San Francisco quarterback, Colin Kaepernick sat down during the national anthem to oppose oppression, but is he really making a stand by taking a seat?
First of all, I respect the right to protest and support Americans having the ability to stand up for what they think is right.
The stance that the quarterback is taking is one that should not be overlooked. There are real problems with how minorities are treated in some places and in some ways around our country. That can’t be denied.
My problem comes from the choice to sit during the national anthem and here is why.
People trying to escape religious persecution founded America, and we fought oppression from the British and won our freedom.
When slavery was allowed in America, men white and black fought for the freedom of all men.
When women and minorities were not allowed to vote, we learned from our mistakes and fought the system and won.
When the Civil Rights movement kicked off, all everyone wanted was equal rights. Again, white and black people fought and marched together to make sure equality was the law in America.
Now we see new injustices and some people are waking up for the first time. People like Colin have always stood up and made the injustices known, but the problem here is how he did it.
Not standing for the national anthem is a slap in the face to all those people that fought for the right for us to make a stand. America is not oppressive.
America is made up of the people, and our history proves that we always team up with the side of “what is right”. That is our history.
The corruption and oppression is coming from those in power. America is not oppressive, but different agencies and officials can be. We need to end the oppression, but it will take Americans to do it. The same people that Kaepernick is sitting against in protest are the same people that can help end this mess.
He didn’t direct his protest towards the government, but towards America. He said that America is oppressive, but it is literally quite the opposite. The problem is we look at things in such a small scale.
We remember back a couple of years or even to our childhood, but don’t consider that this country is still relatively new and we are building on our 238-year history. We can fix this problem too.
If we want to see what real oppression looks like, ask a Syrian Christian. There are real problems in this country, and we can fix them, but we can’t do it by blaming America. America is made up of real people that want change; we the people are not the oppressive ones.
The moral of the story, make sure you are fighting the right enemy.
Let me know your thoughts on what Kaepernick did in the comments below.
