In a fascinating volte face, the new norm has become that players kneel, Colin Kaepernick-style, for the national anthem before professional sports games (don't even get me started on playing the national anthem before professional sports games....), and anyone that DOESN'T kneel risks getting the third degree from the media and that internet thingy. How things have changed since Kaepernick's ground-breaking and highly controversial decision to take a knee, way back in 2016.
There's not much professional sports going on right now here in North America, but one of the few leagues that has already started up is the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). And, before the first games this last weekend, pretty much everyone knelt for the anthem, which arguably defeats the object of a protest (how is it a protest if everyone agrees?) Because, between last season and this, we had the whole George Floyd / Black Lives Matter thing, and now it is politically important for people to be seen to be supporting BLM.
And so it was with Chicago Red Stars player Rachel Hill, who chose not to kneel with everyone else before the game this weekend, but instead to stand, rather awkwardly touching the shoulder of Black player Casey Short, who knelt in tears next to her. Fair enough, I guess, if that's what she wants to do, although I'm not sure what Ms. Short made of the gesture.
Ms. Hill did have to issue an official statement, though, explaining that she is not a white supremacist, but that she supports the Black Lives Matter movement wholeheartedly, and will do everything she can to fight against racism and unequality, but that she "chose to stand because of what the flag inherently means to [her] military family members".
It's a bit of a bizarre state of affairs, but that's the way things stand at the moment. It remains to be seen whether her statement is deemed to adequately justify her actions, and also whether it sparks a Kaepernick-style movement all of its own.
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