‘While I’m enjoying all of this unprecedented and, frankly, a little bit uncomfortable attention … Colin Kaepernick is still effectively banned from the NFL…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) U.S. Women’s Soccer star Megan Rapinoe is leading the team in a new effort to force U.S. Soccer to end its policy requiring players to stand during the National Anthem.
The female players accused the federation of silencing criminal justice reform advocates by forbidding players from kneeling during the anthem, and demanded that U.S. Soccer release a public apology, as well as a plan for “how it will now support the message and movement.”
“The Federation should immediately repeal the ‘Anthem Policy,’ publish a statement acknowledging the policy was wrong when it was adopted, and issue an apology to our Black players and supporters,” the female players said in a statement, according to Buzzfeed News.
The U.S. Soccer board is set to review its anthem policy, which requires players to “stand respectfully” during the Star-Spangled Banner. This rule was implemented after Rapinoe kneeled during the anthem in 2017 — a trend started by failed NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
In their statement, the players accused the board of pushing “misconception sand fear that clouded the true meaning and significance of Colin Kaepernick, Megan Rapinoe and other athletes taking a knee — that Black people in America have not been and continue to not be afforded the same liberties and freedoms as white people and that police brutality and systemic racism exist in this country.”
Rapinoe has vocally supported Kaepernick for years, and even used her acceptance speech at Glamour magazine’s Women of the years Award to blast the “system” of “white supremacy” that “banned” Kaepernick from the NFL.
“While I’m enjoying all of this unprecedented and, frankly, a little bit uncomfortable attention and personal access, in large part due to my activism off the field, Colin Kaepernick is still effectively banned from the NFL for kneeling during the national anthem in protest of known and systemic police brutality against people of color, known and systemic racial injustice, known and systemic white supremacy,” she said.