In recent weeks, Colin Kaepernick has been the subject of national celebration and condemnation. The San Francisco 49ers quarterback has chosen to sit during the national anthem indefinitely, which goes against American tradition. He is doing so in protest of racial inequality and police brutality.

“I have to help these communities. It’s not right that they’re not put in the position to succeed or given those opportunities to success,” Kaepernick told reporters recently, according to USA Today.

Many have called Kaepernick’s actions disrespectful and anti-American, to which he responded by denying the claims and pledging $1 million to American groups that are working to help people affected by the issues he is protesting.

The Daily Orange sat down with Syracuse University African American Studies professor Renate “Rennie” Simson to discuss the historical implications of Kaepernick’s protest.

The Daily Orange: Do you think Kaepernick’s protest is anti-American or disrespectful to our troops and military veterans?

Rennie Simson: We are a nation that is very patriotic, but we have super patriotism in our country. We now as the American population at large are very easily offended if our citizens do not show what we have deemed over the years to be the appropriate respect for this patriotism, for these symbols and these entities defining our patriotism.

What the confusion is, is the lack of ability of Americans, especially white Americans to understand the depth of what it has meant to be African American in this society.

… So we shouldn’t be so shocked that, once again, an African American who feels this same way that many of his ancestors have felt, that he wants to make a statement, that he is a person who has enough name recognition that it will draw attention to his behavior.

The D.O.: Is that a misunderstanding of what it means to be black in America only a modern issue?

R.S.: African Americans have had demonstratively and clearly different experiences of being Americans than people of European descent have, and their entire history in this country has been different. Kaepernick is in a continuity here of people of African ancestry who have experienced a different experience than white Americans have and often do not feel the attachment to these symbols and entities which we revere and celebrate.

… America doesn’t know its history. That’s the problem. Slavery went on for 250 years followed by 100 years of Jim Crow. That’s no small amount of time and it only gets basically a few paragraphs in history books. That’s not good enough. You can’t have a society that’s built on 350 years of incredible discrimination and expect them to be okay with that. Until people know what the history has been like — and I think this should be required in police academies across the country — people need to know what the suffering has been and why people are so angry and hostile and don’t trust. Those things need to be known. Perhaps there would be more compassion if they had an understanding of what people go through.

The D.O.: How do you think that that could happen in relation to these public figures?

R.S.: If a group of these public figures would talk about something like the Syracuse schools to say today’s situation … Why are you asking me to respect a city where zero percent of children pass a standardized math test in the eighth grade and children have the highest lead level in the nation and no one seems to be doing anything about it there? If these figures, that are able to garner that amount of attention, would then say, you are surprised that I’m not showing the appropriate respect? You’re shocked? And mention that they’re part of a long tradition and mention Frederick Douglass and mention W.E.B. Du Bois. But if they’re practical and say then that today I’m standing up to protest what today’s young people are suffering through. So why should we not protest or get attention to these horrors in any possible way that we can?

The D.O.: At the ESPYs this year, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony all spoke at the awards about police brutality. And this was a month after Muhammad Ali’s passing, who was a lifelong activist. Are they stepping into his shoes a bit? And do you feel that if they are, that it is a worthwhile pursuit?

R.S.: From my point of view, at least as important as police brutality is the education system. Because you’re not going to get people that are able to provide themselves a different life if their education leaves them knowing nothing. I cannot believe that these children are innately, hopelessly stupid compared to white children, that just doesn’t make sense, that’s not the case. So that’s the most important issue in my point of view. So calling attention to these things? Muhammad Ali tried it, athletes try it, politicians try it. It isn’t working and hasn’t worked. For a short period of time the Civil Rights Movement did succeed in calling attention and getting political support. I think probably in many different ways, that is what people in the Black Lives Matter movement are trying to do today.

The D.O.: Are you hopeful that because someone’s favorite athlete is calling attention to these issues, that maybe that they’ll be a little more educated about the subject and attitudes might shift?

R.S.: I think in terms of reality, I think the opposite is the case. I think that the people who have an understanding, who respect what Kaepernick did, already are at place X. You used the word shift. I think it will continue the polarization which already exists. I don’t think it will shift the polarization at all.

The D.O.: Is Kaepernick’s choice to sit out the national anthem at his football games going to affect change?

R.S.: One person doing what he did will be a conversation piece for a while. We like melodrama. But the next thing comes up and we forget. Things have to be a sustained effort.

Published on September 5, 2016 at 11:43 pm

Contact: mpmoor02@syr.edu