Protests and/ or commentaries of Colin Kaepernick and Marshawn Lynch

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The protests and/ or commentaries of Colin Kaepernick and Marshawn Lynch
The case of Colin Kaepernick and Marshawn Lynch reflects the nature of the fight for freedom that black people have had throughout American history. During these periods, the black people have longed for freedom, and as a thirty-five-year-old white lawyer, Key, commented in earlier years, chaos of war presented the black people with opportunities to seize the freedom they had wanted. At the time Key was writing his famous poem, there were close to one million enslaved African Americans living in America (Douglas and Jones 2). However, slavery collapsed during the times of Civil War; however, new forms of racial segregation emerged over time including the issues of incarceration. The fight for freedom of the Black American is a struggle that is as old as America itself. In the U.S., however, and a significant percentage of the populous will have everyone believe that a man’s freedom is inalienable. But Davis (3) notes that “concrete reality has always been permeated with the most brutal forms of unfreedom, of enslavement.” In the current situation, Colin Kaepernick, protests against these inequalities relates to the political context that was largely shaped by Barack Obama’s successful presidential bid in 2008. The ideological as well as partisan tribalism, especially surrounding the issue on race, affected American responses to the Kaepernick protests. Some of the previous data from the investigative departments fail to reveal the socio-psychological effects of shooting episodes that involve a Black American. Currently, police shootings are a major threat to the lives of young Black Americans. “About 1 in 1,000 black men and boys in America can expect to die at the hands of the police” (Khan). Such incidences have been so much felt at the local level, where such occurrences usually send waves of grief, fear, as well as anxiety amongst the Black community which eventually contributes to the slow death of community members due to trauma.
In this scenario, Lynch’s comments points to the somehow anticipated dividing line existing between the proponents of Kaepernick’s protest and the opponents. Those opposed to the situation see it as a critique of the United States’ as a whole instead of just racial injustice. In support of the protest, it should be clearly noted that there are differed opinions from different people concerning what they want for their country, the United States, of which all opinions are valid. According to Kaepernick, the issue concerning police brutality against people of color is worth protest, and Lynch shares the same opinion. At one point, he states that what Kaepernick is doing is not a threat to America but a call to the end of racially-driven police brutality (Conan). The Black Americans are still at the mercy of the decentralized state and local law enforcement system. This is since as some reiterate, it was easier to show the exact number of Americans that attend movies annually than the federal government giving a clear number of Black Americans murdered by the police and the circumstances surrounding their deaths. There is little doubt concerning the lives of the NFL players who would voice similar unpopular opinions.
Kaepernick sentiments on the fact that he was protesting to raise awareness concerning the un-American injustices were a clear reflection of various statements as echoed by the fellow activist predecessors. From the psychological perspective, just as a headache tells the body that a disease exists, similarly, such protests reveal to the society that there is something amiss (Douglas and Jones 139). However, in both cases, the nature of discomfort caused is a clear warning of a larger problem that demands an elaborate resolution. Despite, the efforts by Martin Luther King on the fact that a nonviolent protest eliminates confrontation, the tension already exists in either case. In the case, where the frustrated fail to be heard, they resort to destructive means as a means of dealing with the problem. Such protests act as a channel that allows the pre-existing, suppressed tension to surface at the point when it could necessarily be addressed constructively. As Plato suggests, an individual such as Black Americans cannot will themselves to an escape on their own, just as on the contrary, they cannot arrange their lives around that slim chance of white Americans coming to consciousness. As Kaepernick vows, such an issue is worth of protest until the American flag clearly represents the unity and liberty it is supposed to represent (Espn.com).
The case of confrontation on such grievous issues that touches racial injustice heightens awareness, and awareness creates a chance for dialogue of which dialogue should promote mutual understanding and eventually provide a foundation for progress. The broad range of explanations reflects a deep unde...