What is the controversy surrounding #takeaknee

[Rev. Rye]

But arguing that taking a kneel is itself a largely empty gesture because all it does is draw attention to racial issues that are currently omnipresent in the news anyway, and does bugger all to stop it (possibly because the underlying issues are so entrenched that nothing short of nuking humanity off the face of the earth will stop it), well, that also makes sense.

But none of that is an excuse for silence . Beta position is pure fatalism .

Yeah, like I said, I personally think taking a knee is a good move. I'd be lying if I said I believe that NFL players not standing during the National Anthem could be the tipping point to convince the Republican Party to curtail their racist juggernaut, but, given that the NFL's players are 70% black, they have to start every game with the national anthem, and they have to deal with racism that the government is caring less and less about, it's certainly an interesting sign to see them rebel against it.

Overall, this reminds me  of this little speech. Frederick Douglass was asked to give a Fourth of July speech in 1852 to the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. He gave this speech, lambasting the blatant hypocrisy of a society that prided itself on its freedom while people they still enslaved people who looked like him (and there was still the possibility that he could be kidnapped by some enterprising asshole and re-enslaved, something that was only made worse by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made the possibility of an escape like his a lot riskier):










And, yes, hearing it read by famed actor, voiceover artist, and civil rights activist Ossie Davis makes it resonate even more.