Another little crockpot of doodly came in my email the other day, and it’s time to use it as a demonstration of how not to manipulate someone’s honest actions. Let’s begin with the sage wisdom of another, earlier age:
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. – Samuel Johnson, April 7, 1775
This email attempts to decorate Mr. Kaepernick with mud for his refusal to stand for the National Anthem at the start of a recent NFL game. Unfortunately, it’s mostly done in pictures, so rather than copy the email in its entirety for this dissection, I’ll take selected parts. The interested reader may contact me for a full copy (use the email link). We’ll start with Mr. Kaepernick’s statement explaining his decision, from Wikipedia:
I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.
Our first exhibit suggests hypocrisy. But on examination, it’s not; this is simply the mistake of believing the whole is the same as the parts. There is not the least doubt in the world that the United States has many good people in it, and Mr. Kaepernick’s obvious affection for his adoptive family in these two shots is not proof of hypocrisy, but of his own human nature to love his family. On examination of his statement, it’s apparent that he’s referencing the well-documented homicides of black men by law enforcement, and the assertions by activists that many of these are murders1. These are just typical, wonderful family pics.
Our second exhibit is a sly double play on racism (the denigrative reference to Black Lives Matter) and religious intolerance, which is to say that the author of this pic hates the idea that there can be other religions. But it gets even worse. How? First, whoever wrote this has to lie about Mr. Kaepernick’s religious convictions, as Mr. Kaepernick is not a Muslim, according to Snopes.com. Secondly, the attentive, independent reader who refuses to be lead about by the nose will realize that, just from the written text, Mr. Kaepernick is not hypocritical nor ungrateful, but instead is putting his fortunes on the line for a group of people he believes is being treated unfairly – so unfairly, in fact, that in his view they are being murdered. And those doing the killing are official representatives of the American state. He is explicitly identifying with the ideas of justice, self-sacrifice, and the powerful and influential using their positions to do good in the world. Can the author of this piece say the same about himself? His appeal would be, “Hey, you’re comfortable – don’t make waves!”
The admirable Mr. Wilder is used in this third pic to indulge in the error of self-indulgence. As noted earlier, this suggests that Mr. Kaepernick should be grateful for what he has and not pay attention to the suffering and early deaths of others, a self-centered behavior no doubt approved of by the creator of this pic – a despicable emotion. Worse, it attempts to deny a problem which has already been shown to exist through some simple statistics – not to mention some horrific videos.
Indeed. But it helps to understand there are some subtle problems with the list on the left. From Wikipedia:
After attending OTAs minicamp, and two weeks of training camp, Coffee abruptly announced on August 13 that he would retire just before the start of the 2010 NFL preseason.[20][21] …
Coffee planned to return to the University of Alabama to finish his degree in consumer affairs, with an eye towards graduate school. Coffee confirmed that the reason he retired was that his heart was never in football and that he believed God wanted him to take another path.[23]
Soon after his retirement, in October 2010, Coffee was arrested for illegally carrying a pistol. He was pulled over for speeding, and when the police discovered he was driving without insurance or registration for his car, they searched it and found the weapon.[24] The charges were subsequently dropped.
Military service
Coffee enlisted in the U.S. Army in February 2013 to become a paratrooper.[25][26]
In June 2013, Coffee graduated from United States Army Airborne School.[27] Coffee is currently a paratrooper at the Ranger School, and works for the 6th Ranger Training Battalion.
It’s apparent he didn’t drop out of football to join the Army, but found the Army after dropping out and getting in trouble. He had no desire to play, no love of the game. He had to find another option, and he did. The unspoken assumption is that everyone is motivated by money; perhaps Mr. Coffee, to his credit, is not.
But it leads to our final exhibit, which may be the most effective. After all, we’ve picked some American vets who happen to be black who have suffered grievous wounds. Alas for the anonymous author, this leads to uncomfortable questions, such as “Are these men who volunteered for love of their country, or did they go in, like my white father did, because he was out of money and options?” I honestly don’t know – but I suspect they suffered their wounds because of decisions made by a faction of US neoconservatives to attack Iraq, an unnecessary and unjustified war. Did they have the option of the NFL, or MLB, or were they unable to attend college because of family poverty, and hoped to use the GI Bill (like my father) to gain higher education goals? Their undeniable service to country is deeply honorable – but we do not require military service at this time (and, as the conservative Mr. Heinlein liked to say, conscription is merely slavery). so if Mr. Kaepernick chose not to serve, he is neither dishonorable nor immoral. Perhaps, to him, the way of the NFL was a safe way to make his fortune in a country in which being black is often a perilous condition.
These grievous words are not those of the true patriot, but of the immature hater who cannot stand the thought that there may be something wrong with the way he or she lives. Mr. Kaepernick has chosen to use his position to throw a light on the uncomfortable proposition that law enforcement is not succeeding in its mission, even that it may have been subverted, and that it’s been very difficult to persuade law enforcement to investigate these incidents in a proper manner. Given the questionable rates at which Black Americans are harassed by police, activists and protesters have good points that must be addressed if we are to remain a society that might be considered just and desirable2.
In other words, this is a slyly worded pack of lies and implications designed to play with the emotions of the reader and manipulate them into a position they would not take if they knew the facts. Still angry that he didn’t stand for the anthem? Think of the families of those men, women, and children shot dead by the United States, citizens themselves, armed and unarmed. Think about Mr. Kaepernick putting his fortunes on the line by this simple action, in solidarity with these victims. Ask yourself what you’ve done about the situation?
