Ole Miss Basketball Players Kneel During National Anthem
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Ole Miss Basketball Players Kneel During National Anthem
Tamar Auber February 23, 2019
A group of University of Mississippi basketball players took a knee during the national anthem on Saturday.
Video posted on social media shows the players — around six in all — kneeling as the Star Spangled Banner played. An additional two athletes then joined the kneelers by the anthem’s end.
Several Ole Miss players knelt during the national anthem. pic.twitter.com/AU2OiWcC6F
— Neal McCready (@NealMcCready) February 23, 2019
Speaking to ESPN, player Breein Tyree explained , “the majority of it was just that we saw one of our teammates doing it and didn’t want him to be alone.”
He added: “We’re just tired of these hate groups coming to our school and portraying our campus like we have these hate groups in our actual school.”
The players’ action comes on the same day as others rallied on the campus in support of a Confederate monument.
Twitter users posted photos of the pro-Confederate monument rally on Saturday, in which a small group of people — including at least one holding a Confederate flag — can be seen.
According to News Channel 3 , the pro-Confederate rally was held by “out-of-state protesters a few hundred feet from the arena.”
Earlier this week, students also held a silent march protesting the monument and plans for the pro-Confederate event.
Ole Miss students protest silently at Confederate statue during Black History Month March – https://t.co/rCDJ54snv3 pic.twitter.com/IJtNQBx0ro
— The Daily Mississippian (@thedm_news) February 21, 2019
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Eight Mississippi players kneeled during the national anthem in response to a Confederacy rally near the arena before the Rebels’ 72-71 victory over Georgia on Saturday.
With the teams lined up across the court at the free throw lines, six players took a knee and bowed at the start of the “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Two other players later joined them.
“The majority of it was just that we saw one of our teammates doing it and didn’t want him to be alone,” Ole Miss scoring leader Breein Tyree said. “We’re just tired of these hate groups coming to our school and portraying our campus like we have these hate groups in our actual school.”
The Confederacy demonstration took place a few hundred feet from the arena. In the aftermath of violence at a similar rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Oxford community has been on alert.
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Smart move by the basketball players. They tied the anthem protest to racism on their campus.
So they're protesting against freedom of expression? Or they are protesting the Confederacy by refusing to stand for the Union flag?
Either seems kinda dumb.
It might be more effective to tell that to the hate groups.
Disrespecting the anthem of the country that fought the Confederacy.
Well done.
How about condemning the confederate flag wavers for supporting the entity that fought against the United States of America.
Was someone waiving a confederate flag during the anthem?
i would condemn that.
Wow, Sean!
Under certain circumstances, strictly limited, you'd condemn a symbol of slavery?
Amazing!
Sure, why think for yourself? Maybe the first guy just lost a contact.
There is no evidence that they didnt think about it. Some thoughts only take a half a second.
No evidence? He literally said he did it just because some other guy did it.
I am not going to argue about this with you. They may have seen someone else start it but it doesnt mean they dont agree with it. You are adding that conclusion.
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Wow, they really showed those protesters. They had to explain why they did it after the fact, because it was so damn evident to everyone.
Nice of the other players to support their teammate that kneeled. Wonder if he told them before hand why he was doing it; or were they all wonder if they were protesting the police?
Seems they already held their protest earlier; but that wasn't enough.