(July 7) Ex-quarterback Colin Kaepernick tweeted an Independence Day message reminding us that he always was a radical leftist, America-hating agitator. His national anthem stunt always was about deliberately dishonoring flag and country.
Oh, and NFL superstar Drew Brees merits an apology from all those who criticized his original, thoughtful statement about why he would always stand for the anthem.
“We reject your celebration of white supremacy and look forward to liberation for all,” tweeted Kaepernick about the Fourth of July, because, he said, “black people have been dehumanized, brutalized, criminalized and terrorized by America for centuries and are expected to join your commemoration of independence, while you enslaved our ancestors.”
This precisely echoes the original reason he gave for beginning his protests at NFL games in 2016.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” he said then. This was not a protest against police violence and racism that just happened to occur during the anthem; it was specifically targeted at the anthem and flag so as to blame the country as such for the ills Kaepernick was protesting.
The message was not that the nation per se had a flawed past and that vestiges remained in some people’s hearts and minds in a way that even well-intentioned laws and institutions had not yet eradicated. No, the message was that the institutions themselves were deliberately racist and oppressive and that the nation itself was unworthy of pride.
So, yes, all of this “kneeling during the anthem” stuff was and is about “disrespecting the flag of the United States of America.” Everybody knows it. It is precisely and intentionally about that. If it were just about protesting racism and police misconduct, Kaepernick wouldn’t say things like that…. Since then, Kaepernick has kept up a steady drumbeat of anti-American and even pro-communist statements and actions….
[The full column is at this link.]
