Picture your favorite article of clothing. What makes it special to you? It could be how it looks on your body or perhaps how it feels. Some cloth is special because it’s rare, while DJ Khaled uses the phrase “special cloth” to denote excellence. To some, the U.S. flag is special cloth; to others, it’s just a flag, or worse, a symbol of genocide and oppression.

Colin Kaepernick sees it as the latter. The San Francisco 49er quarterback refused to stand for the national anthem during a preseason game out of an unwillingness to “show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people …” If one sees the flag as a symbol of American ideals, and American ideals as wholesome tenets including equality, liberty, and justice for all, then Kaepernick disrespects the flag because he doesn’t know what America really stands for. After all, racism is just a stain on America’s history, perpetrated by some bad apples that give the whole orchard a bad reputation.

Arguments that racism and American ideals are at odds only stand up to scrutiny apart from the historical realities that have shaped our nation. The Declaration of Independence calls for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and this rings hollow when weighed against the thousands of slaves collectively owned by its writers. Racism isn’t just a stain on America’s history, because it is a fundamental part of America’s history. This isn’t to suggest that America cannot transcend its past, but we as a nation will not transcend the origins of our country without acknowledging and righting past wrongs.

Some will question whether Kaepernick is the “right” person to speak, because he was adopted by a white family or because he’s a hypocrite who is all talk and no action. Shooting the messenger without fully evaluating the message under the guise of identity politics is willful ignorance.

I agree with the latter point; if he’s all talk and no action, he will be a hypocrite. But Kaepernick’s public stance is causing an effect; people are dissecting the third verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and football players are being asked to weigh in on Black Lives Matter. The usual outraged cries about “soldiers who died for the flag” Kaepernick is disrespecting have renewed focus on the way our country treats veterans after they return to civilian life. On Aug. 21, a veteran committed suicide in the parking lot of a VA Hospital in Long Island after being turned away from the ER. Will people be as outraged about the lack of support for veterans as they are about Kaepernick?

Even if you see the flag as a sacred symbol of American ideals, the ideals America strives toward include freedom of expression. There’s a reason it’s the First Amendment, because it ultimately lays the foundation for rest of the Bill of Rights. And freedom of expression protects the right not to pledge allegiance to the flag, the right to desecrate and burn flags, the right to express one’s political feelings in any peaceful manner you choose. Kaepernick choosing to sit during the national anthem is a choice he has the right to make, just as standing during the anthem is a choice. If you’re lucky enough to feel like the flag is something you can personally be proud of, you should respect that other people have a litany of reasons to feel differently. If you truly consider the flag special cloth, then you have to respect other’s right to see it as just a piece of cloth.

—Vivian Medithi

It is not disrespectful to servicemen and -women for Colin Kaepernick to remain seated during the national anthem. As has been addressed dozens of times over the past few years, servicemen and -women enlist in the military to protect the freedoms afforded to us by the Constitution — including Kaepernick’s freedom to stay seated during the national anthem.

But Kaepernick is still being disrespectful, not to servicemen and -women but to those truly fighting for social justice in America.

Kaepernick seems to think that because of a series of Instagram posts featuring famous quotes plastered over Martin Luther King Jr.’s face and his unwillingness to stand during the national anthem, he is now a social-justice champion. However, it takes much more than that.

In response to widespread disapproval about his actions, Kaepernick said, “I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people who are oppressed. … If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.”

But that’s the thing. Kaepernick didn’t stand up and hasn’t been standing up — literally (obviously) or figuratively.

When King and Mahatma Gandhi “stood up” to protest the oppressive culture they witnessed, they did so through hunger strikes, marches, sit-ins, pressing government for legislative changes, and much, much more.

Kaepernick’s version of being an advocate involves posting pictures and refusing to stand during the national anthem. A quick Google search of “Colin Kaepernick” with any relevant descriptors proves this lack of activism. Terms such as “social justice,” “charity,” “charitable,” “Black Lives Matter,” and others can be joined with Kaepernick’s name only to show his Instagram posts.

So to Kaepernick: Don’t tell me you’re doing this because you dislike the oppressive nature of our country. Don’t tell me you refuse to stand for the national anthem because you empathize with the plight of minorities in the U.S. Do something more.

March. Donate to educational nonprofits. Volunteer for an organization other than NFL Play60.

Just do something more. You owe it to the people to whom you claim to be devoted.

Now, of course, the point can be made that Kaepernick has done something by starting a conversation — this very opinion piece is evidence of that. But in my mind, the conversation began long ago.

The most impressive thing a famous person can do is contribute to a cause without the grandeur, without the publicity, and without the accolades. It may not be as polarizing or as attention-grabbing, but it would certainly be more impressive, at least to me.

I don’t mind if Kaepernick chooses to sit during the national anthem; that just can’t be all he does in a true fight for social justice.

— Joseph Lane