Even though our inane president claims that “I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!” That jaw-dropping comment was one of his tweets on January 6, 2018. Yo Donald, you don’t even believe that. Besides, that sentence isn’t grammatically correct.

“I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!”

Therefore, I am offering him, free of charge, the etymology of the phrase, taking a knee. Let’s start with his first lesson, which explains the term, etymology. It comes from the Greek word, ἐτυμολογία. The first part of the word, ἔτυμον, means sense of truth. The λογία is the Greek word for the study of…. Therefore, someone should read this essay to our fake president when his isn’t tweeting. He is living in another world…another reality. Nevertheless, the following teaching moment addresses the etymology of taking a knee.

The Prodigal Son kneels before his father. Essentially, he is asking for forgiveness by kneeling.

The Prodigal Son returned home to a loving father.

When a commoner meets royalty or is knighted by a king or queen, they would kneel before that person. It means that the commoner is lower in the pecking order than the king or queen.

“I dub thee, Sir Galahad.”

The British royalty use the royal we when making a decree or important statement. So, who is the other person? Answer: God. Royalty is considered great because God picked them to be a king or queen. Regardless what the royals think, it is still a form of racism. I’m better than you because God sees me as almost divine.

Over the centuries, taking a kneel has become a means of expressing being less than the other person. It shows subservience by kneeling or taking a knee before someone better than you. In sports, taking a knee sometimes means that the person is thanking some deity for a touchdown or a winning serve. It can also mean that the one kneeling is paying homage to those who have been killed, beaten, and disadvantaged by racists in America.

America hasn’t resolved the issue of racism.

However, the worm has turned…tragically. Here again, I need to explain that often used and nearly always misunderstood sentence in the English language. John Heywood put together a portfolio of his proverbs in 1546. “Treade a worme on the tayle, and it must turne agayne.” William Shakespeare used a more understandable version in Henry VI, “The smallest worm will turn being trodden on….” Essentially, even the dumbest of creatures, like a worm, will attack when stepped upon.

Therefore, the newer meaning of taking a knee relates to how some white cops feel that blacks are disrespecting them and attempting to take over this country from the whites. These white supremacists, whether cops or not, don’t like blacks stepping on them, and they attack. Racist cops and white vigilante groups have killed and beaten blacks throughout the history of America. They don’t want blacks in America. Question: who brought blacks to America?

This cop had handcuffed a black who was laying on his stomach while the cop had his knee on the guy’s neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. Shakespeare was correct, “The smallest worm will turn being trodden on….”

George Floyd is literally taking a knee from a cop.

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This is the video of the scene where George Floyd was taking a knee from the cop.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/26/us/minneapolis-police-encounter-death-trnd/index.html

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