Page 25 - Florida Sentinel 9-2-16 Online Edition

Sports
Jackie Robinson In 1972: ‘I Cannot Stand And
Sing The Anthem; I Cannot Salute The Flag’
BY KRISTEN SAVALI
As fury around Colin Kaepernick’s principled stance continues to rise, let’s look back at Jackie Robin- son, the barrier-breaking athlete and activist who wrote that he was a “Black man in a white world.”
Jackie Robinson, in his 1972 autobiography, I Never Had It Made, de- scribed the moment when he realized that he could not “stand and sing the an- them,” nor “salute the flag,” which calls to mind recent statements made by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Robinson strongly in- dicted this nation on charges of racism, classism, and bigotry:
“There I was, the Black grandson of a slave, the son of a Black sharecropper, part of a historic occasion, a symbolic hero to my people. The air was sparkling. The sunlight was warm. The band struck up the national
anthem. The flag billowed in the wind. It should have been a glorious moment for me as the stirring words of the na- tional anthem poured from the stands. Perhaps, it was, but then again, perhaps, the anthem could be called the theme song for a drama called The Noble Experi- ment. Today, as I look back on that opening game of my first world series, I must tell you that it was Mr. Rickey’s drama and that I was only a principal actor. As I write this twenty years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag;IknowthatIama Black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.”
Kaepernick shared a similar sentiment after his game against Green Bay on Friday:
“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
JACKIE ROBINSON
than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people get- ting paid leave and getting away with murder.
Kaepernick has since doubled down on his stance, despite many white Ameri- cans completely becoming unhinged at the thought of a man of color not showing gratitude or pledging alle- giance to a country that con- tinues to extra judicially kill Black, brown and indigenous people with impunity.
Despite the nation’s his- tory of activist athletes—in-
cluding Muhammad Ali, who in 1966 refused to serve in the Vietnam War; Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who raised their fists in a Black power salute at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City as “The Star Spangled Banner” played—their friend and ally Peter Norman standing beside them in solidarity; and Mahmoud Abdul Rauf, who in 1995 refused to participate in the “national- istic ritualism” of recogniz- ing the flag and singing the anthem—racists in this coun- try continue to feign surprise that Blacks in America are not eternally grateful for the “privilege” of not being in chains.
In 1947, Jackie Robin- son felt the beautiful burden of Blackness as “The Star Spangled Banner” played. His dual conscious- ness, something that even during the last year of his life he could not quite explain, is evident in each word of his book. The gravitational pull
of racism at odds with the eu- phoric pull of patriotic possi- bilities is what continues to keep many people of color off-balance, slipping and sliding on streets filled with the blood of our children and the tears of those who love them.
We know that “we never had it made.” And continuing to salute, stand at attention or place our hands over our hearts in honor of a symbol that has doubled as a noose around the necks of genera- tions of Black Americans, es- pecially those who seek liberation, will ensure that we never do.
Robinson’s words are ancestral wisdom. They are both road map and blueprint, waiting on us to find and build upon his understand- ing that “liberty and jus- tice for all” is a red, white and blue lie.
And what has once again been made clear in the last few days is that many white Americans just can’t handle the truth.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2016 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 15-A