Colin Kaepernick. Right about now, you either hate him or love him depending on whether or not you support his latest stance against racism and oppression against certain groups in America. While the national anthem was being sung at a 49ers football game, Colin Kaepernick did not stand in respect for the flag he rather sat in protest of it. He sat in respect for all the people who have been oppressed, disrespected or even murdered in the country this flag represents.
People are outraged and they have a right to be but with all due respect, I stand with Colin, or sit with him I should say. I understand the outrage because many men and women fight for our rights as Americans but one of those rights is freedom of assembly. This means we have the right to protest peacefully for what we believe in. So let me clear up a few things about Colin's peaceful protest.
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First of all, he wasn't disrespecting our troops, in fact, he has people in his life fighting for our country. Everyone is crying on and on about how this makes our servicemen and women feel but what happens to all the crying when these same people who fought for our country are living on the streets. They are the oppressed and he sits for them as well.
Secondly, Colin Kaepernick shouldn't have to leave this country because he disagrees with the direction that we're headed. If that's the case, why isn't Donald Trump being told to leave? During his acceptance speech at the RNC, Donald Trump portrayed America as a dark, ugly and scary place to live and that's not the country that I live in. His campaign slogan is "Make America Great Again" so obviously his voters must not think America is great. Looks like they have one thing in common with Colin Kaepernick.
The last problem I have with all the backlash of Colin's peaceful protest is the statements made about his personal oppression. People are saying "making millions of dollars for throwing a ball down a field is truly being oppressed." Not once during any interview did he say that he, himself was being oppressed. He actually acknowledges that he is more privileged than most. He is privileged enough to have this huge platform and I'm happy that he is using it to bring light to these important issues.
Now that I've debunked the most common issues with Colin's protest, I want to talk about the underlying issue of race problems in America.
A few weeks ago, U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte claimed he was held at gunpoint and robbed while he was in Rio for this year's Olympics. The truth? He, along with two other swimmers, vandalized a gas station, assaulted someone and lied about it. When this happened, people said he was just being a silly kid and he should basically get a slap on the wrist. The response to Colin Kaepernick's peaceful protest?
If after reading those tweets, you still think America doesn't have a race problem, you need to WAKE UP. People are mad about Colin's protest but they can't bring themselves to be the slightest bit upset about WHY he's protesting, to begin with. I want to see a change in America and I commend Colin Kaepernick for caring about actual issues and not about bad publicity and losing fans. People of color and people of different religions are being oppressed and disrespected every day just because they're different.
If people stop relying on internet bloggers like Tomi Lahren or whoever for their main source of news, there wouldn't be so much hate being spewed at peaceful protesters. Tomi gives her final thoughts about social issues but only when she sees an opportunity to push her hateful agenda. So from now on Tomi, keep your thoughts to yourself. And Colin, please remain seated until we see a change in this country.
