Picture Of Georgia Tech Cheerleader Taking A Knee Gets Cheers, Jeers

ATLANTA, GA -- A Georgia Tech cheerleader has found herself in the national controversy over standing during the national anthem. Raianna Brown, a Tech cheerleader, recently posted a picture of herself kneeling during the anthem.

Brown, who spoke to media about the moment, said that she took a knee during a game last October. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

She reposted it recently and that's when it went viral. Brown said that she was inspired by pro football player Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee during the anthem last season -- and has been embroiled in controversy ever since and unable to find a job with an NFL team.

Brown, a fifth-year senior, has dual enrollment at Tech in systems engineering and dance at Emory University, according to Teen Vogue. She said that she is not dancing with the Goldrush cheerleading squad this year due to undergoing hip surgery in May.

She said on Twitter that when she knelt last year it was exhilarating. "[It was the] proudest and scariest moment as a yellow jacket happened at the same time. Thank you, @Kaepernick7, for inspiring [me] to #TakeAKnee to take a stand," Brown said in a tweet.

The brouhaha over NFL players not standing for the anthem reached a boiling point this past weekend when President Donald Trump, calling one player a curse word, said during a speech that team owners should fire them.

Brown said that when she made the decision to kneel, she talked to a small circle of people at the university beforehand.

“Before I kneeled, I reached out to my coach to make sure it was OK because I’m at a state school,” she told Teen Vogue. “Prior to the game, I told some of my teammates what I was doing and why and I told them they could kneel if they wanted, that I’d spoken to the coach and there wouldn’t be any backlash."

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The 22-year-old said that her colleagues have shown her nothing but support — but there have been some haters.

"I didn’t feel anything but support from my peers at school aside from a few negative comments when I first posted pic," she told Teen Vogue. "There was a lot of backlash from alumni but none of that directly went to me, Georgia Tech did a good job of filtering that out and keeping it away from me. This time though I’ve gotten a lot of negative comments but it’s greatly outweighed by the positive support I’ve received so it doesn’t bother me."

Meanwhile, Trump continued to apply pressure to the NFL over the issue. He tweeted Tuesday. “The NFL has all sorts of rules and regulations. The only way out for them is to set a rule that you can't kneel during our National Anthem!”

Read more: Trump attacks Curry, Kaepernick in speech

Image via Technique, Georgia Tech’s student newspaper