Today I woke up to a quote, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” by Colin Kaepernick.
The protest came when the tradition of the National Anthem was being played before a pre-season football game. So unlike every single player, staffer, security guard, and most fans (not all, most). Colin refused to join the nation that has given him the chance to pursuit everything he has today for the national anthem.
Now today I’m going to see two things sadly, a lot of patriotic Americans frustrated that this not only happened, but the reason behind it, and that the mob will want to throw him to the wolves. Then there will be those social justice warriors who back him up and rally behind him, then ultimately it becomes which mob is louder decides who is “right.”
Now, most of us are angry he did this, and good, that means you love your nation. But let us discuss this issue of Kaepernick being wrong because of how he protested, while addressing the issue we all must be honest about, racism is still alive and well in our nation.
Now first of all, Colin Kaepernick’s greatest claim to fame is looking like Squidward Tentacles and Marouane Fellaini had a love child. Oddly enough, Colin throws like he has a tentacle for an arm, a noodle arm and bad mechanics.
This guy got paid for being told ‘don’t screw up’, which he did well until he was ousted by the Phenom we all know as Blaine Gabbert, that’s right, the worst of the worst top pick out of Mizzou in recent memories beat him as a starter. Now the 49er’s tried getting rid of our hero in this tale, only to hear Denver to say, no thanks, we got Mark Sanchez.
Mark Sanchez? The guy who is known for spending years being told, ‘don’t screw up,’ then in one epic failure of a moment being known for the Butt Fumble. So basically for Kaepernick, he is Mark Sanchez, minus the Butt Fumble, but way richer.
Now that we are done bashing him on his faux-parents and skill, he is worth millions still after all of that, in fact, at minimum he is worth $61 Million by the end of his deal in 2020 and at max about $100 Million. Man, you must be really oppressed with that payday. Since he has played in only 57 games, if he never plays again, he makes nearly one-million per game. So shut it about oppression, you have a pretty cushy life for a garbage player.
You know what oppression is like for someone at your position? Ask Warren Moon and his fellow black quarterbacks who were “To Stupid” to be quarterbacks just a few decades ago. Ask Jackie Robinson about what going into an 0-10 slump was like. Ask Tiger Woods about his career, like there are zero cases of people bashing his skin color. Let’s go even ask the Williams sisters in Tennis what they go through still to this day about race in tennis.
And my last talking point for those who are going to be anti-CK, in 2014 according to besttickets.com 68% of the NFL’s players were black that year, while 27.5% of players were white. So cry foul all you want, the league obviously so oppressive to black players… Side note: in 2014 the team with the most African-Americans…. his very own 49er’s.
Are you still with me now? If you comment tell me you got to this point. Because here is where we tell you how he is right.
If you don’t think discrimination exist in this country, then enjoy your Cul-De-Sac living. For the rest of us who live in reality let’s talk about something very real. African Americans do face real issues in our society, and athletes like Dwyane Wade, who’s cousin was shot the other day while pushing her child in a stroller know all to well there are problems.
Another death in the war of Chicago. Wade is not alone, ESPN hosted a forum on the topic of gun violence in the black community in Chicago just the this week. I had a chance to catch most of it on the radio, the overall story, virtually every Chicago born athlete has had someone in their life shot in a case of gun violence.
You know what our responses were in the white community?
Stop shooting yourselves….All lives matter… [insert racist remark here you see in the Facebook comments]… and Black Lives Matter (based on the case and what the media tells us matters).
Look, we don’t have to support the now $100 million dollar group called Black Lives Matter (whom I don’t), I do believe that we have to at least understand there are issues that face the black community, and their lives for many are at risk of harm beyond acceptable means.
Some truths you can find with ease:
Banks tend to not lend equally to African Americans despite make an equal amount to a white person. Results, the past 8 years we’ve seen a near 10% drop in home ownership in the black community, and a gap of 71% homeownership for white people, while a 46% home ownership rate for the black community(U.S. Census).
That leads to a lack of an ability to invest in their neighborhoods and pull equity to create businesses. Despite the 4.9% “unemployment rate” we keep hearing about, the national average for the black community according to the Department of Labor is 9.6% (Missouri was at 10%, Illinois was at 12.2%).
We also know that African Americans are bigger targets for drug arrest. Despite the amount of people in drug treatment according to Drugabuse.gov was 58% white and just 21% black. We have seen nearly 1.5 Million people arrested on drug charges, and despite African-Americans only taking up about 15% of the total population in the U.S. The War on Drugs has seen African Americans arrested at almost 3.5x the rate of white people according to the ACLU.
Overall it is estimated that the near 517,000 African-American males are in prison, making up nearly 37% of the prison population. White males take up 32% of the prison population.
So Colin Kaepernick is wrong to avoid standing in unity with his fellow Americans in respecting the fallen heroes who died for his right to not respect them. But he is not wrong to criticize that the black community faces extra scrutiny every day.
After all, we all love a druggy like Johnny Manziel and want him to succeed, and Ryan Lohkte is just a confused manchild who likes destroying bathrooms. But Josh Gordon is a thug for smoking weed, and Gabby Douglas needs to be kicked off the Gymnastics team for forgetting to put her hand over her heart….hmm, because we all every single time we hear our national anthem always put our right hand over our heart.
So there you have it, if you got this farsay Go America at the end of your comment, so I’ll know you read this.
@scottcriscione
