by Richard McGowan, Ph.D.
One of my friends remarked that “Ignorance of the past is poor national policy.” It is also poor media policy, especially since that ignorance often guides national policy.
This year, on August 31, the 10th anniversary of Colin Kaepernick’s antics on the football field, various media recalled his behavior. The Seattle Medium reported him saying “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.” The same article reported that Kaepernick said “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people (are) getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
For another example, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that “San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the U.S. national anthem before NFL games to protest racial injustice and police brutality.” AP wires said that Kaepernick “decided to take a knee during the national anthem before a preseason game on Sept. 1, 2016, to bring attention to a series of social issues he cares deeply about — from racial injustice to minority oppression to police brutality.”
The angry and apparently ignorant QB and an uncritical media should have done more research. In 2011, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that “42.1 percent of arrest-related deaths were white people. 31.8 percent of arrest-related deaths were black people, and 20 percent of Hispanic people (who at that time were often counted as white people). FBI crime data for 2016 show that white offenders killed 243 black people whereas black offenders killed 533 white victims. Murder, in short, is largely intraracial. Black people killed 2,570 other black people and white people killed 2,854 other white people. If black lives are going to matter, black people should change their behavior. As well, if white lives are going to matter, white people should change their behavior.
And if Colin Kaepernick wants to stop racial injustice, for example, blacks becoming homicide victims, and minority oppression, at least as far as the injustice of homicide is concerned, he would have been more productive delivering his message to the black community.
As it is, FBI data show that white offenders committed 5,004 homicides and black offenders committed 6,095. The numbers are more telling in the context of America’s 2016 population. Black people represented 14.5 percent of the population and non-Hispanic whites represented 61 percent of the population. So, 14.5 percent of the population committed over 50 percent of the homicides.
Yet Colin Kaepernick protested minority oppression and racial injustice without criticizing the black population while the media reported without presenting relevant information.
Has the situation changed? It’s the kind of question someone might ask if the person had any sense of history. From August 2025 to August 2026, FBI data show that there were 5,349 black homicide victims and 4,872 white victims. The data also show that there were 5,807 black offenders and 4,610 white victims. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that as of July 31, 2025, white non-Hispanic people constituted 56.1 percent of the population and black people constituted 13.5 percent of the population.
Kaepernick’s behavior in 2016 drew lots of media attention without the media’s reporting any of the data. This year, the media apparently recalled the incident, but again, without a hint of data.
It would be a better world were black people not to kill black people and white people. It would be a better world were white people not to kill white people and black people. It would be a much, much better world and a more peaceful one, too, were journalists and the media to report fully all the relevant facts regarding an issue or event.
Ignorance of the past makes for poor policy but perhaps that is nothing compared to the ignorance of the present.
Richard McGowan, Ph.D., an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, has taught philosophy and ethics cores for more than 40 years, most recently at Butler University. (Notes and citations are included in the web version at www.inpolicy.org.)
Sources
2016 race of victim and offender
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/expanded-homicide-data- table-3.xls
San Francisco Chronicle post, Aug 31
In August and September 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the U.S. national anthem before NFL games to protest racial injustice and police brutality. His silent demonstration sparked a nationwide movement of athlete activism, intense political debate, and a lasting cultural impact on sports and civil rights. [1, 2, 3, 4]
From the AP wires Aug 31
https://apnews.com/article/colin-kaepernick-nfl-national-anthem- 808a100d32c0fec506f28c001bbd4a1c
While Kaepernick, who is biracial, was hardly the first athlete of color to parlay the playing of the anthem into an attempt to draw attention to social inequity
If anything, the moment the San Francisco 49ers star decided to take a knee during the national anthem before a preseason game on Sept. 1, 2016, to bring attention to a series of social issues he cares deeply about — from racial injustice to minority oppression to police brutality
Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2025
https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/special-reports
PDF (cde.ucr.cjis.gov) U.S. population by race
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045225
victims/perps by race
https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/shr
