Colin Kaepernick came and kneeled behind players and coaches from Castlemont High in Oakland as they laid on their backs with their hands up during the national anthem. (Photo via Twitter/@kirkmorrison)
Before the college football game between University of North Carolina and Pittsburgh, North Carolina fans and band members hold fists in the air during the anthem. (Photo via Twitter)
Madison, Wisconsin. High school teams Madison East Purgolders and West High Regents both take a knee during the anthem. (Photo via Twitter)
Sit Down for Their Nasty-full Anthem! A Teachable Moment in the USA
Updated September 19, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
All over the country, there’s a breath of fresh air blowing out of the world of athletics. From San Francisco to Alabama and beyond, from the pros to the high schools, people are taking the disgusting patriotic ritual of standing and saluting the national anthem at sporting events and using it to raise questions, register dissent, and project resistance. As you might expect, this is coming under attack—and opening up debate.
Now is the time to go to these events and bring things like “The Top 10 Reasons to Sit Down for the Nasty-full Anthem—#sitdownfortherag” and critically relevant BA quotes. If people are acting, talk to them, listen and engage. Take action yourself. Join or provoke the debate—and take it further. Bring Bob Avakian’s Invitation to people—and ways for them to take it up. Take the Message from the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party—and put out the challenge, and the possibility, of REAL revolution.
In short: dive into the controversy... and take it further.
Several players took a knee during the national anthem, Auburn High School, Rockford, IL. (twitter/@ShaunKing)
Brandon Marshall of the Denver Broncos loses endorsement deal with the Air Academy Federal Credit Union after national anthem protest. (foxnews.com)
In the face of death threats, the entire Beaumont (Texas) Bulls youth football team and their coach continued to refuse to stand for the national anthem, September 17. (Photo via twitter/@Shaun King).
See also "Texas Youth Football Team Refuses to Stand for the Anthem Despite Death Threats."
Seattle: Garfield High Bulldogs knelt in unison with their coaches during the playing of the nasty-full anthem, September 16. They were joined by some players on the Wildcats sideline.
San Francisco: Every player on the Mission High School football team took the knee for the second time before their game on September 16. According to a TV news report, "some of the team leaders told KRON4 about how they had been having a conversation on the bus [to the game] about racial injustices and about the symbol Kaepernick has become with his silent protests." (Photo via twitter/@nbcbayarea)
Via twitter/act.tv @ actdottv
Howard University cheerleaders kneel for the national anthem before the game, September 17. (Photo via Twitter/@WPGC)
Megan Rapinoe continues her protest, and the U.S. Soccer Federation announced it will not discipline her for kneeling during the national anthem, September 15. (Photo: Kyle Robertson/The Columbus Dispatch via AP)
Woodrow Wilson high school coaches and players take a knee during anthem, Camden, NJ. (Photo: twitter/@PhilAnastasia)
Two players, one white, one African-American, took a knee as a silent protest, Lincoln Southeast High School, Lincoln, NE.
Following Colin Kaepernick's lead a Waggener player takes a knee during the national anthem, Louisville, Indiana.
Three women volleyball players at West Virginia University Tech kneeled for the national anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick.
Miami Dolphins, September 11. (AP photo)
Watkins Milll High School, Gaithersburg, MD, September 11.
Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters raises his fist during the national anthem before an NFL football game against the San Diego Chargers, September 11.
If you can conceive of a world without America—without everything America stands for and everything it does in the world—then you've already taken great strides and begun to get at least a glimpse of a whole new world. If you can envision a world without any imperialism, exploitation, oppression—and the whole philosophy that rationalizes it—a world without division into classes or even different nations, and all the narrow-minded, selfish, outmoded ideas that uphold this; if you can envision all this, then you have the basis for proletarian internationalism. And once you have raised your sights to all this, how could you not feel compelled to take an active part in the world historic struggle to realize it; why would you want to lower your sights to anything less?
Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:31
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