Cedric Ingram-Lewis and Larry McCullough were kicked off their football team on Friday after they demonstrated during the national anthem in protest of racial inequality.
Two high school students in Texas were kicked off their football team on Friday night after they demonstrated during the national anthem to protest racial inequality.
One student, Cedric Ingram-Lewis, 16, raised a fist in the air while the anthem played. The other, Larry McCullough, 18, got down on one knee. In response, their coach told them to hand over their uniforms, The Houston Chronicle reported.
“We had to get our message across: End racial injustice and the oppression of black people,” Mr. Ingram-Lewis said in a phone interview on Sunday.
The coach, Ronnie Mitchem, is the pastor at Victory and Praise Worship Center in Crosby, Tex., and a Marine Corps veteran. In a phone interview on Sunday, he said the teenagers’ demonstration was offensive to people who served in the military.
“I’ve been very patriotic my whole life,” he said. “I believe everybody has a right to protest, and I let those guys do their protests. But the rule was, if you did this protest, you wouldn’t be on the team.”
The two teenagers, who are cousins, decided to demonstrate even though Mr. Mitchem had warned players the day before against protesting, Mr. Ingram-Lewis said. After the anthem, Mr. Mitchem told them to return their uniforms, which they did.
Last year, the N.F.L. quarterback Colin Kaepernick was playing for the San Francisco 49ers when he began kneeling during the anthem to protest racial inequality, attracting national attention. He is now a free agent.
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At a political rally in Alabama on Sept. 22, President Trump denounced professional athletes who did not stand during the playing of the anthem. He added that they should be fired and that any team owner who followed his advice would become “the most popular person in the country” for a week.
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