Here's Why US Football Players "Take the Knee"

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

This has been making the rounds but if you haven't seen it please take the time to do so. In response to those who question why the football players are "taking the knee" this is it as one comment pointed out; it has nothing to do with veterans or the flag and even less to do with apparently disrespecting anyone.

I hope followers/readers of this blog abroad will take the time to watch it. If you are watching this from outside the US, keep in mind that this cop, (I would refer to him as a pig but I wouldn't want to insult such a useful and beautiful animal) could have shot this young man and gotten away with it especially after suggesting one of them might have a gun. The chance of a cop being charged for these murders is very rare.

I would like to ask some of the white workers I know that downplay the concern that black parents raise about the safety of their young sons and daughters in the company of the cops or oppose the football players' protests, what they think about this?   If white workers want to not be looked upon with suspicion with regards to racial issues by black folks then white workers have to speak out on this and validate our black brothers and sisters concerns. 

If you don't speak out why would it not be acceptable to assume you support this sort of treatment of young black men? And don't use that worn out old argument that white workers are treated badly by cops as well, of course they are, the jails are full of poor working class people.  But the disparity, the disproportionate cases on the black side in this and all social issues is the problem that must be given special consideration. No one says all lives don't matter.

And by speaking up I am not talking of mimicking the liberal white petit bourgeois by feeling sorry for people, having pity for them or guilty it's them and not you. But speaking out on the basis of class solidarity, of recognizing that all working class people are exploited and brutalized by capitalism, but all working class people do not experience the savagery of the market in the same way and for the same reasons; racism, sexism, xenophobia, religious prejudice are real.  Trump, the state, the billionaires in Congress have no love for white workers or any workers, racism sexism and other social divisions are a divide and rule tacit they use to maintain their dominance in a society where they are numerically weaker.

Undermining working class unity is a life and death strategy for the white racist ruling class in this country.  Too many workers I know keep their mouths shut when it comes to this issue instead of taking up our workmates when they show weakness on this it, question motives.  As I watched this young man try to deal with this cop like he was a decent union being I got angrier and angrier as this little state security guy with the right to murder on his side would have none of it. It makes one want to explode at times.

There's an old US union slogan we need to remember and that is An Injury to One is an Injury to All. It's a great one of we act on it.