#imwithkaepernick

I love Mike Francesa, though said love is mostly compartmentalized to his views and subsequent expressions on sports and athletes. I’ll never forget the experience of falling in love with his show as it became quickly apparent that he was in my brain, better yet, the better version of my brain, poignantly elaborating on everything I’d thought and wished I could express in a way that made every other sports talk guy sound second rate. Nevertheless, my brother and I would joke that we’d never before observed a greater disparity within one person’s IQ between one subject matter and every other in the world.

Have you ever heard Francesa discuss movies or TV shows or political climate? Before your eyes (ears) he suddenly transforms from all-knowing guru into this generic, old, white, Long Island dad, who isn’t necessarily racist but says some things that racists say, thinks Frank Caliendo is funny, and… voted for Trump.

I was once listening as one of his callers, typically cut from the same cloth pontificated on the Colin Kaepernick saga by making the point: “Football is entertainment, Mike. It’s entertainment, am I right? (red flag any time someone poses this rhetorical) We don’t need to turn on the TV at 1:00 for our favorite pastime on Sundays and have it ruined by these guys kneeling during the national anthem. It’s supposed to be entertainment.”

I held my breath in prayer that Mike would come through for me.

“That’s a great point,” Mike said, “ a really great point,” and he broke my heart.

First of all, do they even televise the national anthem before every game? I’m honestly not even sure because like most fans, I don’t tune in for the national anthem, and I’d venture a guess that up until now this caller didn’t either. I think we can all agree that the entertainment is in the actual football, so until players start wearing NAACP stickers on their helmets or perform end zone celebrations that include raising one fist as they hang a Nazi dummy from the end zone post, I’d say the entertainment compartment remains unblemished.

Mike continued in accord: “People work hard all week long, and they just want to relax on Sundays and watch football – not your political protest. And you’ll see, you keep doing it and people will stop watching, and you’ll have to get a regular job paying not nearly as much as you’re getting paid now to play a kids’ game.”

Okay…

1.     Umm, no they won’t (stop watching). Do you have any idea how popular football is? I know you do. The NFL could air Black Panther rallies over the national anthem and KKK cross burnings at the Super Bowl halftime show and it would still do better numbers than any NBA finals or World Series game. If you think the mindless drones of the Midwest who worship football second only to the Lord in heaven, Jesus Christ, and Donald Trump, are going to stop watching football you are out of your Diet Coke-infested mind.

2.     Can we agree that the only thing more reprehensible than getting paid loads of money for playing a kids’ game is getting paid loads of money for simply talking about said kids’ game?

3.     If a five second clip of five or ten guys silently kneeling while the surrounding 75,000 others are standing in reverence compromises your ability to relax on Sundays then you should seek immediate mental health.

Obviously one is free to disagree whether there is in fact social injustice, but isn’t this part of what makes our country great, the very first amendment: Freedom of Speech? Aren’t you that much less “American” when you protest peoples’ right to protest, ironically shitting on the Bill of Rights whenever it happens to not appease your views? When Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul used their platform to speak out against violence in urban communities it didn’t seem to bother anyone. Mohammed Ali and Arthur Ashe were activists whose legacies are both celebrated, and Bruce Springsteen often interrupts his actual entertainment to do the same. Why didn’t any half-wit, Jersey douche bags call in about these?  

When Kaepernick first made the decision to kneel I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I knew it didn’t offend me as an American. I just wondered what a lot of others did, whether it was the right context for the action, in terms of potential efficacy towards intention. For years it was one of the biggest stories in sports, which might indicate actualization of the first stage of efficacy.

He made it clear that his choice had nothing to do with disrespecting the troops or their families – that there are many components of a nation, and his message was in regards to just one of those components. One could equally choose to kneel in protest of the drug companies, health insurance or legalization of Monsanto poisoning our food. Or we could stand in support of the troops, our democratic freedom and land of occupational opportunity. I found this point to be thoughtful, indisputable, also personally relatable.

I grew up a huge hip hop head and was often judged and criticized, mostly by fellow whites as being inauthentic, the inverse of an Uncle Tom; but also occasionally by black people, for not having the right to culturally appropriate “their thing,” because I didn’t have to worry about getting shot by cops when I walk down the street.

I always thought this was an unfair card to pull, since as abhorrent as police brutality is, it still makes up a very small percentage of the black experience in America. I’ve lived in New York my entire life and have spent a huge chunk of time in black communities. If the people I see on the streets are in this alleged perpetual state of worry about getting shot then I’d hate to see what they look like when they’re relaxed. I think it’s horrible how authorities have often dealt with the black community, but it would be as impossible for blacks to be relegated to a perpetual state of worry or fear as it was for New Yorkers to be of terrorism after 9/11.  

This is classic cherry picking, highlighting only the most tragic examples of a particular reality in order to make an accused transgressor seem as such. My hip hop appropriations being labeled as disrespectful to social inequality was as inaccurate as Kaepernick’s kneeling is to the troops or their families.

As we grow into adulthood we become abundantly aware that we are flawed, then we come to terms with accepting that the partner we fall in love with is as well. I remember how enlightening it was for me in adolescence when I first heard (white) friends criticize “white people” in broad strokes that were only somewhat tongue and cheek. This was huge for me, and so logical. Of course! We live in the diverse melting pot of New York. We should surely specify when we’re talking about white people, as there are other people in the world. Secondly, “white people” as a group have resounding flaws, as well as strengths, and it’s OK to acknowledge either or both. The same goes for black people, Hispanics, Asians and Arabs, as well as men, women, and groups of every religion. I think one of the primary red flags for stupidity is a failure to recognize the shortcomings of the group which one is inherently a part of. Much more disturbing to me than the 15 or 20 black players I see kneeling for the national anthem is how long it took to see even one white player join them.