Images via Wikimedia Commons.
If you really want to get under President Trump's skin, consider taking a knee. Tensions between the country's most profitable sports league, the NFL, and the Trump administration continue to fester after the commander in chief launched a petition late last week asking for the names, email addresses and zip codes of individuals who support standing for the national anthem in an apparent retaliation to the NFL not penalizing players who decide to quietly protest police brutality and unfair treatment of people of color in the United States.
Paid for by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee and hosted on the Republican Party's national website (yes, the same Republican Party that controls Congress, the presidency and statehouses across the country) the sparse petition was launched a day after the president once again knocked the NFL on Twitter for not requiring NFL players to stand while the "The Star Spangled Banner" was played at the beginning of football games.Support Color of Change, a racial justice organization, if you agree that players should be able to exercise their first amendment rights without fear of censorship from the NFL or an attack by the president.Color of change has a petition to demand that the NFL creates a player's platform for racial equality and criminal justice reform. This would mean players would be able to protest with being penalized and that the league would have to commit to supporting marginalized communities within the cities that the teams play.The retaliation from the president appears to have galvanized people who support the kneeling players and the protests have continued to extend beyond the NFL. Students at both the college and high school level have now joined the professional athletes by protesting during the national anthem.In Georgia at Kennesaw State University and in Washington D.C. at Howard University, cheerleaders have continued to kneel during the national anthem—whether on the field or in the stadium tunnel— in solidarity with NFL players.Earlier this month, about a dozen members of the student marching band at Ames High School in Ames, Iowa, walked off the field as the band played the anthem to protest of racial inequality. Their demonstration sparked controversy, but the students said they believed in the cause, and were willing to take any potential repercussions.Last month, in Crosby, Texas, two high school students were kicked off of their football team for demonstrating during the anthem. The coach at Praise Christian Academy, a private school, punished the teens for silently protesting, one for kneeling and the other for raising a fist.Despite President Trump's attempts to silence the players their message has already had an impact on society far outside the sports world.
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The petition comes after Trump ordered Vice President Mike Pence to leave a game between the San Francisco 49ers and Indianapolis Colts in protest because several 49ers players knelt during the anthem.
To some, it's no irrelevant detail that the NFL is made up of mostly black players, and the Trump administration is almost exclusively made up of white men. And Trump's aggression towards black athletes, who he has referred to as "sons of bitches" is not just limited to football players. He also recently got into surreal spats with top NBA players LeBron James and Stephen Curry (who both happen to be black).This past weekend, several players across the league continued to show solidarity with the still-unsigned former 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, against police brutality and unfair treatment to people of color. Trump continued to vent, and with football season not even half over yet, there's no telling how far this spat will go.
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