Eric Cureton

In 2016, Colin Kaepernick took a knee at the playing of the National Anthem before an NFL game in protest. He was protesting police brutality and racial inequality. 

During the half-time festivities of Super Bowl LVI, Eminem took a knee and though it caused a little protest it didn’t cost him much other than some slight criticism. His taking a knee did not garner nationwide criticism nor the vitriol that was piled on Mr. Kaepernick. 

Colin’s protest cost him his professional football career. It is unfortunate that America has a double standard when it comes to people of color, in particular Black people. White America took a knee on the collective neck of Black America long before Derek Chauvin kneed the breath out of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. I want to tell you that I am not going to paint a pretty picture during this article because the original artists/authors did not care to. 

History is immutable, the good the bad and the ugly.

In 1860, the Union, the United States of America, was in a fragile state. The Compromises, the outcome of the Dred Scott case, the Fugitive Slave Act and others, the Georgia Platform and various other political maneuverings of the previous 30-plus years had tenuously held the Union together. The culminating event was Lincoln’s election in 1860. 

After Lincoln’s election, the South understood that one region, mainly the North, could elect the President without their support. Why was Lincoln’s election so crucial to the South’s existence? One word or one institution, “Slavery.” 

The truth of the matter was Lincoln was not anti-slavery, he was, in fact, against the spread of slavery into the new western territories and states as America spread toward the Pacific Ocean. With that in mind, South Carolina seceded from the Union on Dec. 20, 1860. Georgia followed on Jan. 19, 1861. After North Carolina’s knee of secession on May 20, 1861, the United States of America was in a full-blown constitutional crisis because the Deep South collectively took a knee on the United States of America. 

Figuratively speaking, it was the South that took the original knee, not Colin Kaepernick some 155 years later.

The heaviest, longest and costliest knee, the Civil War begun on April 12, 1861, with the South firing its cannons on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, would last for fours years. It cost some 600,000-plus American lives with over 1 million Americans wounded. Why? Again, to protect the institution of slavery.

There are many who would argue that “states rights” was the real reason for the Civil War. I can understand that point of view. It was a state’s right to do what? Protect slavery. If the horrible, cruel and inhumane institution of slavery was to be taken out of the equation, there would not have been a reason big enough to go to war over.

Today in the South, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Gens. Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and others are not dishonored as traitors. They are glorified and hailed as heroes even though they raised arms against the United States of America and Colin Kaepernick is vilified for taking a knee in peaceful protest at the playing of the National Anthem. 

How many people did Mr. Kaepernick lead into battle against the United States of America? How many lives were lost as a result of his taking a knee? Allow me to answer – none. 

Gen. Robert E. Lee was asked by President Lincoln to lead the Union Army against the Confederacy, an illegitimate and ill-conceived country. He instead chose to ride down to Richmond, Virginia, and join the Confederacy. Mr. Kaepernick knelt in peaceful non-violent protest to bring attention to an unjust system. Gen. Lee and others went to war against the nation, our nation.

As a result of the clouds of smoke on the battlefields, it was hard to distinguish between friends and foes. To remedy the situation, Southern leadership designed a battle flag, the Stars and Bars to rally around. It was patterned after the Stars and Stripes. Similarly, the Confederate Constitution was outlined from the United States’ Constitution. 

The illegitimate Confederacy lasted only four years. That is not much of a heritage given the fact that the dehumanizing institution of slavery lasted for 246 years. After the Civil War, the Confederate flag was furled. It was unfurled and put on display temporarily on certain commemorative occasions. Unlike today, it was never on permanent display. Why would an ill-conceived venture need a permanent reminder that they lost? The Confederate flag was permanently displayed in the 1950s as a protest against Civil Rights legislation that was passed at the national level. It was a show of massive resistance by the South.

Unfortunately, for the South, and fortunately for the America, the Union prevailed. Signs of hatred still permeate our country to its detriment. Vestiges of the Old South still grace vehicles, houses, highways and bi-ways of the South. The Confederate flag conjures up memories of America’s original terrorist group, the Klan. Additionally, other hate groups adopted the flag, a protest flag to say the least. 

I do not believe that most of America agrees with what that flag stands for. But since the silent majority has not stood up and protested against the fact that hate groups and individuals have hijacked the Confederate flag then silence equates to consent. How can one justify flying the Confederate flag as an act of patriotism or heritage? 

The United States of America has a different flag. In many countries this would not be allowed. Is that not a knee on the neck of America? It is a flag of rebellion. The flag was flown by those who supported secession and secession from the United States of America and resorted to a four-year armed insurrection. So, when you see that flag wherever it may be flown, know that that person does not know any better or is flaunting their hatred of America. 

Only in America and a handful of other free countries can that act of defiance take place without any repercussions. God bless America.

 

Eric Cureton lives in Hahira.