Taking a knee during the national anthem has been in the news for about a year now, and either people understand it, don’t understand it, or just don’t care to understand it but are against it.

I don’t know how many times a person that understands kneeling during the national anthem has to say this but TAKING A KNEE DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FLAG. Taking a knee during the flag is a moment for police brutality and the injustice for Black Americans.

Colin Kaepernick chose to take a knee during the national anthem to start a stir in the media and guess what; he achieved doing that. He wanted people to ask why he chose to take a knee instead of standing up. He wanted to start a controversy because he understands that injustice to one is an injustice to all.

Let’s discuss the history of the national anthem since people keep thinking taking a knee is disrespectful. The national anthem is made up of four verses written by Francis Scott Key. There was a war in 1812 between Britain and the United States that inspired the national anthem. Britain told slaves in America that if they came and fought for them, then they would be set free after the war, so several of slaves escaped America and fought for Britain.

The national anthem is about this war against Britain and the third verse is specifically about slaves. A few lines from the third verse reads, “Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution/ No refugee could save the hireling and slave.” This third verse of a song that we all respect so much is celebrating the deaths of the slaves.

We want to end racism, but our national anthem is speaking racism. So excuse me and others for taking a knee during the national anthem for the injustice of Blacks in America while the song playing is celebrating the deaths of my ancestors.

And since we're talking about disrespecting the flag, isn’t it disrespectful to just play the music and not sing the words? Or what about talking during the national anthem, isn’t that disrespectful? Or when we’re at home and sitting down while the national anthem is playing on the tv, shouldn’t we stand up and put our right hand over our heart?

People don’t show respect to the national anthem or the flag on a daily basis, but when people chose to take a knee during the duration of the national anthem, it’s all of a sudden a disrespectful thing because of what, they're black and trying to make a point.

So before you keep saying we are disrespecting the flag and try to fire NFL players for using their right to freedom of speech, know what you're talking about because the flag is disrespecting us and our ancestors.