Colin Kaepernick is...

[garbon]

I feel like it might be worthwhile actually examining a historical example before applying it so haphazardly.

I think I have a pretty good idea about the historical example in question.

And I am confident that you and Valmy would be complaining that Parks stunt was just an attempt for attention, and we need to start actually doing something - hell, we've known that black people are getting screwed for decades! Rosa isn't telling us anything new!

The analogy aligns rather nicely.

But you are wrong. Rosa Parks wasn't trying to make a statement to gain awareness of injustice. She was a member of the NAACP who was tired of having to put up with mistreatment by a particular bus driver, whose buses she always tried to avoid. In fact, she said that had she seen sooner who the bus driver was, she wouldn't have even got on the bus. After she was arrested, the NAACP decided that should would be a great face for a cause celebre.  That's nothing at all like a celebrity refusing to stand for the national anthem (something that isn't even connected to the issue) so that reporters would ask him why he didn't stand, so he could draw attention to a cause he feels strongly about.

But if you don't like that one, there are plenty of examples of black athletes throughout history using their celebrity to protest racism. It's not like Kapernack is doing anything new or ground breaking.

And, at least in the cases that I can think of, those stood out as fairly important historical actions. At best Kaepernick is going to be on celebrity face attached to a rider on all the various awareness garnering activities that have been going on with strong effect in the last few years. I agree there isn't anything new or ground breaking in what Kaepernick has done.

[Berkut]

She made a conscious choice to refuse to move when demanded, and she knew what would happen, and of course it DID happen.

The details of her actions are different of course, but the principal is the same. Kapernick cannot be arrested for not standing, but it is easy to argue that the potential harm to him is still considerable.

So no, I am NOT wrong. You are creating distinctions without difference.

We don't know yet if his actions will "stand out as fairly important". Parks actions were not new either - there were other cases of black people doing the exact same thing both before and after. She didn't know when she decided not to move that HER case would be the one that was latched onto, and neither does Kaepernick. So fucking what? Do people have to have a crystal ball before they can make a statement that passes your critical eye for sincerity?

[derspiess]

So Kaep with his $126 million contract and relatively privileged upbringing is the new Rosa Parks??   Good one, Berkut

[Berkut]

This has really become a distasteful discussion. I am kind of amazed that people will actually argue that he should, basically, sit down and shut up because he isn't sincere enough in their view, or he isn't important enough, or he isn't going to accomplish enough.

It all sounds like various flavors of "Shut up and be quiet, you don't have a social right to speak on this issue in this manner".

Again, I don't agree with his stance. I think the national anthem has very little to do with racism. But I respect him for having the courage to make what stance he has made, and risk something to speak out. His right to be heard in whatever fashion he thinks is appropriate and even marginally effective is something to be applauded, not mocked.

[Berkut]

So Kaep with his $126 million contract and relatively privileged upbringing is the new Rosa Parks??   Good one, Berkut

Not at all.

I think what I've said is pretty clear - the comparison to Parks is not comparing him to Parks, it is comparing the response to his protest to the response to the protest of Parks. I have zero doubt that there were plenty of people at that time arguing that her protest was bullshit as well.

He is not comparable at all. Like I said, if you want to compare him there are plenty of examples of other black athletes you can compare him to...

[garbon]

This has really become a distasteful discussion. I am kind of amazed that people will actually argue that he should, basically, sit down and shut up because he isn't sincere enough in their view, or he isn't important enough, or he isn't going to accomplish enough.

It all sounds like various flavors of "Shut up and be quiet, you don't have a social right to speak on this issue in this manner".

Again, I don't agree with his stance. I think the national anthem has very little to do with racism. But I respect him for having the courage to make what stance he has made, and risk something to speak out. His right to be heard in whatever fashion he thinks is appropriate and even marginally effective is something to be applauded, not mocked.

It has become distasteful because you want to spin Valmy and I into people who are saying something reprehensible / that we revile what Kaepernick did. Perhaps if you did not do so, we might all have a more pleasant discussion.

[derspiess]

I think what I've said is pretty clear - the comparison to Parks is not comparing him to Parks,

Then don't do it.

[garbon]

I think what I've said is pretty clear - the comparison to Parks is not comparing him to Parks,

Then don't do it.

Actually, maybe we should compare reaction to Kaepernick to reaction to actions by Kim Kardashian. I wonder what hidden gems of wisdom could be uncovered.

[Berkut]

I think what I've said is pretty clear - the comparison to Parks is not comparing him to Parks,

Then don't do it.

OK, I won't.

It won't stop you from strawmanning my argument anyway, but thanks for the advice!

[Berkut]

I think what I've said is pretty clear - the comparison to Parks is not comparing him to Parks,

Then don't do it.

Actually, maybe we should compare reaction to Kaepernick to reaction to actions by Kim Kardashian. I wonder what hidden gems of wisdom could be uncovered.

Compare away.

[derspiess]

Funny thing is it wasn't *that* long ago he was attracting attention for his Christian bible verse tattoos: http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2013/january/tattooed-49ers-qb-not-only-controversial-christian-in-2013.html

Now he's suddenly switched gears and has become a muslim, sporting Malcom X hats/Castro shirts/"cops are pigs" socks, and won't stand for the anthem. 

[Berkut]

Funny thing is it wasn't *that* long ago he was attracting attention for his Christian bible verse tattoos: http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2013/january/tattooed-49ers-qb-not-only-controversial-christian-in-2013.html

Now he's suddenly switched gears and has become a muslim, sporting Malcom X hats/Castro shirts/"cops are pigs" socks, and won't stand for the anthem. 

Now if you want to call him an asshole for the socks, I am right there with you.

[Martinus]

Castro shirts probably qualify too

Seems like he is an attention seeking douchebag.

[dps]

Of course what Kaepernick has done isn't really anything like what Rosa Parks did. Well I guess similar in that they are both black.

Before his protest, I didn't know that he was part black.  I knew that he was multi-racial, but I thought that he was part white and part Pacific islander.

[The Larch]

Of course what Kaepernick has done isn't really anything like what Rosa Parks did. Well I guess similar in that they are both black.

Before his protest, I didn't know that he was part black.  I knew that he was multi-racial, but I thought that he was part white and part Pacific islander.

From his wiki:

Kaepernick was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Heidi (Zabransky) Russo, a 19-year-old white woman who was single and destitute at the time. His birth father, an African American, left before he was born. Russo placed her son for adoption with Rick and Teresa Kaepernick, a white couple who had two children—son Kyle and daughter Devon—and were looking for a boy after having lost two other sons to heart defects. Kaepernick became the youngest of their three children. He lived in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, until age four, and attended grade school in Turlock, California.