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We’re still missing the point

The spotlight of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s 2013 success has certainly faded, but it doesn’t mean he’s out of the news. Kaepernick has faced a lot of flak lately after making it clear that he will not stand during the National Anthem in light of “racial injustice” in this country.

Sports media have been covering both positive and negative reactions to the quarterback’s stance. Some players, like Drew Brees and Victor Cruz, have maligned Kaepernick for being disrespectful.

Chip Kelly, his head coach in San Francisco, supports him, as do many other players in the league.

The takes are endless, so it doesn’t really matter what I think about his decision to sit during the Anthem. Honestly, I don’t care about whether Kaepernick sits or stands, and neither should you.

Why are major sports media spending so much time on what other athletes think instead of addressing the issue at hand, which is clear racial injustice in America?

Who cares what Victor Cruz thinks about Colin Kaepernick taking a political stance?

We should care instead about how important it is that Kaepernick, who is half black despite what Rodney Harrison may think, is making a type of political stand that we haven’t seen in quite some time.

Look, I’m a white male who has almost little-to-no stake in this issue. But that doesn’t mean that severe racial injustice doesn’t bother me.

There are major discriminatory problems in our justice system that have a clear negative impact on the African-American population. According to the NAACP website, African Americans constitute nearly 1 million of the 2.3 million Americans incarcerated. The website continues to say African Americans are incarcerated nearly six times the rate of white Americans.

But racial injustice against minorities in the justice system is only part of the issue. Discrimination exists in education, corporate life and even in social circles.

Kaepernick recognizes this. He also recognizes that, as a professional athlete, he has a massive stage to make a statement. He had to decided not idly sit by and allow these things to happen. He has continued to make his thoughts known even through the socks he wears. As ugly as they were, the socks with pigs topped with police hats still sends a message. It’s crude, but it delivers a point.

Don’t get caught up in how he is making his statement.. If we continue to bash or praise Kaepernick for simply making a statement, albeit in unconventional ways, we’re not getting anywhere. Continuing the conversation about racial injustice, and what can be done to change it is the point.

Kaepernick has already done a lot of good for his stance, and he can do even more. He can team up with the likes of LeBron James, Chris Paul and Carmello Anthony, who have also recently spoken out about their disgust at the state of racial injustice in America.

Like I said before, this injustice doesn’t directly affect me. But it still irks me that I feel that I am rarely hearing about the content of his stance, not the stance itself, at least publicly. There is no need to defend or attack Kaepernick’s style of statement. To use a common cliché, it is what it is.

In this case, opposite of what Marshall McLuhan might say, the medium is not the message here; the message is the message. Let’s listen to it.

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