It’s not a secret, everyone knows.
Everyone knows that if Kaepernick didn’t kneel against racial injustice he would be on a team. It is good to hear it come out of the mouth of one of the biggest white players in the NFL Aaron Rodgers.
Many white players have been silent on this issue, Rodgers plainly speaks on the reality of the situation.
I bring up Colin Kaepernick. It’s July, and the media are still speculating as to why Kaepernick isn’t on an NFL roster after kneeling during the national anthem last season to protest racial inequity in policing. The word “blackballed” is being used with greater frequency, though some people in and around the NFL maintain that the quarterback simply isn’t very good. I ask Rodgers what he thinks, and he demurs at first, then says it would be “ignorant” to suggest Kaepernick’s stance didn’t play a role in his employment status.
A few weeks later, he reaffirms his point. “I think he should be on a roster right now,” he says. “I think because of his protests, he’s not.”
Rodgers tells me that while he doesn’t plan on sitting out the anthem, he believes the protests — which he describes as peaceful and respectful — are positive, mentioning that he’s had conversations with a new teammate, tight end Martellus Bennett, about the issues they represent. “I’m gonna stand because that’s the way I feel about the flag — but I’m also 100 percent supportive of my teammates or any fellow players who are choosing not to,” he says. “They have a battle for racial equality. That’s what they’re trying to get a conversation started around.”
I ask him what he thinks about that battle — the actual subject of Kaepernick’s protest. As always, he pauses to collect his thoughts. “I think the best way I can say this is: I don’t understand what it’s like to be in that situation. What it is to be pulled over, or profiled, or any number of issues that have happened, that Colin was referencing — or any of my teammates have talked to me about.” He adds that he believes it’s an area the country needs to “remedy and improve” and one he’s striving to better understand. “But I know it’s a real thing my black teammates have to deal with.”
One thing people have to understand is you don’t have to kneel for the anthem to support the issues that are being knelt for.
All minorities are asking for is for you to understand why we feel like we have to take a stand because of the racial inequality in our country. A country that is being led by a white supremacist, so it is crucial that white people don’t turn a blind eye to this.
