Headline: Kneeling During the Anthem at Ole Miss: ‘I Needed to Stand Up for My Rights’

This piece looks at the story in a different light than a couple of the other ones I have read regarding the same topic. Many stories relay the fact that it had happened. Many call it controversy. But this piece manages to humanize itself through sourcing, and I think that is the strongest aspect of the work. The story doesn’t start with the fact that players kneeled, the story starts with one student. It doesn’t start out describing his past or giving the reader a look at his stats. The story starts with him calling his mother, an act that immediately places him in a vulnerable position, one that many people relate to, the position of not knowing what to do. I thought that that line worked really well throughout the story. It continues on to recount him talking to his parents. But then it talks about the history of kneeling and its many adaptations. I thought this was another section that worked well. I thought that the fact that the piece showed the scope of this event worked in favor of it. It showed that the act went from Kaepernick kneeling to high schools, Notre Dame and even South Africa. In the first sentence of that paragraph, the author states that kneeling for Kaepernick was a calibrated gesture. I think that word works really well in this paragraph because it is close enough to the word calculated for the reader to realize that is not the word used. Calibrated instead means carefully assessed, set or adjusted. I thought the fact that he chose that word really worked well in the piece. 

But I really think that the main part that works so well in the story is being able to hear from Shuler himself. After the fact, people kept saying, it wasn’t about the anthem and disrespecting the anthem, but hearing Shuler’s thoughts about why he made the decision he did really humanized him and the struggle that many other people faced. I think that the other sources also added to the story as well, but none as powerfully as his did. When he recounts the feeling of the other players placing a hand on his shoulder, the piece gets even stronger. I think that is what works so well for this story. 

I thought that this story was interesting because at least for many of us at Ole Miss, it is one that we heard a lot about in the moment. I think that it worked because it wasn’t a piece that just said what happened. As someone who is starting out in reporting, it really depicted the need for a fresh perspective. 

While reading it though, one of the things that I would have liked to see was an idea that opposed the decision Shuler made. The article does a good job of making me feel like I am on Shuler’s side. While, personally, that is where I normally would stand, I wanted to see something that showed why people would oppose him and why the fact that the players kneeling would cause an stir among students, alumni and faculty at the university. The article recounts the history of Ole Miss and race relations, rightfully so, but what does that show us about today. That is the thing that I would have liked to see.