It’s All About The Knee
By: Jeffrey Kass
Tags: Minneapolis, Protest, Take A Knee, Racism, Race

“Justice will not be served until those unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” -Ben Franklin

Unsplash Photo Credit: Bandersnap

As Minneapolis entered its third evening of unrest Thursday night, with police precincts overrun, retail stores destroyed, and buildings set afire, Facebook and Twitter are once again abuzz amidst unruliness and angry crowds. My own social media feeds of white friends and acquaintances included a number of condemnations regarding the rioting and destruction.

I’m not here to condone violence or destruction of property. Not following the Red Sox’s first World Series win in almost a century and not in Minneapolis. Because here’s what we know:

Black, white and other businesses suffer. Small business owners, even those who are on the side of justice, suffer. Corporations that donate millions to fighting racism and employ their own robust diversity programs suffer. Employees, including minority employees who work at these businesses, suffer.

Harming these folks isn’t going to end racism or bring about justice for George Floyd or other government-murdered, unarmed Black men. Still, there is unmistakable irony in the anger about the rioting and looting.

“This is just going to make people hate them (the cops) more,” one person wrote. “Rioting is never the answer,” wrote another. “This is outrageous.” “How will this fix anything,” was pointed out by another.

Even Trump, although earlier calling for an expedited investigation, labeled the angry Minnesotans THUGS. His all caps, not mine.

Then it dawned on me. A lot of the same people outraged over the rioting also loudly complained when a certain quarterback peacefully took a knee over systemic racism, oftentimes perpetrated by officers employed by our own flag-waving government.

I remember the outrage against Colin Kaepernick’s protest well.

“Such disrespect for our country,” one white friend of twenty years wrote. “How dare he denigrate the flag and our national anthem,” a colleague posted. “How Un-American.” “This is a disgrace to our military.”

The list goes on and on.

And oh, by the way…..all of this with the backdrop of our National Anthem sung at the games. How quickly we forget the refrain…

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

As a result of the outrage over Kaepernick’s highly peaceful method of protest and anger, the entire NFL undeniably colluded to keep the talented Kaepernick out of the league. This was supported by the same thug calling President who demanded the NFL fire anyone who dared engage in the peaceful protest during our beloved national anthem.

So with all of this, here’s the underlying set of messages and rules being delivered to Black people.

Don’t protest government officers committing murder (once again), people calling cops on Black bird watchers or racists shooting Black joggers. Don’t respond in anger with violence. And certainly, most certainly don’t do it peacefully by taking a knee on artificial turf.

Just shhhhhh.

How about this instead, my fellow protected white people. Why not show some outrage at the pervasive injustice against Black folks for a change. And maybe even take a knee. George Floyd took a fatal one. So like Kaepernick, why not take one of your own in protest.

Jeffrey Kass is the author of “Oreos and a Pack of Marlboro Lights” a collection of lightly fictionalized true stories, essays, and even a poem covering a wide variety of subjects including relationships, race, religion, and coming of age matters.