Colin Kaepernick (centre),then the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers,takes a knee during the national anthem with teammates Eli Harold (left) and Eric Reid at an NFL game in October 2016.Credit:AP
The turnaround reflects a broader racial and cultural reckoning that is underway in America following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis,especially among white Americans.
Books aimed at educating white Americans about racism are flying off the shelves. The top five titles on theNew York Times non-fiction bestseller list are currently:White Fragility,So You Want to Talk About Race,How to be an Antiracist,Me and White Supremacy andThe New Jim Crow.
In Boston,Massachusetts,a statue of Christopher Columbus was beheaded this week. In Richmond,Virginia,protesters toppled a statue of Jefferson Davis,the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
NASCAR announced this week it would ban the Confederate battle flag from its races.Credit:AP
Virginia's Democratic Governor Ralph Northam ordered a giant statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee to be removed"as soon as possible"from the state capital and placed into storage. The HBO Max streaming service has temporarily removedGone With The Windfrom its library to add contextual material about the film's race politics.
At times,the zeal for justice has tipped over into the"de-platforming"of those seen as insufficiently committed to the anti-racist cause.
When David Shor,an analyst at progressive data firm Civis Analytics,tweeted a summary of an academic paper that found race riots reduced the Democratic vote share in the 1968 presidential election,he was attacked online for undermining the current protest movement.