Lost Messages

Ok so I just want to clarify what I wrote the other day. The current cover of Sports Illustrated is tilted A Nation Divided, Sports United. It’s meant to be a comment on the ongoing protest and is comprised of athletes from various sports teams and although Colin Kaepernick is nowhere to be found there are several prominent White men included. The deliberate exclusion makes it painfully obvious that the protest begun by Colin Kaepernick over a year ago has been completely lost. His protest was not about first amendment rights and certainly not the NFL’s ego. Kaepernick knelt to protest government sanctioned murder of people of color. I blamed Trump for changing the narrative but the NFL is complicit as well. The NFL has co-opted his protest and are attempting to create some bullshit revisionism and it’s happening right before our eyes. By making this a free speech issue or a protest over divisive statements made by Trump or his blatantly racist supporters assertion that those kneeling are disrespecting the military and veterans, attention has successfully been diverted away from the actual message. This is what Kaepernick had to say at the beginning of his decision to kneel.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

When Kaepernick started this movement, Trump was nowhere to be found. Well he wasn’t President yet at any rate. The point he made regarding systemic racism, police brutality and centuries-long oppression has been hijacked by those who have instead made it in to some watered down anti-Trump liberal cause. These new protests may in fact contain some who are well intentioned but what they’ve done is made it more easily consumable by White audiences and I’m pretty sure the NFL is aware of this fact. They’ve effectively and purposely white-washed Kaepernick’s cause to where it’s no longer recognizable. By the time the Super Bowl comes up everyone will be kneeling on one knee and singing Kumbaya to protest non-ecofriendly yoga mats or some shit.

One more thing and I’m done. When I saw Ray Lewis kneeling I lost it. This shucking and jiving murdering motherfucker is the same one who said Kaepernick should cut his hair in order to be accepted and taken seriously. He called him un-American and he's the same dumbass who told Baltimore owners not to hire Kaepernick based on something his girlfriend said. To add insult to injury when a petition was started to remove Lewis’ statue in Baltimore his bitch ass damn near broke down in tears and said he wasn't kneeling on one knee in protest he was praying on two. Right. Fuck you Ray Lewis you ignorant sell out Stepin Fetchit asshole.

I'm done, I have no more words.

Offended

Is booing during the national anthem now somehow respectful? On Sunday and again on Monday night players from several NFL teams peacefully protested amidst boos from their home crowds. Some chose not to take the field at all during the playing of the anthem while others kneeled and looked directly at the flag. So, I must ask the question, who was more disrespectful, those who kneeled in silent protest or those who disrupted the national anthem which could not be heard over their incessant rude booing? I’d also really like to know exactly what the privileged consider an acceptable form of protest. We’re told don’t march in protest, don’t kneel in protest, don’t use social media to protest and don’t dare challenge the Orange President in protest. Apparently for some the only acceptable form of protest is polite and quiet submission.

With his constant blabbering, divisive tweets, calling black men’s mothers bitches and insisting peaceful protesters should be fired the orange man has successfully managed to distract from the original issue of Kaepernick’s protest of systemic racism and engaged his audience in a fake patriotic stupid flag waving narrative. He has made this an issue of disrespecting our military and questioning the protesters patriotism while purposely refusing to address the real issue. How about the fact that our communities continue to face terrible and cruel injustices? According to him and his ilk we should be thankful. Thankful to be second class citizens. How dare these ungrateful players express concern for themselves and interrupt White people’s weekend entertainment of gleefully watching mostly Black men bloody themselves running into each other with their stupid whiny protest. Because of course they see us as entertainment…only.

The American flag is meant to represent freedom and justice for all…at least that’s what we’ve been taught. The irony in all of this is that those who object to peaceful protest are the ones who are un-American. They choose to ignore the statement against social injustice and racial inequality made by protesters. They choose to be offended by protesters who say this is not about the American flag or the military. They refuse to acknowledge the fact that these players actually take pride in their country and risk their jobs and sponsorship's with these protests. They refuse to acknowledge systemic racism but continue to be its main beneficiaries. They refuse to grasp the concept of the right to protest which is as American as you can get. It is my right as an American to honor or ignore the flag or the national anthem and thankfully my right to ignore forced patriotism. I continue to be amazed at how angry racists get and all caught up in their feelings whenever Black people exercise their constitutional rights in this country.