A few players from a high school football team in New Jersey went down on one knee during the playing of the national anthem, following in the footsteps of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall.
Similar to Kaepernick and Marshall, teachers and students at the predominately non-white Woodrow Wilson school joined together to execute the contentious gesture to draw attention to social and economic injustice, according to NBC News.
Preston Brown, the coach of the Tigers, first declared that he would protest by kneeling by himself.
He said, “I know that the song’s original meaning did not include people like me, and I am well aware of the national anthem’s third verse, which is not usually sung.”
“No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave” is the line that appears in the quiet third verse that he is alluding to.
“I felt it was an appropriate time to do that because of recent events that happened the last couple of years, things I experienced in college as an African-American student athlete in the south,” Brown said, according to NJ.com.
He went on, “I’m African-American, and I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.” “However, I can’t ignore the differences between the things I see every day and those that are four blocks away in a nearby town.”
Some of the students chose to join Brown after he informed the players of his choice, most likely because they could relate to his motivations.
Brown said, “I grew up in poverty, and a lot of these kids are growing up in poverty.” “There are numerous economic and social inequalities. There are problems in our own neighborhood.
The Camden City School District congratulated the children and expressed agreement with Brown’s remarks, even though they favor standing for the flag.
According to district spokesman Brendan Lowe, “we’re proud of our students’ engagement with what is more broadly a very important social justice issue, whether our students choose to stand, kneel, or otherwise.”
