The heated discussion surrounding some NFL players recently kneeling during the national anthem has focused on the action and athletes rather than what the action and athletes symbolize. Whether or not you agree with the players’ decisions to kneel or not is irrelevant to what is being communicated.

The way these athletes are protesting is not inherently disrespectful. They are not turning their backs on the flag, they are not burning the flag, they are not flipping the bird to the flag.

They are kneeling.

They are respectfully symbolizing that they will not stand for consistent injustices people of color in this country face, particularly in regards to police brutality.

“White people make up roughly 62 percent of the U.S. population but only about 49 percent of those who are killed by police officers,” according to a Washington Post analysis. “African Americans, however, account for 24 percent of those fatally shot and killed by the police despite being just 13 percent of the U.S. population.”

This discrepancy is certainly related to other biases and injustices people of color face. Stanford’s Center on Poverty and Inequality found that while some disparities have improved during the past few decades, inequalities still exist across housing, health care and income levels.

This is what should be the focus of the conversation related to national anthem protests. This is what people should be angry about. And if you are angry about the way these athletes are protesting, you should also be angry about these inequities.

The argument that kneeling during the national anthem is disrespectful to those who are serving or have served our country in the armed forces is somewhat understandable. However, the entire concept of fighting for our freedoms includes our freedom of expression, our democracy and our right to respectfully disagree with each other.  

Likewise, the argument that kneeling during the anthem disrespects veterans could only be fair if the same people that say kneeling to the flag is disrespectful also agree that using the flag to decorate things like napkins — that get crumpled up and thrown away — is also disrespectful.

The perspective that athletes have no place in this conversation and have no place discussing social and political issues is quite contradictory. Why even play the national anthem at sporting events if athletics is not a microcosm of society? Further, the athletes are using their privilege — as public figures — to bring light to a social issue they care deeply about.

If we are going to have a conversation about kneeling, we also need to talk about why they are kneeling.