Displays of freedom in front of symbols of freedom are an attack on freedom!
By
Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers did not stand while the National Anthem played before the game on Friday.
“I am not going to stand up and show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” he told NFL Media following the exhibition football game. “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.”
That the simple act of not moving unleashed a reign of dorkness upon the land will fail to shock anyone who has a reasonable awareness of the history of black athletes protesting racism. Or protest. Or just racism.
Proving his point with racist shrieks? Yes. Telling him to worry about REAL problems? Mais oui. Claiming that he can’t protest oppression because he is rich and/or was adopted and raised by a white couple? Yeppers.
But the most common response that isn’t the N word or the oh so original If you don’t like it, leave! seems to be all-orifices sputtering about respecting the flag. Drew Brees may not have kicked off the wails of HDU Colin?! but his comment is a fine example.
The great thing about this country is that we have the freedoms that allow you to speak out openly about any issue. So I’m not commenting on the issue itself because any person has the right to speak out on any issue they want. That’s the great thing about being an American. But the American flag is what represents those freedoms. It represents the very freedom that Colin Kaepernick gets the opportunity to exercise by speaking out his opinion in a peaceful manner about that issue. …
Like, it’s an oxymoron that you’re sitting down, disrespecting that flag that has given you the freedom to speak out.
Speaking of morons, I don’t think Brees and the rest of the Flags Before Freedom crowd are so stupid that they believe any U.S. flag that was in the vicinity gave a shit.
What’s happening with any negative response more complex that racist epithets is that people are attempting to pretty up unreasoned responses (anger, discomfort, fear, whatever) with rational language.
This can’t be done, and the fact that such arguments convince some people doesn’t make them good arguments. A person who will latch on to the idea that his insides are a big boiling lump of anger because Caepernick is a hypocrite/doesn’t have anything to complain about/disrespected the flag has something he doesn’t want on his mind.
