Former NFL quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, Kaepernick later revealed he decided to take a knee during the anthem to protest the police shooting of Mario Woods as well as the systemic oppression that has been plaguing Black Americans for decades. 

This ignited a public controversy about the appropriateness of the protest and whether kneeling somehow should be equated with a disrespect for your country and a lack of patriotism.

I used the photo taken by Martin Schoeller for the Nike ad campaign ( Nike Ad featuring Kaepernick) that features a black and white close up of Kaepernick’s face.  I chose to use this photo as my background because his magnified facial features help draw the viewer in and offer a glimpse into the soul of a man committed to a cause much bigger than his own football career.  In fact, his decision to kneel during the anthem at games led to him being blackballed by the NFL and he hasn’t been re-signed to a team since 2017.  The ad is narrated by Kaepernick and captures his story perfectly when he says, “Believe in something.  Even if it means sacrificing everything”.  No truer words have been spoken in Kaepernick’s case.

I paired Kaepernick’s close up with a photo of Martin Luther King kneeling to the left of his face.  This photo was taken in 1965 when King and his supporters were kneeling in prayer, after having been arrested for protesting about the right to vote in Selma, Alabama.  Although King was in prayer, kneeling has had a long history in black civil rights protests.  The connection between Kaepernick and King is they were both peacefully protecting the treatment of African Americans in a country that continues to be more intent on maintaining order than upholding the principles of justice and equality for all.  

I painted Kaepernick in colour on the right to emphasize him as the focal point and illuminate that he is one of many who are carrying on the marathon against racism.   His contemplative gaze shows that his eyes are on a bigger prize than winning a football game:  he is carrying on King’s legacy of standing up for injustice.  I positioned Martin Luther King on the lower left of the canvas so that an invisible line was drawn from him to Kaepernick who is higher up on the right of the composition.  King’s black and white figure are a reminder of the foundation laid by him and other freedom fighters from the past and Kaeprnick’s vibrant image symbolize that the baton has been passed to a new generation of trailblazers.

I also commemorated the names of many Black Americans who were killed by police by painting their names into Kaepernick’s hair in the background.  The fact that I did not have nearly enough room for all of their names is a testament to the crisis that we are in when it comes to police brutality against people of colour.  Names like Treyvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd are just a few of the many names that have appeared in headlines and #saytheirnames campaigns around the world.  The physical act of painting their names was very sobering and felt like I was etching their names into a memorial stone.  Honouring their names in this way is a reminder that we must continue to speak out against racial injustice and find ways to give a voice to the voiceless, just as Kaepernick did through his simple act of kneeling.

While some may view Kaepernick’s act of kneeling as disrespectful to the American flag, I think it shows he was not afraid to hold America accountable for its blatant disregard for Black lives, its failure to combat police brutality and its ignorance of systemic racism.  Like Martin Luther King, Kaepernick is a great example of courage under fire.

If we fail to treat each other with humanity and fight racial injustice and acts of violence, we have only failed ourselves.