A year into the NFL protests that began with Colin Kaepernick, there is still a lot of confusion, including from President Donald Trump, about what the demonstrations are about. Thankfully, Fox Sports 1 and First Things First host Nick Wright has given what is perhaps the best distillation of the topic I have seen on television.
This video is the best 5 minutes you will see on the NFL protests. Seriously, watch it.
“When people march, they are not protesting traffic.”
You can watch the full video above — and you really should. It begins with Wright pointing out some of the absurdity of what’s been happening ever since Trump last Friday began tweeting about how the NFL players should be fired because, according to him, they’re protesting the national anthem, flag, country, and even US military veterans.
“I am not going to engage on what the president did,” Wright said. “I’m not going to engage on the absurdity that we just ran a clip where a player quotes the president of the United States and we felt we needed to bleep it. I’m not going to engage on the absurdity that the day after the president was inaugurated, via his favorite form of communication, Twitter, he tweeted his resolute regard and support of peaceful protests, of which this is as peaceful as it gets.”
Wright went on to clarify that it is not true that the players are protesting the anthem, flag, country, or military. They are protesting systemic racism and police brutality.
“What I will engage on is what is actually happening, because I can’t walk past a television screen without seeing this on the bottom line: ‘NFL players protest anthem,’” he said. “It is amazing to get a fact error in a four-word headline.”
He added, “When people march, they are not protesting traffic. The players have been uniform that they are using the anthem as a vehicle to protest inequality, police brutality, and racial injustice. And this story — by the president and others, many well before the president ever chimed in — has been hijacked to making it about the anthem when in reality the anthem was always just the vehicle.”
To drive this point home, he explained the origins of the protest: “Colin Kaepernick was sitting. He wasn’t kneeling. He was sitting. Why did he start to kneel? Because he got with a Navy SEAL, Nate Boyer. Talked with Nate Boyer. Nate Boyer, who sacrificed as much as anyone can for this country without giving their life or limb. Nate Boyer says he respects Kaep and says, ‘Hey, it would sit better with us if you kneel.’ Kaep says, ‘No problem. I can still get my point across.’” (Boyer was actually a US Army Green Beret.)
In short, Kaepernick and other protesters have actually worked with military veterans to be minimally offensive. To this end, Wright pointed out that none of the players involved have actually gone on television and used the protests to slam the military or American ideals.
“I have not heard one soundbite of a player being anti-military, of a player outwardly attacking the fundamentals of what this country is supposed to be,” he said. “This is a protest about whether or not the country has fulfilled its promise of equal protection under the law to all of its citizenry. And that conversation is one no one wants to have. That conversation is uncomfortable for people. So people literally drape themselves in the flag as a defense of it.”
There’s a reason Trump is framing the protests in the way he is. Trump has a history of racist comments, has joked about police brutality, has criticized Black Lives Matter, and supports “tough on crime,” aggressive policing. But these are divisive views. By framing the protests about something almost all Americans will oppose — denigrating the flag, anthem, military, or country — he is seemingly trying to make this an easier battle for him to win, while invoking some racial dog whistles along the way.
Or as Wright put it, “We have perverted the discussion into an easy one to get to one of America’s favorite old hobbyhorses, which is: Why aren’t those black folks more grateful for what they got?”
To drive this home, Wright gave a hypothetical scenario:
If Colin Kaepernick, who started this whole thing, when he was asked why are you not standing for the anthem, he had said, “I’ll be honest with you, I think no one protects that flag more than our soldiers, and I do not think our soldiers are treated fairly when they come back to this country — they do not have adequate health care, they do not have adequate benefits, they do not have adequate job opportunities — and until they get that, I’m not standing for the anthem,” would you still be mad? Because he’d be disrespecting the flag just the same way.
He added, “Or are you mad because deep down you kind of feel like black people got it good enough?”
For more on the NFL protests, read Vox’s explainer.
