Account Login
Am I the only one?
Am I the only one who doesn't care if some athlete stands for the national anthem or not? We've had an exhausting amount of media coverage for this, and all I can think is how petty and stupid we are for devoting our time an energy to debating something like this.
His critics need to remember that it's a free country. You can stand for the national anthem or not. And if you start telling people that standing for the anthem is mandatory, then you're kind of ruining the freedom you claim we're standing for in the first place. American soldiers fought and died for our freedoms, and as far as I'm concerned, choosing to stand or not at a ball game is one of those freedoms.
His supporters are not right either. Exactly what does he expect to accomplish by not standing during the anthem? I've never heard him explain any plan or demands or anything he wants to happen from all of this, outside the fact that he's protesting racism. I'm sorry, but "awareness" is not an adequate reason to protest. The American public has a short attention span, and if you don't convince them to take action and change something while your issue is in the limelight, then you lose. We all move on to the next thing. The greatest protests in history had a clear motive and we're on point. Rosa Parks and the bus system boycott had a clear objective: desegregate buses. Not this protest. Does he want to change the national anthem? Or stop police brutality? What do you want?! As far as I can tell, this will go down in history as another protest that didn't accomplish a single thing. Occupy Wall Street, all over again. Guess what protesters, wall street is still running, because you DIDNT HAVE A PLAN.
My theory is that Kaepernick just spaced off and forgot to stand. We've all done it. Then rather than face the music for not having his head in the game, he called it "protesting." Just a theory though.
Freedom! I admire him.
O go and **
How about the attention this has received as the white ** swimmer gets out of jail after 3 months? Wtf? I'm sure the girl who was ** only took 3 months to deal with it...** ridiculous
I agree, it's horrible. Although I think that this specific case has more to do with him being an athlete, and wealthy than him being white. Any normal white male that ** a girl and couldn't afford the luxury lawyers would probably get 5 years at least.
^This person gets it! While racism and sexism are still issues (because the human race is made up mostly of morons), scratch those surfaces and you'll see it's all about classism. A rich black man can get away with more than a poor white female. Throw all the hate you want for my saying so, but it's true.
Truth
3months to get over been ** id say 3 min a bit of ** never did any girl harm
Dude. Your comment is terrible. ** isn't a joke....
Too bad she wasn't one of the dumb little girls around this site who are always moaning that they want to be **. Would dearly love to record their post-** victimized shrieks and play them back in their faces. "You wanted this, remember? LOL"
I appreciate that factual knowledge about sitting being Kap's right. A lot of people seem to forget that it is his right to sit regardless of if they like it or not. As a Black American who agrees with Kap's protest I will gladly answer your questions. But before I do please realize that this opinion is mine and mine alone. Not every Black person agrees with Kap, and if they do they certainly do not share my point of view. We are all individuals, and as such we think differently about every cause pertaining to the Black community. So, take my opinion as one, not all. Now to answer your question, Kap is accomplishing the act of providing attention to racism and police brutality that has been overlook and swept under the rug by this society. He did explain his reasoning in different interviews and also on twitter. You are entitled to your opinion but awareness is an adequate reasoning to protest. Do a quick stop on his twitter page and you will see a taste of what kind of racism minorities have to deal with on social media and otherwise. Many seem to think racism is gone since the Civil Rights movement and this is far from the truth. Ever since the protest he has been called every racist word under the sun. People have every right to disagree with what he his doing (like you are) but that gives them no right to spew racial hatred and think it's okay because of blind patriotism. The ONLY way this problem will go away is if there is open----and intelligent dialog. He isn't the first athlete to use his platform for racial equality, and sadly he might never be the last. The motive is open dialog about the issue. He is trying to push to the forefront equality and the injustice of police brutality to minorities. In all, I doubt he spaced out and forgot. Why would he risk so much hatred and backlash if he didn't believe so strongly in something.
I also wanted to thank you for posting a disagreement of Kap without adding any racism or hateful words. My post would have been to long if I added it in with the first one lol. It is refreshing to see a post that clearly disagrees and would like to be informed about why said person is doing what he is doing instead of spewing racially charged garbage. I was not trying to change your mind, just give you a different point of view on things. I hope I answered all your questions.
I appreciate the sentiment, although you don't need to thank me for not being racist, I view that as basic human decency. It's something that should be automatic in our society.
Your response is an answer to why Kap (and others like him) are protesting. I have already read his interviews and statements before posting. I understand that he is protesting racism and police brutality. I understand that he's trying to raise the public's awareness of racism. My issue is that he is doing so without having a *plan for change.*
See, I'm not confused about the motive behind the protests. I fully agree with the fact that we need to fix the racism in this country. What I'm doing is trying to offer some objective constructive criticism of his protests.
Because the one thing all the anti-racism protests in this country seem to have in common in this decade is a vague mission and a lack of clear goals. I hear a lot of complaints about racism, but I don't see any great ideas about how to fix it. And because of that, these movements don't seem to be making real progress.
As the old saying goes, "the road to ** is paved with good intentions." Kap may intend to create an open and honest discussion of racism, but if you look at what he has actually created, it is more like a whole mess of political commentary and fodder for the pundits.
The reason I say that awareness is not a sufficient reason to protest, is because awareness requires only conversation, whereas remedy requires action. Or to put it more simply, we don't need to talk about racism, we need to fix it.
Scratch that last line, what I meant was "talking about it is not enough by itself, we also need to take action to fix it."
You have a very good point and I see where you are coming from. I completely agree that there needs to be a clear action plan. But, pray tell, how can an action plan be made without the acknowledgement of a problem? There must be acknowledgement. Sadly quite a few Americans do not think like you or agree that there is a problem. The Black community and other minorities cannot make a plan on their own because that would sort of defeat the purpose of pushing open dialog. First there must be acknowledgement, open dialogue, then a plan between both parties. BOTH parties need to sit down and formulate a plan, not just one. Otherwise it won't work. It's kind of like a relationship, if one person wants it to work and wants to talk it out and the other doesn't, then clearly no matter what in the end nothing will come of it. It has to be a team effort.