The United States Football Federation’s athletic council removed one of its members on Sunday, the day after he delivered a speech at the federation’s annual general meeting against the removal of an anti-kneeling policy.
Seth Jahn, a 38-year-old from Florida who played for the Paralympic team of seven from the United States, spoke out against the repeal of what was known as Policy 604-1, implemented in response to US women’s team star Megan Rapinoe kneeling in support of Colin Kaepernick.
The USSF council voted to revoke the policy in June, a decision from the annual online meeting stated Saturday 71.34% voting in favor of the revocation.
“I am sure that I will irritate some penalties with what I am about to say, especially considering the advice of athletes I am on, but given the evolution of our progressive culture, in quotes, where everything offends everyone, those who are willing to kneel down as a hymn they do not care to defend half of our country and when they do, I am not too concerned about also exercising my right to the First Amendment, ”said Jahn before the vote. “We are here to have a different perspective. I also feel compelled to articulate that I am mestizo and representative, without a doubt, of the most persecuted people in the history of our country, the Native Americans ”.
Claiming that he was citing FBI statistics, Jahn said that “95% of deaths in black communities come at the hands of another black man”.
The vote – 71% in favor with only a simple majority required – directly followed this sensational seven-minute dissent from Seth Jahn, a U.S. Paralympic athlete who is currently a member of the U.S. Football Athletes Council. pic.twitter.com/vH4Pc4vkT4
– Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) February 27, 2021
“I continue to hear how our country was founded on the backs of slaves, although approximately only 8% of the entire population had slaves,” he said. “Every race in the history of mankind has been enslaved by another demographic at some point. Blacks were enslaved. Hispanics were enslaved. Asians more recently in our country, in the damn 20th century, were enslaved. The natives were enslaved. Whites were enslaved. Gee, I lived in Africa for two and a half years where I could buy people, slaves, between the price of $ 300 and $ 800 per person, per capita depending on their age, health and physicality.
“Where were the social justice warriors and news journalists to bring their rumors about these real atrocities? And yet, in all of history, only one country has fought to abolish slavery, the United States of America, where nearly 400,000 men died to fight for the abolition of slavery under the same stars and bars by which our athletes kneel. His sacrifice is contaminated with every knee that touches the ground. “
He suggested that athletes would like to kneel on their own individual platforms, but not while representing the United States on a football field.
USSF President Cindy Parlow Cone followed Jahn and called for revocation.
“It is not about disrespecting the flag or disrespecting the military,” she said. “It is the right of athletes and our team to protest peacefully against racial inequalities and police brutality.”
Athletes Council said in a statement Sunday that Jahn “violated the section of the Prohibited Conduct Policy on Harassment, which prohibits racial harassment or other harassment based on the protection status of a person (race), including any verbal act in which the race is used or implied in a way that would upset a reasonable person. The athletes’ council does not tolerate this type of language and considers it incompatible with adhering to the board. While the board understands that each person is entitled to his or her own opinion, there are certain opinions that go beyond what is appropriate or acceptable. “
The board said it “wants to be unequivocal in its condemnation of the statements that Jahn made yesterday”.