{"id":6859,"date":"2017-11-18T14:36:06","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T22:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=6859"},"modified":"2017-11-18T14:36:06","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T22:36:06","slug":"without-word-kaepernick-message-powerful-ann-killion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/11\/18\/without-word-kaepernick-message-powerful-ann-killion\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWITHOUT A WORD, KAEPERNICK MESSAGE IS POWERFUL\u201d BY ANN KILLION"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CHICAGO, IL \u2013 DECEMBER 04: Quarterback Colin Kaepernick #7 of the San Francisco 49ers warms his hands in the third quarter against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on December 4, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Joe Robbins\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

November 13, 2017 (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n

The conversation continues.<\/p>\n

In bars, at dinner tables and parties, in line for coffee.<\/p>\n

People are angry, interested, offended, supportive, intrigued, irritated.<\/p>\n

But\u2013in one form or another\u2013the conversation continues. The one that Colin Kaepernick started 16 months ago.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Kaepernick was named GQ magazine\u2019s \u201cCitizen of the Year.\u201d\u00a0 Which meant that his face, his cause, his exclusion from the NFL\u2013his now-iconic image that I\u2019m quite sure will last far into this century as a recognizable symbol for peaceful protest\u2013was back in the news.<\/p>\n

Kevin Durant was also recognized by GQ as its \u201cChampion of the Year.\u201d\u00a0 On Monday, the Warrior\u2019s forward said he was honored to share the magazine with Kaepernick.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe started a conversation that was needed in this country,\u201d Durant said.\u00a0 \u201cHe knew he would take\u00a0a lot of heat for what he did.\u00a0 He stood up for people who can\u2019t stand up for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs athletes, we\u2019re taught to kind of shut up and play our sport,\u201d Durant added.\u00a0 \u201cHe put everything on the line. You\u2019ve got to respect it.\u00a0 We all stand behind him as athletes. He makes us proud to be part of the athletic community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durant\u2019s comments came two days after his teammate Stephen Curry posted a thoughtful piece on the Players\u2019 Tribune, timed for Veterans Day.\u00a0 Entitled \u201cThe Noise,\u201d Curry wrote about what it means to have a platform. What it means to accuse peaceful protestors of \u201cdisrespecting the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single veteran I\u2019ve spoken to, they\u2019ve all said pretty much the exact same thing:\u00a0 That this conversation we\u2019ve started to have in the world of sports . . . whether it\u2019s been Colin kneeling, or entire NFL teams finding their own ways to show unity, or me saying that I didn\u2019t want to go to the White House\u2013it\u2019s the opposite of disrespectful to them,\u201d Curry wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of them have said that even if they can\u2019t totally agree with every position of every person, this is exactly the thing that they fought to preserve: the freedom of every American to express our struggles, our fears, our frustrations and our dreams for a more equal society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curry went on to plea for real help for veterans, not just \u201cthank you for your service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf i\u2019m going to use my platform, I don\u2019t want to just be noise. I want to use it to talk about real issues that are affecting real people.\u201d<\/p>\n

A proposed Veterans Day weekend boycott o the NFL, by people offended by protests, didn\u2019t materialize. But neither has a follow-up meeting between the NFL and involved players, including Kaepernick. Meanwhile, bad quarterbacking continues to derail once-promising teams. And Kaepernick remains out of work.<\/p>\n

Kaepernick chose not to be interviewed by GQ. He wanted to participate in the magazine piece in order to\u2013according to the editors\u2013\u201creclaim the narrative of his protest\u201d that he feels has been hijacked by those with political agendas. Kaepenick didn\u2019t add his voice to \u201cthe noise\u201d about which Curry wrote.<\/p>\n

People want him to speak but, for now, his silence has been powerful. No one can twist his words or criticize his statements, or turn them into GIFs or memes on social media.<\/p>\n

His actions have spoken loudly, as he continues to support\u2013through money and actions\u2013groups that serve the disenfranchised.\u00a0 His inability to get a job speaks even more loudly.<\/p>\n

Instead, others spoke to GQ about him. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay wrote, \u201cLook at this brother\u2013he\u2019s doing better than any of us would\u2019ve done. A lot better. With a lot more elegance.\u201d Rapper J.Cole said \u201che sacrificed his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ameer Hasan Loggins wrote about how Kaepernick came to his class at Cal, with his \u201clittle notebook and pencil,\u201d driving up from San Jose to attend every week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve decided the conversation leans on \u2018Does Colin want to be an activist, or does he want to be an athlete?’\u201d\u00a0 Loggins wrote. \u201cAs if the two cannot happen simultaneously. You can care about people and play sports. Athletes do it all the time. The problem is that his particular activism was toward the cause of blackness. That\u2019s what he\u2019s being ostracized for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civil-rights activist Harry Belafonte also was included i the piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot being \u2018political\u201d is not a solution,\u201d Belafonte wrote. \u201cAny young person who takes that position would have to ask Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson and so many of us if we had anything at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaepernick\u2019s former 49ers teammate, Eric Reid, also had a voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese issues are real,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd people know they\u2019re real. But some will do anything to distract from that, to change the narrative, and it\u2019s gotten Colin blackballed from the NFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bible talks very explicitly in Proverbs about being the voice of the voiceless and speaking up for the vulnerable. Another version is: \u2018Faith without works is dead.\u2019 I guess selfishly I\u2019m trying to get to heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaepernick has been the voice the voiceless. He doesn\u2019t have to say a word, and yet the conversation continues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO, IL \u2013 DECEMBER 04: Quarterback Colin Kaepernick #7 of the San Francisco 49ers warms his hands in the third quarter against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on December 4, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Joe Robbins\/Getty Images) November 13, 2017 (SFChronicle.com) The conversation continues. In bars, at… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6860,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859\/revisions\/6860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}