By Matthew Bright
It's 2017 and we are a part of a social climate that claims black and brown people do not know what it means to fight for their freedom.
When you're exercising a freedom, then to be told you're not doing it right is like being an actor your whole life then your President of the USA, your bound to fuck shit up. When you're told to respect the flag first before your freedom regularly, As a barometer for what makes you more American.
It turns respect into a term for false nationalism and repugnant patriotism. It comes before being a truly free American of any political class or social standing in our country. It makes me ask, we love this country but why don't you?
We're like a broken car with a noise and know what the problem is, but we're going to just ride it until the engine blows cause it still gets me to the noon kickoff on Sunday.
In this country we continue to keep telling black and brown communities they don't understand what it means to fight for freedom. When the very soldiers you speak of are also black and brown as well as white. When the lineage of black and brown American citizens is fighting for FREEDOM from actual slavery.
You're just trying to deal with what you equate to as annoyance, which is incredibly misinformed and utterly out of touch.
People from the Civil Rights era still exist to this day and some serve in Congress and find the state of our nation in dire circumstances. While people forget the infamous quote "Segregation now, Segregation forever." There are people alive who remember this. Racism is not a distant memory, it just has a mortality rate of a sea turtle, like 400 sea turtles.
History shows us that the enslaved communities of America learned how to fight for freedom and up to this point those strategies have worked and continue to make headway. We want more strides and with that desire comes resistance (of the supremacist ilk.)
I don't want to get into detail (again), about the black and brown people being shot unarmed by law enforcement (again). The predatory practices of law enforcement giving more fines and tickets to people that are black and brown (see Ferguson Missouri findings of justice department case and many others like it) again.
I shouldn't have to. There's no counterpoint needed. If you bring up that white people die by police too, then let's address that as well. No one is trying to exclude white people. We can't. They're everywhere. They literally make up the majority of the population. No one should be trying to win the "Who gets killed by police more" award.
To demand that they stand for the flag, to have a president that also demands it, is by definition, fascist.
Somehow this Millionaire entertainer reality show star President gets the country but millionaire athletes whom engage in political activism don't.
I'm just saying if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it's probably lacking self awareness that it's a duck. (Duck means racist.)
Overhauling a law enforcement system would benefit us all, right now it's costing, at a much higher rate, black and brown citizens of this country. It's why we're the loudest about the systemic problems. This is why we chose to be on the frontline of a very real issue. I would like to digress and take a second to address this buzz phrase: "perceived oppression." What the hell is that? We're not making up oppressors to make whiteness the villain for our demise. That's in their playbook, remember Emmett Till's accuser came forth and said she made it up. Perceived Oppression is your definition, what is used by those who don't even understand struggle let alone experienced it. Even then, quick to believe the bullshit. The more things change, the more things stay the same. Digression over.
Implying we don't love this country because of silent non-violent protests but in the same breath make an argument for Nazis and White supremacists "freedom of speech" and protecting their rights. Who wouldn't wave a USA Flag if their lives depended upon it. The Leagues with majority people of color decide to (finally) take a stand (oh wait, not you Ray Lewis. You can have several seats.) against the very things that plague the communities they came from and give back are told "stick to sports." Treating them less than human it's what you're use to doing.
NASCAR issued a statement they assumed would excite their fan base, to be honest it probably did, but when the Golden Boy of NASCAR and super fan of Ricky Bobby, Dale Earnhardt spoke out against this very statement in a tweet, I'm sure he'll be untouched. NASCAR will make excuses for him, his fans will say "that's how you protest."
We will all be screaming after nothing happens to him and he is applauded for his bravery:
ITS BECAUSE HE'S WHITE. THAT'S A WHITE THING.
Amongst all this the reason for Kaeptain America's protest is being lost, black and brown people's plights are being washed up in the media storm of what is more important, a piece of cloth or an entire group of citizens protesting flagrant injustice, tonight on CNN. That conversation is nothing new to us, it's status quo. It's exhausting, but we fight on.
Let's not forget the "why" they are kneeling and boycotting. We love this country, it's ideals, and we want to see them actualized. We really do love this country. A lot of us are worried that people in opposition of racial equality, dealing with police brutality, and killings of unarmed citizens do not have any love for our country, what are democracy strives to stand for, but also that they don't love themselves.
My hope one day is you find love for your fellow citizens that make your country, that made your country, before love for your country.
