Over the weekend sports Twitter exploded when 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand during the national anthem before a preseason football game. When asked why he didn’t stand for the national anthem Kaepernick said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”
Over the weekend and through the early part of this week, Twitter and sports talk radio were filled with all the reasoned, sensible responses you might expect.
People were infuriated that Kaepernick would disrespect the United States in that manner.
People celebrated Kaepernick for having the courage to stand up for something in spite of the backlash he would receive.
People wanted Kaepernick kicked out of the United States for exercising one of the rights most foundational to the United States.
I don’t agree with Kaepernick’s actions, but we should continue to seek justice for all people, minorities and police officers included. Part of loving America is loving it enough to see it live up to its founding ideals.
One vain of responses that confused me, though, were those people who said that they had lost respect for Kaepernick. My immediate reaction to those responses was, “Why did you respect Kaepernick in the first place?”
Colin Kaepernick is a football player. He made it to the Super Bowl and since then has lost his starting job. I don’t know him personally and have no idea whether or not he is a decent human being. My greatest affinity for Kaepernick is that I think he looks like a space pharaoh. I didn’t lose respect for Kaepernick because I didn’t really respect him in the first place.
We live in a society obsessed with celebrities. We follow them on social media, know about their romantic relationships and scour the Internet for as much gossip as we can find. I’m definitely guilty of this. I love The Rock, Steph Curry, Kylie Minogue and plenty of other celebrities. I do my best to avoid the temptation, though, to live as if I know anything about these people.
That temptation is strongest with Steph Curry. I love the Warriors and Curry is my favorite basketball player. I really want to like Curry and even respect him as a person, husband and father. He seems to really love Jesus and his family. If I were going to respect a celebrity, it would probably be him. However, I know nothing about Curry. I know what can be gleaned from social media, but we all put our best face forward for Twitter and Instagram. I want to be reserved in my admiration for Curry because, at any moment, the image I see could come crashing down.
I certainly don’t want that to happen to Steph Curry or anybody else. But I’m also not going to allow myself to get too emotionally invested in someone I don’t really know. I’m going to save that emotional investment and reserve my respect for people I know in real life.
I respect my wife.
I respect my pastor.
I respect my boss.
I respect my grandpa.
Sure there’s a risk in emotionally investing in people we know; there’s a chance that they could do something to lose our respect. However, the people that I respect the most are also the people that I know the best. Alycia isn’t just a caricature of what I see on social media; she’s a real life person who I have seen in almost every situation. And through all of those situations, she has proven herself to be someone I want to respect.
Colin Kaepernick’s decision not to stand during the national anthem didn’t incense me as much as it did others. I love my country and respect our flag, but the actions of someone I don’t know, don’t respect and am not emotionally invested in, don’t bother me that much. I’d much rather celebrate the people in my life who are worthy of others’ respect and spend my time trying to be that kind of person.
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