New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was asked about Colin Kaepernick’s decision to sit during the national anthem before San Francisco’s preseason game on Friday, and while he acknowledged Kaepernick’s right to speak out, he didn’t approve of the decision and wished Kaepernick had chosen a “peaceful manner” in which to protest. His non-violent protest against the civil unrest that impacts men and women of color has drawn support from many, and also the ire of the country.
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On Tuesday, former NFL player and current NBC football analyst Rodney Harrison caused a stir with his comments on Kaepernick, who is biracial. If this country begins “representing people the way that it’s supposed to, I’ll stand”.
“What should horrify Americans is not Kaepernick’s choice to remain seated during the national anthem, but that almost 50 years after [boxing champion Muhammad] Ali was banned from boxing for his stance and Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s raised fists caused public ostracization and numerous death threats, we still need to call attention to the same racial inequities”.
Kaepernick, on the other hand, highlights a specific way the United States oppresses black people – namely, the slew of recent police shootings of unarmed black men.
‘When you walk in a grocery store, and you might have $2,000 or $3,000 in your pocket and you go up in to a Foot Locker and they’re looking at you like you about to steal something’.
Of course, Kaepernick was adopted at birth, but his biological father is black and his biological mother is white. “I don’t think he faces those types of things that we face on a daily basis”.
After the reaction to Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem, Kaepernick attended a news conference in a “balack hat with a large, white “X” and a t-shirt that featured photos of Cuban despot Fidel Castro and Malcolm X”. I apologize to anyone that I offended, wasn’t meant to be hurtful to anyone.
“I’m experiencing stereotypes even to this day, from both sides”, Steele said during an interview with The Huffington Post. “Just sitting during the national anthem, you’re offending a lot of people who have sacrificed and died for the freedoms we have right now”. People close to me have experienced this.
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“It doesn’t surprise me, because this is the climate that we’re in”, Smith said. “But when I look at that flag, I think about them too”.
