Rn an interview with Josh Johnson on the Daily Show, Colin Kaepernick presented a construct that seeks to frame risk as both individual and collective. When individuals take risks, they may put themselves in jeopardy of losing what they have. Certainly, that is what happened with Kaepernick as quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers when he took a knee during the playing of the National Anthem as a protest to Blacks dying at the hands of the police.
Kaepernick was excoriated publicly and cut from the team the next year. He has not played down since despite having the skills to do so. Kaepernick posits that the risk was worth it not for self but because it raised awareness of racial disparities particularly in the treatment of Blacks in the justice and judicial systems. As Kaepernick says, taking risk for the collective is necessary to achieve social justice and equality.
Such a stand is fundamental to the American way of life. Our Founders risked life and limb and property by breaking from Britain. Martin Luther King – and so many of the civil rights pioneers – did the same, and as in the case of King, losing their lives.
