Athletes and other individuals should be able to kneel for the national anthem to bring attention to the social injustice that exists in our country today. There is a clear problem that exists in many parts of the United States of America, and many are uncomfortable talking about it. African Americans and other minorities have been unfairly targeted and discriminated against throughout this country’s history, and this difficulty can still be found in the present. One way athletes and others have been protesting police brutality that has erupted a nationwide controversy is kneeling while the national anthem is being played. Kneeling during the national anthem is a peaceful form of protest that is effective as it brings attention to the problem. …show more content…
The song contains the famous, “...In the land of the free and the home of the brave.” But are you truly free if you are being unfairly targeted because of your skin color? And are police officers being brave when they shoot unarmed human beings? A study by the University of California found that unarmed blacks who were stopped by police were 3.49 times more likely to be killed by police than whites who were unarmed and stopped by police. An investigation by federal and state judges into the San Francisco Police Department’s practices found that, “although Black people accounted for less than 15 percent of all stops in 2015, they accounted for over 42 percent of all non-consent searches following stops.” The same study also found the Blacks and Hispanics in this region had the lowest “hit rates,” or finding illegal contraband on the subjects, as white people who were stopped were two times more likely to be found carrying contraband. A Stanford study done in Oakland in 2015 showed that of all people handcuffed but not arrested in a 13 month period, 2890 of them were African American, and only 193 whites were cuffed. Clearly there is a racial bias in many police forces across the country that needs to be acknowledged and the national anthem words will not be true until that