From The Archives -The Spirit Of Supporting "Taking The Knee" -Boston Version From MLK To Malcolm X

From The Archives -The Spirit Of Supporting "Taking The Knee" -Boston Version From MLK To Malcolm X

By Allan Jackson


A while back a well-known professional football player, a quarterback, a San Francisco 49er’s quarterback Colin and who knows how to spell his last name I seen it about six different ways from the Times to Modern News Kaepernick and take no offense since no offense intended but admiration, “took the knee.” Took that knee during the playing of the National Anthem at the beginning of some Sunday football game. Took it not as a quirky, knee-jerky thing but to highlight what everybody now knows, or should know, that blacks (and others as well but today we are concerned about the history and fate of black people who did not immigrant here, no way) since almost the first day the European settlers came off the boats have been at the back of the bus, have been given a raw deal in ever way the white majority could give a raw deal, and some we don’t even know about.     

Of course “taking the knee” in a football crazed country during an event when half the patrons are boozed up by showtime and who expect no drama from the “gladiators” while drinking said booze, especially not over the “sacred” anthem which nobody can sing in any case caused more than a little controversy. Caused a lot of controversy from those who want to duck at all costs and in every way dealing with the bedrock racism issues that have racked this country since that settler time mentioned early. Caused the “big cheese” in the White House to foam at the mouth about tired old patriotism, about look what we have done for our “n’s” and the like. (Now the deal, the real deal, what that blather was all about is “ship then back to Africa, Spain, Morocco, Somalia, somewhere, hell Mexico even if they don’t like it here” if anybody gets too uppity)         

Sometimes you have to take sides; get Rosa Parks off the back of the bus, get dirt poor sharecroppers the right to vote, get Doctor King out of dusty Birmingham jail, sent Mister James Crow and his oppressive laws into oblivion, and the like. Yeah, duck your heads if you want but this was another such moment. You can use lots of reasons to have supported Colin but here is the simple way to put it. If you want to keep your eyes on the prize you had better keep your ass on the gas. Better assume that without an upfront accounting this race question can never go away, nor should it.   

Now a number of whites, white football fans included freaked out, decided to burn Colin-endorsed products, were ready to get the return voyage slave ships ready for immediate departure. Some of those though, some whites and one Fritz Taylor in particular supported Colin with all arms. Now this is important once you get Fritz’s story because you would have thought this football-crazed guy would have been ready to yell bloody murder. See Fritz is, or was, nothing but a good old boy from Fulton County down in Georgia where they practically invented the “n” word. Moreover whatever other later wars they might have fought for national patriotic reasons all men on both sides of Fritz’s family tree fought, fought and died in some cases, for the Confederacy back when whites were confronted big time about the race question. Fritz said some of his forbear’s own slaves, worked them to death on the plantations.     

Fritz himself knew nothing but the “n” word before we met him back in the late 1970. Said he had reveled in the advantages Mister James Crow gave his poor white trash people. But get this Fritz “got religion,” got it long and hard even if it took a long time in a place called Vietnam where he went after another group of non-whites who wanted to be left alone. Learned there after being around black guys, being saved a couple of times by black guys from stupid ideas he had about bravery and getting “Charlie.” Learned that the old ways had to go, that he had to see things a little differently. What do you think about that.