Paytc Agreed,
but I do not think what Kaepernick did is the same as what legends like Tommie Smith and John Carlos did. They both stood up while the anthem was playing and within the anthem they expressed Black pride. I do not agree with disrespecting the flag but I do agree with fighting suppression and or injustice to a group of people. I’m African American and when I look at Tommie Smith and John Carlos I feel pride. The WNBA Women that put on the Black lives matter T-shirts while standing when the anthem is playing are heroes to me. Kaepernick is a clown just like OJ. Simpson, now you want to be black now that things aren’t going so well for you.
What I love about this country is the freedom to express opinions and respectively dis agree with one another. Like the humans that created the flag, neither the people or the flag are perfect, not even close IMO. We have as a country disrespected the flag and its people with some of the acts we have done domestically and internationally in the name of the flag. America is not perfect. What makes it great is our courage to admit it. ( And our work towards making it better).
If I remember correctly not everyone agreed with the gesture Smith and Carlos made at the time either. We all have the rights to our opinions and separate beliefs in America. So you and I, and anyone else, do not have to always agree. Our country can not have it both ways. It's either a democracy or demonocracy. The whole world is watching to see which one it is.
I personally think it took a lot of courage and sacrifice for Kaepernick to take an unpopular stand and risk so much. Like Ali and Rosa Parks at the time, who neither were looked upon as heroic, years from now many will see the courage and sacrifice for what it was. Some will always stand against equality unless the shoe were on the other foot. So the reaction is understandable. Every advancement in terms of racial equality that has been made has had mounting outside pressures clouding the advancement, so it is nothing new. What I took in more so than Kaepernick's act was the world's divided response to it. It proved to me that there is no doubt a divide and a problem with perceptions in the minds of different Americans. Some are benefitting more off of the status quo, others not as much so.
Like it or not, the truth is..... there are at least 3 different experiences living in America.
1. Is having the experience as a white person. 2. Having the experience as a non white or non black person. 3. Having the experience as a black person. ( then we could talk gender, religious belief, sexual preferences, etc...)
Here is how brilliantly Dave Chappelle presents two of the three experiences.
He also discusses gender differences at the end of the video........... Parental advisory.
Warning may contain offensive language. Parental advisory.
Copy and paste the url if necessary.