Muzzled by mandate

The kneeling, it was never about the song. It was never about the song or the flag or the troops or any of the other nonsense put forth by the demagogue in the White House, or by all his various fellow travelers in NFL stadiums and Sunday afternoon living rooms.

The kneeling, it was about injustice. It was a solemn, polite, respectful reminder that in America today people of color sometimes wind up dead in circumstances where others do not. And why should that be?

That's what the kneeling was about. It was never about the song, never about the rockets' red glare or the dawn's early light or any of the rest of it.

But the demagogue in the White House hijacked the narrative, because the demagogue in the White House doesn't believe the real narrative has any merit whatsoever. If people of color wind up dead or get torn from their families and sent back to places they've never known, it's because they're animals and had it coming.

That's what the President of the United States believes. That's his vision of America. That's why he called all those kneeling players SOBs and condemned them for dishonoring America, all of that sheer cowflop with which he successfully obscured the message of the kneelers. Obscuring, after all, is what this president does best.

Yesterday, the National Football League bought into the obscuring. Swallowed it whole, hook, line, sinker and bait.

It told its players there'll be no more protesting in its workplace, no more kneeling for the National Anthem, respectful gesture that it was. If you want to protest people of color sometimes winding up dead in circumstances where others do not, we don't want to hear about it. You can stay in the locker room, safely out of sight -- and mind.

Everyone else, you're going to stand. You're going to behave in a manner deemed by the NFL to be respectful. That's because the NFL is your employer, and so the NFL's opinion about what is respectful posture and what it isn't, though of no more merit than anyone else's, is the only opinion that matters.

Your rights as an American citizen?

You forfeit them when you walk in the NFL's door.

This isn't right, of course. But it's the way the wind's blowing these days in America.

Just the other day the Supreme Court undermined the National Labor Relations Act by ruling, in a 5-4 vote, that it was superseded by the precedent set by the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act. Which essentially says if you are a private sector employee, you no longer have the right to band together to protect yourself in labor disputes. You can sue as an individual, but you can't seek protection in numbers. Which essentially means you have no protections.

Your employer can do whatever he wants to you once you sign that arbitration agreement. What are you gonna do, take on Big Box Amalgamated all by your lonesome?

Good luck with that.

Good luck, too, to the NFL players. Because, as the Supreme Court decision made abundantly clear, in this America your employer holds all the cards and you hold none. If Roger Goodell decided to make the players wrap themselves in the American flag, stand on one foot and sing the National Anthem, he could do that. He could designate at what exact volume they had sing it. He could make them wear tutus and ballerina slippers and sing it.

Of course, the NFL being the NFL, the spin was in full force yesterday. Why, this new edict is a compromise which preserves the rights of the players to protest inequality! Because we're all about our players' social activism in the National Football League! It's a good thing! We encourage it!

Well. As long as it doesn't cost us money, that is. Or tick off the demagogue in the White House.

In the NFL, see, you can't use your head as a weapon. You can, however, duck it and cringe.