What it meant for AFL players to ‘take a knee’ this weekend

We, the National Football League, admit wrong in silencing our players from peacefully protesting.

We, the National Football League, believe black lives matter.’

The very next day, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell responded with a message containing these exact words, as requested. While Goodell decried violence, racism and intolerance, he was more hesitant about actually criticising police. Goodell's concession also did not mention any apology to Kaepernick, who is still the elephant in the room, as he’s still out of a job. The NFL conspired to keep him out of the sport, though some say public sentiment may have now changed sufficiently for one of the team owners to welcome him into their franchise, despite the controversy he would bring. Just like Adam Goodes, Kaepernick’s absence from the sport is the reminder that the part progress made in race relations cannot yet be viewed as legitimate. The reality of the racist undercurrents left over from a lamentable past, means our nations are still distant from achieving our full aspirations.

The politics of the matter

The AFL players, all unified in their stance, or non-stance while down on one knee, would mostly be unacquainted with American culture and the deep politicisation of this whole affair. Before COVID19 President Trump’s popularity rating made his November re-election ambition look almost unstoppable. I’m convinced that the timing of all these anti-racism protests and rallies, six months before an election, is no coincidence, but an opportunity for the Democrats to gain some ground.

Nobody active in politics supports racism, yet there is a clear delineation within the American cultural divide. Democrat voters are vocal and clearly behind the slogan Black Lives Matter. Traditionally, their wish is to see the black community voting as a block. Republican voters prefer to refrain from emphasising black versus white cultural differences, as ‘we are all Americans’. For them, racism exists because we keep talking about it. If we stopped talking about racial divides, then we might forget about skin colour, and we can be free to treat each other as one race, one community. Race debates are a well-worn path in American politics. American voters are quite familiar with how the narrative plays itself out, even if it’s not so well understood by Australian Rules footballers.

Trump made derogatory remarks in 2017 about NFL players who kneel during the anthem, leading to widespread kneeling that season. So it’s clear where he stands on players fully respecting the national anthem. Meanwhile, the NFL have released any restrictions on their players to protest. So the stage for the November election is being built.

I do not want to be so cynical as to doubt the good intentions of our AFL footballers, who sincerely believe their protest will count for something in this complex world of race relations. Every little ounce of good will might be of some use in our efforts to increase cultural understanding, and allow us to dissolve our ethnic divisions.

Being a little partial towards someone from my own ethnic history, as someone who is born is South Africa though having grown up in Australia, I’ll give the last word to 2016 Norm Smith medallist, Bulldogs defender Jason Johannisen, who spent the first eight years of his life in South Africa, who said last week that, he was ‘done doing nothing. All I ask for you to do is simply, with an open heart, just listen and understand what people of colour have been through.’