High school baseball team kneels during national anthem in Iowa. How did people react?
The discussion of whether to kneel during the national anthem at sporting events is at an all-time high, and one Iowa high school baseball team is putting those words into action to start its season.
Des Moines Roosevelt High School players took a knee during the national anthem on Monday ahead of their season-opening game against Ankeny Centennial at Principal Park, the Des Moines Register reported.
“We’re just trying to show our appreciation, and it’s about social justice,” Roosevelt senior Jayden Singleton told WHO. “It shows how we are together as a team and have a strong core.”
The reactions were mixed on Twitter, with some praising the players while others found the gesture insulting.
“Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,” @lailahlillie tweeted.
“Kudos to @DesMoinesGov for allowing students at @DMschools show solidarity with their fellow human beings #BlackLivesMatter,” said @IrishWitch2112.
Twitter user @HRain10 was less than impressed, however. “Totally Disgusting,” they said. “They should get first seed in a tournament played inside the chaz zone. Totally disgusting.”
“And I turn my back on teams like this, spit on the ground in their name, and couldn’t care less if calamity befell every team member,” said @KentuckyKennyZ.
Iowa is the first state to resume high school sports since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, WJHL reported.
In 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a stand against racial injustice by taking a knee before an NFL preseason game and began the peaceful protest movement. Other superstar athletes, such as United States women’s national soccer team star Megan Rapinoe, followed suit and took a knee as well.
Recently, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees took heat for saying that he didn’t approve of the peaceful protests.
“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country,” the 41-year-old quarterback said, McClatchy News reported.
Brees has since apologized for his comments.
“No disrespect to the flag. It’s simply to bring attention to the issues at hand, and I think we did the right thing,” Roosevelt senior Alex Pendergast told WHO.
“We wanted to represent (all Des Moines public schools),” senior Jayden Singleton said to the Register. “We have a lot of diversity, and a lot of people of color. We wanted to show our appreciation for social justice.”
The coaching staff stood behind their players’ decision to kneel.
“Coach brought it up during practice, just with everything going on,” Pendergast said, according to the Register. “We talked about it as a team and came to a decision, as players, to take a knee and give more attention to the problem at hand.”
This comes as Black Lives Matter protests have been going on daily following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others.
Floyd, 46, died while in police custody on May 25 and his death sparked an avalanche of protests across the nation. He died after now-fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, as three other officers didn’t intervene.
Taylor, 26, an ER technician, died on March 13 after police in Louisville, Kentucky, executed a “no-knock” warrant at her apartment during a narcotics investigation, shooting her at least eight times.
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 10:09 AM with the headline "High school baseball team kneels during national anthem in Iowa. How did people react?."