Sports as a Weapon is Alive on the Morning of the First Sunday of the 2017 NFL Season

Colin Kapernick kneels during the National Anthem of a preseason game against the Chargers (Photo Credit Chris Carlson/AP)

 

Hey everyone this site is still alive! I have been really busy with grad school and life that I didn’t keep a consistent writing routine for almost two years. Since my last writing piece Kaepernick began his anthem protest that has spread through the NFL since. It was perfect timing for this blog and I just never had the time and motivation to write anything up. I have written plenty of Facebook posts over that time though. I think I will go digging for those and post them up here eventually.

Also since the last time I wrote on the site the GOAT Muhammad Ali passed away, Marshawn Lynch is a Raider and Donald Trump is the President of the United States… Oh and Colin Kaepernick has essentially been black-listed from the NFL for his political protest of the historically racist National Anthem in protest of the killing of Black and Brown folks.

Here is the excerpt from the CNN article above with the racist anti-black lyrics of the Third Stanza of the Star-Spangled Banner:

The Star-Spangled Banner” was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 about the American victory at the Battle of Fort McHenry. We only sing the first verse, but Key penned three more. This is the third verse:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The mere mention of “slave” is not entirely remarkable; slavery was alive and well in the United States in 1814. Key himself owned slaves, was an anti-abolitionist and once called his African brethren “a distinct and inferior race of people.” Some interpretations of these lyrics contend Key was, in fact, taking pleasure in the deaths of freed black slaves who had fought with the British against the United States In order to bolster their numbers, British forces offered slaves freedom in British territories in return for joining their cause. These black recruits formed the Colonial Marines and were looked down upon by people like Key, who saw their actions as treasonous. As an anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner” has never been a unanimous fit. Since it was officially designated as the national anthem in 1931, Americans have debated the suitability of its militaristic lyrics and difficult tune. (Some have offered up “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful” as alternatives.)

Since Colin Kaepernick’s protest several players have taken a knee or sat in protest during the National Anthem. I plan on creating a timeline since Kapernick’s protest of each player with my future posts. I will also do another featured post on Michael Bennett, who has taken the lead in continuing the protests this upcoming 2017 NFL Season with Kapernick currently not on an NFL roster. Unfortunately for Michael Bennett he felt the wrath of systematic racism and police violence first hand last August during the Mayweather-McGregor  fight in Las Vegas. This story went viral earlier this week when TMZ released footage of the incident.

Since I’m a Raider fan, here is Marshawn Lynch sitting in protest of the National Anthem:

Marshawn sits during the National Anthem with a banana in his hand during a preseason game (Photo credit TYT Sports)

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