things, including the flag we fly as an independent nation.  

So I think Colin Kapernick should stand up…for the issues he cares deeply about as an American.  Are there better ways to protest?  Probably.  But he’s young.  When is the last time you were struck emotionally by an injustice you saw and immediately had the perfect response to fix the situation?  The reality is that when we become emotionally invested in anything…and especially when it involves things bigger than ourselves that extend to our fellow brethren…we don’t often respond with the most well-rounded opinions and actions.  Was it right for countless Americans to cheer the death of Osama Bin Laden?  Can it ever be right to throw a party when another human being dies?  I don’t think so because life itself is more fundamentally good than vengeance ever will be.  All that to say, give Kap a chance to express himself with increasing nuance and wisdom and effectiveness as he learns to deal with a raw emotion so closely wrapped up in who he is as a human and as an American…one who has a huge platform to speak from…one who came into a position of prominence almost overnight…one who cares deeply and wants to celebrate America as much as you or I…who sees striking problems that need correcting before he can stand for a flag that represents the equality he desires it to.  

Even as I write these things, I’m aware of how easily dismissed I will be by some.  It sounds “liberal” to entertain the thought (even for a moment) that maybe there is a racism problem today in America…that maybe the problem is deeper rooted than lynchings and slavery…that maybe it is a problem that exists in the human heart and is common to man.  And that maybe sometimes this sin problem manifests itself in violent protests by African Americans..and that sometimes it manifests itself in racial profiling and the unjust police shootings.  

The answer is not to point fingers at the other side and stand with crossed arms behind a wall of hard-hearted judgmentalism.  Especially, if we claim the name of Jesus, we have to be willing to listen to those whose experience is drastically different than our own and with the utmost compassion validate their experience and seek to link arms.  This is an appeal to both sides.  I’m unwilling to shoulder more blame as a white American than I deserve, and I am equally unwilling to remove myself from any culpability in how I have responded to minorities at various times in my life.  

I wish this response was better thought out.  I wish I could articulate more clearly what I feel in my heart.  I wish I had a perfect answer for people on both sides of the divide when the news reports that another unarmed black man was shot and killed by police.  But I would call each of us to cross the divide that exists.  

We, no matter what side we’re on, are protecting a position that needs instead to be demolished.  We really need to stop looking across at the other side as the enemy of our freedoms and begin understanding the validity of experience and perspective that both sides bring to the table.  This is obviously a scary way forward.  It means laying aside prejudice in favor of understanding, laying aside self-validation for others affirmation.  It means rejecting the prideful and erroneous notion that we have all the answers and humbly receiving an alternative perspective to our own…even at the risk of being found out to be near-sighted and racist ourselves.  

I want Kapernick to care deeply about issues he feels are problematic in America.  And I want to be able to come along side his concerns and care about present realities that may confront more than just a far-off notion of racism and may convict me of heart problems of my own.  In the same breath, I want to be able to encourage my police officer friends to keep striving for justice and protecting our communities with servant hearts…even as a growing fear of retaliation for something they themselves did not do creeps into their lives.  

The backlash needs to stop and the divide crossed in order for folks on both sides of this issue to unite under one flag and enjoy the same freedoms across the board.  It’s for this reason I commend Kap for standing up for what he believes in.  His is a perspective I need to learn from in order to develop a nuanced and wise perspective on real experiences of people much different from myself.  That is the perspective of compassion and loving my neighbor that Jesus calls me to, and it is the only perspective that makes sense if I want to honor my Lord.