7 June 2020. Taking the Knee.
I resist the phrase--the way the culture so easily recapitulates itself for commercial purpose (in this case the media)--but the act itself is too important--and shows in the image, no matter what we call it. And in any case, major league football is big-time business, so who could expect otherwise? However, everyone in this line-up is doubly valent--each player a part of the group--that's implicit--and at the same time an individual. That is, you see the meaning of this moment expressed on their faces--in their postures as well. For each one of them...
Can we read this? What's seen on each face? And how does someone like me (a white boy) show it? I think of Winslow Homer--his indelible painting, Gulf Stream--with the figure of the Black Man lying stretched across the deck of a de-masted sailboat--the sea roiled with sharks (there's even some red in the water) and far in the distance, a sailing ship that will almost certainly never spot him. Doomed. But still, Homer treats the man's face with dignity--even if there's a great deal of anger in his resolve. A lost sailor? A shipwreck? An escaped slave? The date of the painting is 1899, so we're 30 years after the Civil War--and who knows how literally we should take this thought--but viewed as "unrecognized guilt" (thank you, Charles)--at least on Homer's part-- we have a point of entry...
How different with the faces of the football players. Their resolve shows not so much anger as hope--in the same way The Star Spangled Banner can almost inevitably bring out something of this feeling--the way the heart lifts at its first strains, even when we know better...
And why not-- they should have hope--they've been taught to win... Will teach us how to win, too...
