As Colin Kaepernick ignited a national conversation in 2016 by first sitting and then kneeling during the playing of the national anthem, another Bay Area athlete fumed.
Shea Salinas, a veteran midfielder for the San Jose Earthquakes, recalled being mad at Kaepernick, the 49ers quarterback who has been unsigned since the season he staged a protest against police brutality toward Black people.
“I thought it was silly, I thought it was disrespectful,” Salinas said this week during an hour-long interview in which he volunteered that his views of Kaepernick’s gesture have changed.
“I think it was powerful and he accomplished something amazing,” Salinas added. “Unfortunately I am aware of it much later than I wish I had been.”
Salinas, 34, said the killing of George Floyd and other African-Americans at the hands of police has led to an awakening that is being witnessed across America.
Salinas’ shifting attitude underscores how these turbulent times have turned athletes into activists who want to use their platforms to give agency to pressing national issues.
“We have blind spots and we should be willing to see them, we should want to see them,” said Salinas, who has not previously said anything controversial in his 12-year career. “We shouldn’t want to think our views are always right.”
Salinas, a left-side midfielder and defender, endorses the idea to kneel during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner before games this year as Major League Soccer returned to action Wednesday with a 25-team tournament at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The Earthquakes are scheduled to open the spectator-less tournament Friday against Seattle Sounders FC in Group B. San Jose’s group games will count toward the regular-season standings when — and if — the MLS season resumes sometime in August.
Salinas has had more time to focus on social injustice this year while sheltering in place with his wife and three children because of the global novel coronavirus pandemic. MLS stopped play on March 12 because of the spreading COVID-19 outbreak, and the Quakes were the last team cleared to return to training under Santa Clara County orders.
The time away from the field allowed Salinas to read about aspects of American history in which he said he was not well versed. Salinas, who earned a kinesiology degree from Furman University, said he has gained an understanding of how the country has grown wealthy on the backs of some people.
“It breaks my heart that it has taken multiple horrible deaths for me to see this,” Salinas said. “I realize that I have a lot of blind spots and ignorance that I didn’t know I had. Now, how do I use my platform, how do I use my vote and how do I use my voice to help others?”
Salinas was raised in Texas, where his grandfather became a farmer after leaving Mexico, he said. Shea’s father was born in Mexico.
He said his family overcame racial inequities many Mexican immigrants experience to create a comfortable American life for him and his brother Kobi.
The Salinases lived in San Angelo, Texas, but moved to the Dallas suburb of Grapevine when Shea was in seventh grade, so he could get better soccer coaching.
After a solid soccer career at Furman, Salinas was selected 15th overall by the expansion Earthquakes in 2008. After moves to Philadelphia and Vancouver, Salinas has been with the Quakes since 2012.
Last year, Salinas had a career-best six goals and three assists despite starting only 12 times.
The Earthquakes players are spending more time together while sequestered at Disney World for the tournament. Salinas said it has led to spirited conversations about the world outside their soccer bubble.
The team supported Jacob Akanyirige when the Pleasanton teenager posted a statement last month against racism on the Quakes’ website.
Salinas said captain Chris Wondolowski, a member of the Kiowa Nation in Oklahoma, has led discussions about what the team can do to address the country’s problems.
San Jose, like almost every MLS team, has a diverse locker room. The Quakes have 13 foreign players who may not intimately understand America’s complex racial history. Another player, Said Haji, was born in a Somali refugee camp in Kenya but grew up in New Hampshire.
Danny Hoesen, a Quakes forward born to a Moroccan father and Dutch mother, said Wednesday that he recently showed his teammates a racist message he received on his private Instagram account. Hoesen, who is biracial, said White teammates apologized to him, saying they had no idea what Black people and other people of color go through.
The turbulent times have not changed Hoesen’s opinion of America, though.
“This is such a big country with such big diversity and such a big history,” he said. “I knew some things about it. It’s not that racism is only in America. It is in Europe, it’s in Asia, it’s everywhere.
“I’m curious how the country handles it, how the president handles it.”
Salinas appreciates the diversity in the locker room because “you eventually are going to run into someone who doesn’t agree with you so you can’t just run away.”
He said his Facebook feed has become polarized because he grew up in conservative Texas and attended college in South Carolina but has lived much of his adult life in the Bay Area, noting even his parents’ views are quite different from his.
Salinas said he recently learned more about how property tax funding creates a school system tilted against students of color and those living in poverty.
“It’s not to discredit hard work and effort but there is a system put in place that isn’t necessarily a fair playing field,” he said. “Kids are the innocent ones in all of this and should be provided with the equal opportunity to succeed.”
Salinas has said he became a Christian while attending Grapevine High School. According to his social media posts, Salinas and his wife Julie Salinas are active in a gospel-focused Silicon Valley church.
“I think I come off as self-righteous sometimes,” Salinas said. “I need to be a better listener and not always try to fix things.”
Salinas did not discuss his political leanings. When asked about the so-called religious right’s diehard support of President Donald Trump, the player answered with a generality.
“To use the Bible to hurt people or to divide and separate people is just wrong,” Salinas said. “It’s easy to cut and paste things and figure a narrative especially with a book so big. But the Bible is a story of God trying to unite his people of every generation, of every nation, of every color, of every people group. That involves justice and a lot of grace and a lot of mercy.”
Salinas also said he now realizes that kneeling during the national anthem does not disrespect the U.S. military — a criticism leveled at Kaepernick by Trump and some NFL fans.
Salinas said he always wanted to be a soldier because “it is biblical to sacrifice your life for other people.”
For him, the national anthem is a moment to be silent with God.
“I can do that on my knee and also draw awareness to injustice,” Salinas said.
