Colin Kaepernick controversy

C'mon bro, a shyster and a bigot are the front runners for the oval office and no one cares. What makes you think anyone is going to care about a black kid they don't know.

 

Where is your proof of this?

 

This thread.

 

This thread represents the population of America?

Neat.

 

Well, the truth of the matter is nothing you do matters, all aspects of you will be erased, and you might as well not have ever existed.

 

I'd be more apt to speak out, but the Mexican Landscape Mafia has me on lockdown due to my sensitivity to the word "gringo"...

 

Guy's. Let's keep the politics out of the mains. We all know the only oppressed person in this country, is Ryan Tannehill.


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Sure, but random black man isn't representative of all of anything. The flag represents our country. Our servicemen fight in the name of our country, in other words, they represent us. Not standing for the flag/anthem is disrespectful to them. Just because the armed forces fought to give him the right to be disrespectful, in no way makes his actions any less disrespectful.

He has every right, though, to be disrespectful. Just as people have every right to voice their displeasure with his actions.

 

This is a rare instance where politics and football inexorably collide so I would think this ok. For this thread only.

 

It's like the PoFo re-born. Or should it devolve, in the PoFo spirit, re-aborted.

 

You are absolutely correct. The government has been set up so that any attempt to protest injustice will also look like an insult to the military fraternity. In reality, there are probably more vets dying unnecessarily than any other sector of society. No one is talking about that either.

Thank you for your service.

 

A black man is every bit representative of this country as the flag. Again, the flag is a logo, mass produced in China.

Exercising one's right to protest is more American than any flag.

 

I think it very interesting that several of the posters in here who are OK with this clown disrespecting America, because of a police issue, are they same posters who will not tolerate anyone speaking their opinion on the QB, if it differs from their own.

Seems pretty inconsistent to me, and it's just a handful of posters, not generalizing, just an observation.

 

I find false equivalences hilarious.

 

MLK was representative of black America as a whole. Random black guy is not, just as random white guy is not representative of white America as a whole.

I'm not disagreeing his right to protest, nor am I saying he shouldn't protest. I'm saying he has the right, but it doesn't make it any less disrespectful. The country that gives him the right is the same country he's saying he doesn't respect.

 

No, he wasn't. He was an important figure, however, he doesn't represent all of black America.

 

So anyone who disagrees with you is intolerant?

 

We are country made up of people, not flags. Every person represents this country.

Flags are symbols. They aren't more important than people.

 

Colin isn't the first to do so.

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2016/08/29...and-sing-the-anthem-i-cannot-salute-the-flag/

As for my take on it, I don't really see a big deal about it. The flag doesn't just represent the military - it represents the country as a whole. I think narrowing it down as a slap in the face of people who serve or have served in the military not only serves to take away from the discussion. While I'm not sure what he's doing is the best way to make his point, it's not exactly the worst.

My issues regarding the whole thing are that A. that there are a lot of people (I'm talking people on social media and media in general, not here on this site and this thread) have twisted his explanation into him targeting white people as a scapegoat for this country and B. telling him to leave this country if he has an issue with it while openly supporting a presidential candidate who campaign motto is Make America Great Again.

 

When I first heard of Kaepernick's situation I was a little put off so I paused and asked myself why I might react that way.

It didn't take long for me to realize why I don't like it when people stand up to "create awareness" in modern society. It's the same reason I hate ads cropping up where they weren't before. It's the death of something that used to be pristine but which is now framed by a McDonald's and a Wal-Mart. Yes, they will both thrive but somehow people will simultaneously hate them and everything they stand for. And in the process people will learn to hate themselves. People will blame themselves for allowing it to happen. Some beautiful, peaceful landscape will be saturated with our fast food culture. Such is life in America today.

Colin's mistake was bringing reality into a fantasy world. People don't want politics with their art. They don't want it with their music. They don't want it with their football. Those things exist to reach beyond our every day experiences and in the case of football, to help people forget about how awful things truly are. We the people face the realities of a broken America every single day. What we want is 3 hours of happiness on Sundays to help us get through. We want to feel, just for a few moments one day a week, that everything is fine. And the irony is, it's those very things that bring people closer together. When people forget their differences, that's progress. So when an athlete or entertainer decides to take it upon themselves to make something political--to remind you of some place where people are divided--understand that what they're doing is interrupting the healing process and ruining the positive moment happening right there.

Russell Wilson reacted to this by saying something insightful which is that those in the spotlight should be sending a message of love. I appreciate that because it's the best possible thing one can do from on high. Don't remind people of their problems. Speak to people about higher things. Remind them of where they can go. Inspire them. I appreciate that Cam Newton doesn't feel he has to promote political issues just because he's a black dude in the spotlight. I appreciate that Tiger didn't do it and that MJ didn't it.

Did they face racial adversity? Yes, I'm quite positive that they did. Did it affect them? I'm 100% sure that it did because they've said as much. Did they make it a focal point of their character and message on the biggest stages? No. Maybe it was just to keep endorsements, but I'd like to think that they were each smart enough to realize that society already knew what was going on. We're the ones who deal with society's problem, not millionaire athletes and entertainers. We don't need Tiger or Mike or Colin to remind us (in this era) of what's happening. We see it in our feeds every day. But those guys? They're the ones who are perfectly positioned to help calm people down and help them rise up.

Here's the deal. There's not a single person in this thread who loves America 100%. We hate the greed. We hate the products. We hate the politics. We hate the rampant stupidity. We hate the drugs. We hate the obesity. We hate the apathy. We hate the way we're viewed by the world. We hate the leaders. We hate our broken social systems. We've spent the entire year focusing on these issues and we're going to do nothing but focus on them again. And you want the truth? We're a military economy. We'll be fighting someone until I'm dead. Bush did it. Clinton did it. W did it. Obama did it. Hillary will do it. Trump might blow up the world doing it. It's predictable. It's broken. But the incentives are there so we fall into it time and time again. I hate how I'm part of a broken system but so is everyone who works for a giant multinational or some huge energy company. But we have the only jobs we can get. We're happy to be employed when all of us know someone who isn't.

But, you know, the nice thing is, we're all getting reamed pretty good. We've heard about the state of black neighborhoods and black families today. It's not good. We've heard about the latinos trying to gain a foothold in America so their kids and grand-kids can achieve something. And don't forget the white middle-class that is caught fighting the wars of the rich and serving their masters inside a broken educational system that bleeds them dry before shipping them off to work in dreadful, soul-sucking corporate jobs that are designed to suck in tax-payer money and do everything possible to funnel wealth to the top.

Colin, I hate to tell you this but America has problems. And you're certainly not the first person to realize that things are headed downhill. Every single one of us wakes us with a sinking feeling in our stomachs wondering how much longer all of this can keep going. Income inequality and a job market that seems to shrink every year are both helping to drive down this country. Like I said, from afar, we look awful. But the one saving grace is that when you look closely you see that people have a remarkably strong ability to adapt and find common ground. People seem to prefer civility when given the choice. We prefer to understand issues so we can choose the right path forward. The majority seem to prefer education when it's available if only as a means of finding better jobs and providing for their family.

So even though I'm not religious I respect a guy like Russell Wilson who chooses to use his platform to promote positive thinking, humility and love every single day as oppose to someone who stands up once to point at a problem, particularly when we were already aware of that problem.

 

Being aware of a problem is great and all, but what are we doing about it?

 

We should get some better police training. Because they are quick to shoot ppl of any race.

 

Great word. Had it in a crossword once.

 

Also, especially in big cities, more specialized trained police for certain situations. Especially when dealing with mental illness.

 

Not a fan of the "shoot to kill" mantra. Many times shooting to wound could've controlled the situation. The my are not in the Wild West in a quick draw like gun fight. Although in their heads they may be.


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This is a beautiful post Greg, although I disagree with the final paragraph. If not now, when? Innocent children are being murdered by the people in place to protect them. Vets are dying because the VA is a cluster f*** (Heartbreak Ridge reference), money is being spent like it grows on trees on frivolous bill add-ons and there's a good chance if your under 50 Medicare will be bankrupt by your retirement. Believe it or not, I'm starting to feel a little better about my skin cancer because I won't be here to see it happen. I just pray it doesn't maim me before it takes me down.

 

Pretty sure this thread has run its course. Pretty sure nothing else needs to be said after DolphinGregs post.

We let it go for a bit so that people could get their feelings and opinions out and as usual when it comes to arguing politics on the Internet, nothing really got accomplished or done. We'll end this before any feelings get hurt maybe more then they've already been.