With Liberty and Justice for All and the Power of Sitting Down

I’m pretty sure that “With Liberty and Justice for All” is the phrase that causes Colin Kaepernick to sit down during the Pledge of Allegiance. His choice to sit down echoes the choice of Rosa Parks to remain seated in her seat on a bus in Alabama in defiance of segregation laws. Sitting down during the Anthem is his way of using his position as a high profile athlete with the San Francisco 49ers to shed more light on the endemic prejudice against people of color and how that has played out so tragically within the systems of power. Unarmed people of color are killed by police at a disproportional rate than light skinned people. After each shooting, we have to ask ourselves how many more and when will this stop.

Colin shares an affinity with people of color in a way that I will never be able to because my skin is so white the glare would hurt your eyes. But I’ve listened to my father’s stories about how Black people were treated before the Civil Rights Movement in the Midwest. I’ve witnessed racism even in our peaceful coastal towns in California, where dark skinned folks have been refused seating at some restaurants. And I’ve been caught in the more subtle racism based on stereotype when while interviewing an African American poet I made the assumption that she had been born poor and raised in an inner city when in fact she was born into more money and status than I and she had a University education.

Colin shares an affinity with another athlete, Muhammad Ali, who refused to go to Vietnam to kill strangers in another land to supposedly protect our freedoms when he didn’t feel that his people in this country were yet free. He took a risk and sacrificed for that stance. And Colin has taken a risk as well, knowing that there would be a backlash and that his career might suffer. Colin is willing to take that risk for the greater good of his country, to help propel us forward on our journey of creating a more perfect union where all people are treated equally. He is exemplifying American values by exercising his freedom of speech, taking a stand by sitting down.