Monday, September 25, 2017

Trump Tramples Human Rights

I am inclined to wonder what colour the sky is in Donald Trump’s world.  Please note that I generally prefer to avoid the fracas of Trump and his tweeting, but this week the leader of the free world has trampled on human rights in at least one recent comment.  More specifically, Trump would apparently laud a decision to fire someone as a result of exercising his human rights, so this is technically in my wheelhouse.  Couple that with my love of NFL football and I have to weigh in.
The facts, for those not familiar with them:


  • Colin Kaepernick is a professional football player.  He is monumentally better at football than (to cite only one example) Jay Cutler, a man who is receiving $10 million this year for making the Miami Dolphins terrible.  Kaepernick is an apparently blacklisted free agent.  Kaepernick’s unforgivable offence appears to be that he peacefully protests what he says amounts to racial inequality in the United States.  The herein article is not about that aspect of the politics, though the stance seems eminently justifiable to me. Kaepernick’s protest has spread in popularity with many players now doing the same thing (or something else similar).

  • According to at least one source, Donald Trump is a corned-beef-dirigible and world-historically stupid idiot currently tasked with leadership of the free world.  He sits at the helm of a country ostensibly in favour of internationally-recognized human rights such as freedom of political expression and gender equality.  In a past life he was in business in country where (like Canada) those human rights form an important part of most workplaces.

  • The NFL is a league that puts out an awesome product which I love, but has a host of problems.  Domestic violence and worse pervade league culture.  The league should take this problem seriously and likes to pretend it does.  Punishments are meted out in keeping only with media attention.  As such, a middling player who nobody has heard of can (and too often will) assault his wife, but a famous player has more trouble getting away with it.  Ray Rice provides a good example.  Rice was (once upon a time) one of the better backs in the game.  He was to be punished only ever so slightly for punching his then-fiancée in the face knocking her unconscious.  Then a video of the incident went viral and only because of that coverage the league decided on a harsher punishment.  Rice never took another NFL snap, but make no mistake - that was a result of the fact that he was in physical decline.  The league is full of players with deeply troubling pasts, but who can (and therefore do) still play.  Ben Roethlisberger is a prominent example.


Now that the stage is set, here is the problem.  The Trump quote I will be discussing is as follows:

"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he's fired. He's fired,'"

Trump boomed these words at a recent rally where he characteristically opted for pure populist nonsense rather than anything substantive or helpful.  This was a reference to players who kneel during the anthem prior to a football game.

A small point:  “bitch” itself is a gender-based pejorative that has no place in the lexicon of a modern professional.  That is not the greater of the issues in Trump’s comment.

One other tangent I feel I must go on: there is no disrespect to the American flag in Kaepernick’s actions.  Loving your country and wanting to make it a better place are not mutually preclusive concepts.  Moreover, the anthem at sports games has only to do with fostering feeling of loyalty within the fan base.  Professional sports have nothing to do with nationalism.
But I am falling into that trap I hate so much, talking about the circus that is Trump.  I am trying to keep this about employment law (and football).

Expression of political views is a hallmark of American democracy and a globally-enshrined Human Right.  How can a so-called ‘leader’ and ‘businessman’ (for I understand Trump to call himself such, and not ‘businessperson’) make such a comment?  This would be more complex if the political view in question were controversial, but the only person who anyone actually listens to who thinks of racial equality as controversial is… well… Donald Trump.

The vast majority of inhabitants of the developed world respect racial equality.

So Kaepernick’s offence is essentially to use one human right (free expression) as a vehicle whereby to promote another (racial equality).  For this Trump would fire him.  Did I mention Kaepernick is particularly good at his job? In fact one could make an argument that he is one of the ten best people in the entire world at that job.  Meanwhile, you could meaningfully comment on some very serious problems with the NFL, but Trump has omitted to do so.

Shame on Donald Trump.

Go Broncos!

Boo Patriots!

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