The NFL and its 32 team owners have introduced a policy requiring players to stand for the national anthem. Those refusing to do so have two options: Stay in the locker room until “The Star-Spangled Banner” ends or risk being fined for noncompliance. This is an obvious violation of players’ First Amendment rights. And the issue is inescapably about race.

According to data from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, 94 percent of NFL franchise owners and 75 percent of head coaches are white. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and most of the league’s top executives are white. Blacks own majority stakes in none of the 32 teams. Only seven NFL head coaches in 2017 were black. Yet 70 percent of NFL players are black. This new policy clearly signals white control of black players’ bodies and rights to kneel in peaceful protest against police brutality and other racial issues during the national anthem. Put differently, a majority white group of overseers created and will enforce a policy restricting black players’ freedom of expression. The power is seemingly not with those who use their bodies to earn $7.8 billion for their teams and the league, but rather with whites who profit most from their labor.

The protests the league seeks to drive out of public view are also about race. Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players have been kneeling in opposition to various manifestations of racial injustice in America. In essence, this new plan conveys to players that the league does not care about racism and that its mostly black players are expected to find other platforms through which to protest.