No one really knows at this point what protesting during the national anthem is supposed to mean, but one thing is certain: If you don’t kneel, you’re an awful person.
At least, this is the message that is being reinforced by sports media and the small portion of woke sports fans. Take Jonathan Isaac, the first player not to kneel for the national anthem in the NBA. Isaac, who is black, was asked immediately after the game if he thought black lives mattered and had his religion questioned by Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks.
I asked Jonathan Isaac two questions:
You didn’t kneel during the anthem but you also didn’t wear a black lives matter shirt. Do you believe black lives matter?
Can you explain what religion has to do with kneeling for the anthem to protest against racism and police brutality? pic.twitter.com/me61FleWPY
— Taylor Rooks (@TaylorRooks) July 31, 2020
Isaac wasn’t the only athlete to have his religion questioned for standing for the anthem. NBC Sports similarly assaulted the faith of San Francisco Giants pitcher Sam Coonrod. Meanwhile, social justice savant Gregg Popovich stood for the anthem as well, leading his star player DeMar DeRozan to feel compelled to call on fans not to “vilify” him.
Even hockey has caught the disease. Matt Dumba became the first NHL player to kneel for the American national anthem before rising to his feet for Canada’s anthem. Dumba clearly had no clue what he was doing, as he now says he regrets not staying on a knee for the Canadian anthem, and now he won’t kneel at all.
If you thought these protests were anything but a vain exercise in social posturing, I present to you this NBC Sports headline, “NHL fans kneel on social media in support of Black Lives Matter after players didn’t.”
It would be difficult to imagine just a year ago that people would have to explain why they chose to stand for the national anthem. It’s even more baffling when there’s still no real explanation of what the protests are supposed to accomplish. Bumper sticker phrases about “injustice” and “racism” don’t actually illustrate what the end goal of these protests is.
The closest thing to substance in these protests involves police reform. But if that is so, why is it that the protests are being cheered on by Democrats, who have decided police reform apparently isn’t important enough to address this year? This whole police reform debate started in Minneapolis, a city that hasn’t elected a single Republican councilman in the 21st century.
These protests are not transgressive or brave. They’re corporate-approved virtue-signaling, for which sponsors and media alike have signed off. They stand for nothing but vague, generally agreeable sloganeering, and yet with help from our media, they are driving everyone into repudiating the only real symbol of unity we have: the pride of being an American.
