Dallas FC defender Reggie Cannon was upset that fans booed as players knelt during the national anthem on Wednesday. But it’s Cannon, not the fans, who is in the wrong.
“We had someone chanting ‘U-S-A,’ but they don’t understand what kneeling means. They don’t understand why we’re kneeling,” Cannon said. “They can’t see the reason. They think we’re the ignorant ones. It’s incredibly frustrating. I’m sorry to have this tone, but you have to call it for what it is.”
Like athletes before him, Cannon contradicts himself. Cannon said that players asked for the anthem not even to be played because it didn’t feel right to play it “at this moment.” In that case, how exactly are fans chanting “U-S-A” the ones who don’t understand what kneeling means? If kneeling isn’t about the national anthem or the rejection of any sense of patriotism, why is it that the anthem should not even be played “in this moment?”
Athletes such as Cannon continue to contradict their own arguments in this manner. The protests are about racial justice, they say, not the national anthem — except that the national anthem shouldn’t even be played. The protests are not anti-American, but in the words of Colin Kaepernick, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people.”
Athletes have been given a rosy view of their protests, as fans haven’t been present at most games. But Major League Soccer is deferring to localities on allowing fans in the stands, and as fans in other leagues get the green light to return, you can expect more fan pushback on these protests.
This shouldn’t be a shock to Cannon, or anybody else, because this form of protesting was always going to be divisive. The national anthem and the American flag were always our common denominator, the things we could always look at as the most basic unifying symbols of being an American.
Protesting during the national anthem has become indistinguishable from protesting the anthem itself, even among the athletes doing the protests. This was the inevitable end of using the anthem as the vehicle of protest, especially doing so at the prompting of Kaepernick, who made it clear he doesn’t have any love for America. If athletes don’t want to stop these protests, they shouldn’t be surprised when fans meet them with a chorus of boos.
