Editor,
The Black Student Alliance is in full, unwavering support of our student athletes’ decision to kneel during the national anthem. It is their right as American citizens to peacefully protest — when and where they choose to exercise this most basic of human rights, as Americans, is completely up to their discretion. As student-athletes and respective leaders within their communities, they are not infringing upon the rights of others, but instead advocating for their own and protecting others’.
The act of kneeling during the national anthem is historic during times of oppression; it is not to disrespect the military and/or American citizens. It is to protest and not take a stand for anything less than equity, to kneel in the eyes of oppression and its oppressors, as Black people and people of color. Athletes of the National Football League and UNM Lobo Football Team have decided that they are not going to stand and place their hands over their hearts for a country that consistently antagonizes, imprisons and murders their people. They have chosen to peacefully protest a flag that has failed to live up to its promise of all men being created equally, and we, the Black Student Alliance, fully support and encourage this decision.
UNM Black Student Alliance
