Something strange happened while most professional sports were away, closed by the coronavirus.
The standing or kneeling debate, sparked by Colin Kaepernick’s stance during the national anthem in 2016 and burning ever since, has flared up again, bigger than ever, and this time with an unexpected twist.
Today, athletes may have to explain why they chose to stand, not kneel, during “The Star-Spangled Banner”.
“It would have been hard for me to believe a year ago,” said Charles Ross, professor of history and director of African American Studies at the University of Mississippi. “I would have said that something really happened in the United States to cause that. Clearly, what happened in the United States and in Minneapolis on May 25 fundamentally changed people’s perspectives on racism in this country. “
The protest movement that grew after George Floyd’s death while in police custody has a deep connection to Kaepernick. People protest racial inequality and police brutality, just as Kaepernick had done. And many, including some chiefs and police officers, kneel in gestures of unity and respect.
Now, the problems and the gesture have returned to the world of sports. In recent years, most athletes have avoided getting caught up in it. They could mingle in the background, behind league protocols to stand up, or amid the tranquility of others.
Even most of Kaepernick’s considered leaders and allies, in places like the NFL and NBA, found reasons not to kneel.
The difference in 2020, as sports begin to emerge from their pandemic suspensions, is that almost all professional athletes will be forced to choose a stance.
“You can’t sit down now in this post-George Floyd period that we’re in and say, ‘We will continue to take this safe position,'” Ross said. “No. Either you have a problem with racism or you don’t.”
Rachel Hill, a soccer player, found out first. When the National Women’s Soccer League started its season last Saturday night, Hill’s Chicago Red Stars and their opponents lined up for the pre-game national anthem. Most of the players knelt down.
Hill, a 25-year-old attacker, remained standing. She tilted her head and rested her hand on the shoulder of a black teammate, Casey Short. Just a year or four ago, Hill could have been hailed for her low-key support in fighting racial inequality.
Not in 2020. Days later, after a flurry of criticism and online debate, Hill felt compelled to defend her body’s position in a long statement, foreshadowing what awaits most athletes as they resume. the games.
“In some ways, it attests to the genius of Kaepernick’s protest tactic, who kneels silently during the hymn,” said Eric Burin, professor of history at the University of North Dakota and editor of a collection of essays called, “Protesting on Bent Knee: Race, Dissent, and Patriotism in 21st Century America.”
“When you read Hill’s statement, it was heartbreaking: tears were shed, direct conversations were held, and although the protest tactics are designed to cause discomfort, the Kaepernick tactic still works.”
However, the debate has become so polarizing that even inaction can become political. An entire professional softball team resigned last month when its general manager boasted to President Trump on Twitter that his players represented the anthem. And when New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees told an interviewer in June that he believed the kneeling protests “did not respect the flag,” a stance that has not changed since 2016, he was forced to back off quickly. amidst a huge storm of criticism from fans and teammates
The discussion is sure to spread as more leagues plan to restart, and as more players kneel, and is bound to regain its outsized place in political discourse as the fall election approaches. It may even end, at least in some leagues, the long American tradition of playing the national anthem before sporting events.
When Major League Soccer resumes its season on Wednesday within a bubble call in Florida, it won’t play a pre-game anthem, apparently because there will be no fans. But league officials have also discussed ending practice permanently when teams return to their home cities.
“Which in itself would cause consternation on many sides,” Burin said.
The dramatic shift to focus on those who choose to stand up, rather than kneel, could hardly be imagined when Kaepernick took a silent posture by not getting up for the hymn: sitting down at the beginning and then kneeling, after consulting with a green beret from the retired army, Nate Boyer.
Only a few top athletes followed, but it was enough to divide and inflame Americans, including a president who fired gas and an administration that saw a political advantage in rejecting the hymn protests.
Leagues and organizations tiptoed through the fury, mostly without grace, until the problem faded. They can’t help it now.
The majority of Americans, 52 percent, now approve of NFL players kneeling to the anthem to protest the police killings of African-Americans, according to a Yahoo News / YouGov poll in June. Only 37 percent opposed. It is a significant change from the group’s survey in 2016, when only 28 percent found Kaepernick’s gesture “appropriate.” That support rose to 35 percent in 2018.
Some leagues have modified their hymn policies in recent years, and then more recently modified them as public opinion changed. The United States Soccer Federation, for example, created a policy that requires all players to defend the anthem in 2017, after female star Megan Rapinoe became one of the first star athletes to follow Kaepernick’s lead. , only to terminate it last month.
Others seem to be preparing for the topic to return, but without a firm stance.
In the NBA, which plans to quarantine at Disney World in Florida this month to complete its season, Commissioner Adam Silver has not committed to how the league will handle the likelihood that players will kneel for the anthem. The league has had a unique policy for decades, he recently told Time magazine.
“I also understand the role of the protest, and I think we will address that situation when it comes up,” Silver said.
Major League Baseball, which hopes to start a shorter season later this month, only had one player kneeling in 2017. So he didn’t take a clear stance. Your withdrawal can be tested this month.
The NFL, which found itself at the center of the controversy, banned kneeling in 2018, opting instead for a stop or hide option (in the locker room). But Commissioner Roger Goodell recently showed his support for the Black Lives Matter movement and, at his own pivot, for player protests.
“We, the National Soccer League, admit that we were wrong not to listen to NFL players earlier and we encourage everyone to speak up and protest peacefully,” he said.
Everything promises to make the anthem return to television this fall.
And with the bleachers and bar stools still off limits, the pounding will bounce mainly through social media. That’s what happened with the NWSL, where the anthem threatened to overshadow the league’s season openers last weekend.
“It’s so interesting, how important kneeling has been,” Burin said. “Why this gesture in particular? Why is it so important, instead of putting your hand on someone’s shoulder or bowing your head?
On Tuesday, Short and his Chicago Red Stars teammate Julie Ertz, who had comforted a sobbing Short during the anthem last Saturday, tweeted a long statement, a kind of essay titled “Our Narrative.”
“Today, each time the national anthem is played, our country continues to be increasingly divided on what the visual symbol of unity looks like,” they wrote. “Through our ongoing conversations, we wanted to make sure that whatever we decided to do was not an empty gesture.”
Among those conversations, they said, were the emotional ones with Hill, who had been with them, literally.
In her statement, Hill admitted being divided on how to approach the hymn.
“I chose to stand because of what the flag inherently means to my military family members and myself, but I support 100% of my comrades,” he wrote.
She added: “I support the life movement of black lives wholeheartedly. I also support and will do my part in the fight against current inequality. As a white athlete, I have been diligently anti-racist for a long time. ”
Hill tried to have it both ways. But if there is something certain about the hymn debate, renewed and stirred in these nuances-free times, it is this: there is little room for such a position.
