BY JOY MARAN ‘19 AND DEYSCHA SMITH ’19
A controversial movement that began with Colin Kaepernick, former NFL quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, in 2016 is now happening here at Mount Holyoke. Kaepernick is the first professional athlete to kneel during the national anthem with a mission to bring awareness and confront racial police brutality in the United States. He and many of his fellow professional athletes who have decided to kneel have been criticized by fans and sports businessesmen alike. However, Kaepernick’s movement is building momentum as it permeates into the National Hockey League (NHL) and college teams including those at Mount Holyoke.
Volleyball player Jamesa Allen ‘19 was the first athlete to kneel at Mount Holyoke. She first kneeled at a September 2016 game against Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, after hearing the protest of Kaepernick and other athletes.
Photo courtesy of Jamesa Allen '19.
“As an activist and someone involved in social issues, I felt as though this was an opportunity for me to protest and educate my peers, the athletic department and other schools on racial issues,” said Allen. “The first time I kneeled, I was the only person on my team [doing so]. It was empowering, but still scary. Attending a predominately white school and playing predominately white teams, you never know what the outcomes are going to be. According to Allen, half the players from the Coast Guard refused to shake her hand after a game on Sept. 4.
However, Allen’s message soon inspired other athletes: basketball players, including four volleyball teammates andseveral basketball players.
“Seeing people continue to protest really makes me happy that I initially made that decision,” Allen said. “I successfully used my platform as an athlete to convey a message of social change.”
Many critics of this movement say that kneeling during the anthem is disrespectful. Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner in 1815, after the Battle of Baldensburg, where he had run into a group of Colonial Marines who were former black slaves drafted by the British.
Key observed the Battle of Fort McHenry, which is thought to have inspired him to write the song. Many argue that the song’s third stanza refers to these Marines:
“No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
In Key’s lyrics, black soldiers were not only fighting, but were fighting for the enemy. Coinciding with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, kneeling is a way to protest police brutality in the United States. With these words in mind and witnessing the Black Lives Matter movement in full force, many athletes protested the country’s general bias attitude on police brutality through the rejection of the anthem and what is going on in the country in regards to police brutality and the lives lost to it.
Many athletes feel as though this discussion needs to be had, and Mount Holyoke student athletes plan on continuing to use that time in between warm ups and competition to peacefully express their opinions.