All Americans have a stake in what becomes of a fellow citizen who encounters consequences for exercising our highly prized right to speak freely. So let's check on Colin Kaepernick.
Kaepernick is the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who chose to kneel during the national anthem before some National Football League games. Evidently it cost him his career.
This seems patently un-American. The right to express ourselves as we see fit regardless of what others think is fundamental. Whether you or I agree with Kaepernick is irrelevant.
In fact, the right to say and do what we want is so fundamental that I prefer to believe that it pre-dates and transcends the Constitution. It's just part of what it means to be an American.
But Kaepernick wasn't punished for what he did _ kneeling _ but, rather, for what he declined to do, standing for the anthem. It's a distinction worth noting. NFL owners, his fellow citizens and even the president of the United States demanded that Kaepernick act in a particular compliant way if he hoped to make a living in his chosen profession. As Trump put it, "Get that son of a b_- off the field."
And evidently that's what the owners did. After Kaepernick left the 49ers in 2016, no other team would touch him, despite his credentials. Kaepernick filed a grievance alleging that the owners colluded to keep him out of the league.
In February Kaepernick reached a confidential settlement with the NFL. His financial award was probably considerable, but we do not know if it compensated him sufficiently for the loss of his career.
But other good things have happened to Kaepernick. Nike took a chance by making him a "brand ambassador" for their products, and the relationship appears to be mutually beneficial.
Kaepernick's influence at Nike is considerable. When he objected to the company's use of the so-called Betsy Ross flag on a sneaker designed for release on July 4, Nike pulled the shoe off the market.
Republicans exploded with outrage at Kaepernick and Nike for this putatively unpatriotic act. My senator, Ted Cruz, charged that Nike wants to sell sneakers only "to people who hate the American flag."
The Republican governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, was so outraged that he withdrew a $1 million incentive that had been available to encourage Nike to open a $184 million plant in Goodyear, Ariz.
To Kaepernick, however, Betsy Ross's 13-star flag recalls the colonial era when slavery was part of the fabric of American life and racism was rampant, north and south. Many people's first reaction was that Kaepernick's position takes political correctness way too far.
But, as it turns out, reporting in the New York Times indicates that when the Ku Klux Klan began a recruiting drive last summer in upstate New York, it distributed flyers that featured a mounted Klansman framed by two flags, the Confederate battle flag and the Betsy Ross 13-star flag.
So Kaepernick isn't the only one who associates that flag with an America that black people prefer not to glorify. And unless we're black ourselves, I'm not sure we have the right to dictate how black Americans should respond to that flag.
Finally, in other Kaepernick news, the National Republican Congressional Committee recently distributed an email fundraising ad that juxtaposed pictures of President Trump and Colin Kaepernick, with a caption that read: "WHO DO YOU STAND WITH? DONALD TRUMP AND THE BETSY ROSS FLAG OR ANTI-AMERICAN FLAG COLIN KAEPERNICK?
The ad makes two points: The first is the clear association between the Betsy Ross flag and a vision of America that people of color have reason to fear. And, second, it attacks the patriotism of a fellow American based on his opinion.
I call this coercive patriotism. It finds its power in a peculiar combination of arrogance and insecurity. A dash of racism intensifies it. And it represents a greater threat to our republic than do a few individual citizens whose consciences lead them to speak in ways that we may not approve.
