I will keep this blunt. I know nothing of of football post 2013 other than the fact tom brady deflated a ball & Tim Tebow is the only virgin in the NFL. what i do know isthat Colin Kapaernick has earned a place in history by exposing American cultural hypocrsy on multiple levels. For that he will always be a a hero of mine, no matter what his sports record might be.
I have reasons for supporting him that might actually be a bit selfish and less entilightened than others, however they are real reaosons all the same.
I staunchly believe it is my duty to support the black lives matter movement as much as posible, and when it is brought to the public dialouge so loudly and so boldly i can only stand (or rather kneel) in support, despite what the over privelaged and racist kate uptons and under educated commentators have to say.
But I have another reason, as i say a more selfish reason. Kapaernick has exposed the hypocsraoy ofAmerican patriotic rituals which we have bizarrely institutionalized. Anyone with a second grade understanding ofAmerican history can appreciate why this is ironic to begin with, in fact we are given such an amendment allowing us to protest such rituals. But more to my point i know what it is like to be shuned for seeing the hypocrosy of standing for a pledge or waving a flag. I was 12 when the Iraq war started and 9/11 was fresh in all our minds. The level of dangerous nationalism and anti liberalism was at an all time high, and my family was lucky enough to be staunch anti Bush liberals. I hated the war, and I hated that flag was used to sumbolize the war. I hated the fact people equated me with hating soldiers even though I have 3 uncles & a Grandpa who all served.
One day I was in middle school, i was sunned for not stnading for the pledge, something they made us do every day. My own teachers humiliated me in front of my entire class, leaving me prey to horrific bullying the rest of the school year.
what infurated me about it all, as with the kapernic situatuon is that the nlf elites, talking heads, and supoermodels of the world equated that with being a bad american. apperantly using free speech is anti American. And to discuss the police brutality against all nonwhites makes you a bad american, just like not wanting to stand to pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth because soldiers where dying in a pointless war made me a bad american. why would you reduce what soldiers go through to a song and a waving flag? arent people worth more than empty gestures?
That is why coln kapernick is my new hero.
James J Jackson 