Colin Kaepernick's protest symbolizes more than racial injustice.
To some Americans it symbolizes contempt for America and people like themselves.
Yesterday this blog published an angry letter sent to the NFL and its players.
It called players "spoiled babies" who are over-indulged and overpaid entertainers, mere employees playing a game and doing "antics" for the public's entertainment with an inflated view of their worth. The letter says they disgrace the nation and insult the flag, the country, and the real heroes, America's military. Photos included in the angry letter show a badly wounded Black soldier.
The letter generally took the position Donald Trump takes. He called NFL players who take a knee "sons of bitches" and says the gesture signals an insult to the flag and national anthem and patriotic Americans.
This blog posed a question: Was the letter an example of racism? The letter certainly projected disapproval of uppity presumption. A guest post response by Thad Guyer said it was thoroughly and undeniably racist. This blog received other comments in agreement with Guyer.
A significant portion of Americans agree with Trump and the sentiments of the letter. Does that simply confirm that a significant portion of Americans are racist? Michael Trigoboff teaches computer science at Portland Community College. He said the letter resonated with him. I read Trigoboff to think Kaepernick represents something else, another iteration of liberal overreach demanding politically correct conformity, and a symbol of tyranny and "cancel culture," and not racial injustice.
[Tomorrow I will publish 3 more comments. Two of them agree that the angry letter to the NFL contains racist animus. The other said Kaepernick insulted America's veterans, and moreover that Guyer's response yesterday was an example of the issue Trigoboff describes, leftist bullying.]
Guest Post by Michael Trigoboff
I resonate with that letter to the NFL. I do not like seeing the flag of my country disrespected.
That letter never mentions race. There is no way to determine whether or not the author was motivated by racial resentment.
My feelings about the movement’s larger political goals contribute to my irritation at these athletes kneeling during the Star-Spangled Banner.
If I wanted to watch a football game, I would get irritated if players forced an infomercial on me about their personal political views. I like music and would feel the same at a concert if I had to hear their politics. Of course, it depends on whether I agree. I enjoyed Country Joe and the Fish’s Feel Like I’m Fixing To Die Rag when I saw them live, but back then I was a 20-something stoned hippie freak anti-Vietnam War protester.
I have mixed feelings towards the Black Lives Matter movement. I totally agree with “black lives matter” as a subset of “all lives matter.” (Note saying "all lives matter" is something that can get you canceled these days. A soccer player got fired from his team recently because his wife tweeted the forbidden phrase. Punishing people for things members of their family did was typical of communist regimes.)
BLM has larger political goals of the movement, like "abolish the police," racial reparations, the imposition of critical race theory on society, the show trials, forced apologies that read like hostage notes, and "canceling." I do not sympathize with these political goals.
Movement demonstrators often chant "hands up, don't shoot," a slogan that arose out of the incident in Ferguson. At first people thought that's what had happened, but once the Obama Justice Department reported that wasn't what happened, Black Lives Matter continued to use the slogan and claim that Michael Brown was shot with his hands up.
I do not like being lied to.
I love my country and care about patriotic displays. This is my country. I was born and raised here. If my Jewish ancestors hadn't been able to come here in the early 1900s, my parents would have been killed at someplace like Auschwitz.
I believe in "my country, right or wrong." This doesn't mean that don’t recognize wrong things that have happened in American society. It means that I have feelings for my country that I don't have for any other country. It’s analogous to how I feel about my family.
It's one thing to have wrong things about my country pointed out with what feels like affection. It's entirely different when those things are pointed out with what feels like contempt. What Black Lives Matter, the 1619 Project, etc. express feels like contempt to me. That is what I saw in Kaepernick’s protest and it is why the letter to the NFL resonated with me.
Some behaviors are definitely racist (e.g. a burning cross, a noose); some things are definitely not racist, and some things fall into a gray area. The letter falls into that gray area. I understand that it can be viewed as racist. It can also be viewed as not racist. I don’t like that this movement is quick to categorize the entire gray area as racist, and to silence anyone who sees shades of gray by calling them racist.
In the current rhetorical environment, accusations of racial animus are flung around promiscuously and used as weapons to shut down opinions that violate the taboos of political correctness. Right now, the word "racist” is the biggest rhetorical bomb in the arsenal. Get tagged with it and your entire life can be destroyed.
The woke mob will detonate it anywhere they can. It's a regime of rhetorical terror. Whatever happened to due process?
When you express an opinion that's different from theirs, they say you have "caused harm." I have participated in online discussions on race, and have been accused of "causing harm" and doing "violence” for things like pointing out that Michael Brown did not have his hands up, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was an adult -sized kid holding a "toy gun" that was indistinguishable from a real gun. I was reporting the simple truth, but no matter.
During a recent email discussion at the college where I teach, I asked a question about “harm” saying it would be helpful if you explained whether “harmed“ meant physical injury? Emotional? Something else? Where are the lines, I asked?
I got this response:
"Michael Trigoboff, you’ve been perpetuating violence against oppressed ppl for as long as I’ve worked here. For your gaslighting, for your very, very vocal support of oppression against women, trans folk, and BIPOC, for making numerous statements about how you think our students are stupid and lazy — I am putting you on notice NOW. Our community will NOT tolerate you acting like this for the remainder of your tenure.”
I felt attacked because I was attacked. Black Lives Matters doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It is part of a bigger movement that squelches honest inquiry. So, my response to the Kaepernick protest is colored by my feeling that his protest isn’t just about justice. It is also a movement of people who attack people who aren’t on their team, and indeed treat them with contempt.
"Michael Trigoboff, you’ve been perpetuating violence against oppressed ppl for as long as I’ve worked here. For your gaslighting, for your very, very vocal support of oppression against women, trans folk, and BIPOC, for making numerous statements about how you think our students are stupid and lazy — I am putting you on notice NOW. Our community will NOT tolerate you acting like this for the remainder of your tenure.”
I felt attacked because I was attacked. Black Lives Matters doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It is part of a bigger movement that squelches honest inquiry. So, my response to the Kaepernick protest is colored by my feeling that his protest isn’t just about justice. It is also a movement of people who attack people who aren’t on their team, and indeed treat them with contempt.
The letter to the NFL was intemperate, but it demonstrates what can happen when people like the letter-writer feel their thoughts and values are under attack.
6 comments:
What part of NO! Don’t you understand? NO to violating the rights of others different then you by your words, actions and deeds. BLM is a reaction to this abuse and behavior. Your stand is best taken alone. Seek help from qualified therapists if you become depressed when to realize the harm you’re causing by your words, deeds and behavior.
Boys, boys! You don't further the race conversation by calling anyone racist. What this false argument shows is that people value different things. My parents were WWII veterans and one was proud to be the Americanism Chairman of the local American Legion post. Certainly "patriotism" means something different to me than to a black inner city resident. I was on a Zoom where a prominent black politician said the word "patriot" conjured images of right wing Proud Boys spewing bigotry and mayhem for her.
"What Black Lives Matter ... express feels like contempt to me." Get over yourself, Michael, your feelings don't matter when stacked against 500 years of institutional racism, discrimination, and domination. You're better than that. Open your mind, go beyond your limited life experience and show some compassion. Look for the TED talk by Barathunde Thurston on "Living While Black."
And shame on you, Peter, for promoting this divisive discourse. Seems like 'selling' blog hits: no better than Sinclair. Why don't you promote dog fights instead?
Sadly, Michael Trigoboff exposes a depth of ignorance which is truly frightening when he comments on the NFL and its players, agreeing with another boob, the one in the 'white house. Perhaps if Mr. Trigaboff had some first hand experience or knowledge about the NFL and the players, a vast majority of whom are black, he would not expose his ignorance so blatantly. Supposedly, slavery was abolished in our nation during the Civil War, but a more latent form of slavery (share cropping and tolerance of the KU KLUX KLAN) was allowed to flourish replete with thousands of lynchings that continued into the 1930's. It is not surprising under the circumstances that a day would arrive wherein the black community weary of being ignored when black people were being summarily being abused by the police departments of our nation would challenge the white community's complacence and sense of privelege by whatever means was available to them. The national anthem,(an uninspired piece of inanity written by a dedicated slaveholder) played and sung, blathers on about equality, freedom, etc, none of which the black community has enjoyed or really been a part of. Perhaps the black players, unable to avail themselves of any other national platform on which they could underline the hypocritical nature of things chose the pre-game ceremony, a time when all brave Americans -would be watching. I note, when describing the NFL players as pampered and spoiled Mr.Tribogoff once again displayed and astonishing ignorance of what's going on by making no mention of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) a deadly brain disease that menaces all who dare to expose their bodies to the ravages of contact sports, most especially football. Any peron, of any color, has to have courage to brave the potential and deadly consequences of CTE. Mr. Trigaboff would be well advised to study a situation more fully before making his dumb-ass remarks. I doubt that Mr. Trigaboff is a real jerk, but his dumb-ass commentary suggests that possibility.
Bob Warren
Michael Trigovboff,
Patriotism can also mean "My country, right its wrongs".
One can love a country, but be ashamed of its past.
Our country's treatment of Blacks, Hispanics, Indigenous Americans, women, Asians, and Jews as at times been despicable.
You have been accused of all sorts of bias, yet claim to want the truth.
Here is one truth. - you claim that you are Jewish.
Well, you are naive as to what side of this discrimination you are on.
They are coming for you next!
Typical Michael response , pretending intellectual insight and analysis by showing off his white privilege as being logical and under fire from BLM and any group he cannot control.
I do not fly a flag, if I did I would fly it upside down, in distress. After all , the flag has no power, only in the eyes of the beholder, like bad art in a motel room loved by the owners wife. When the flag was draped over my Dad’s coffin as a WW2 veteran I saluted it and cried. It represented my Dad’s memory. Young men dying in wars without end or moral purpose have sullied by childhood memory of patriotic glory. because many of my High School students from Santa Barbara were killed in Viet Nam, a worthless war.
It might be helpful if Michael went to a large city and worked in a soup kitchen full time for about 6 months and maybe come out with a deeper view of minority needs. I feel I am listening to empty chatter of someone who has fallen in love with his economic and educational status and has dismissed those who are not so fortunate.
Sent from my iPad
Ralph,
Engaging with what I said might produce something of value. Tossing insults around is just empty virtue signaling.
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