Disclaimer: In my eyes, Colin Kaepernick did nothing wrong, but then again I'm just a biracial teenage girl who knows nothing.
What I do know is that my family was raised to think a certain way, not because of our parents, but because of older generations.
And I hate that about myself. I hate that when the radio comes on when I'm with my grandfather and it talks about politics and diversity; I'm scared to have an opinion. Every day that the controversy continues, I wish I had been raised in an environment where peaceful protests were okay, even if they were about racial discrimination.
And right now I'm at the point where I don't care what people think anymore and if they don't want to be around me because of how I feel, then screw 'em.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that two years ago Colin Kaepernick stunned the world by kneeling during the National Anthem. And just in the past few weeks, since Nike began sponsoring him, everything has gone berzerk.
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People have burned and damaged their Nike stuff and are boycotting the NFL. If you stop watching the NFL over this, then you were never a fan in the first place.
Also, Nike is expensive, so what are you doing? You probably got rid of hundreds and hundreds of dollars. At least donate it to charity; the poor don't give a crap what it is or the story behind it.
Now, back to Kaepernick. He represented what he believed in. People are doing that every day.
So, he did it during the National Anthem? He didn't spit on the flag or joke around with a teammate. He paid his respect like anyone else.
Was he being disrespectful? Hell no.
Should he have gotten backlash for it? Hell no.
He has a right to do as he pleases, just like all of us. But wait, do we actually have that right?
I don't really want to get into that. It's a whole other thing.
What I am going to say is that if this is what you people are worried about, bless your hearts because there are people dying of cancer right now who could care less about Nike's sponsorship or someone paying their respects. Maybe you want to think about it the next time you post something racist or anti-Nike or anti-NFL, whatever it is.
