Real Life Real Faith Men of Faith September Issue | Page 31

I Stand with Them or Will Sit Down with Them
I find it somewhat amazing that many of the same people hating his actions go to a sporting
event, and say and do the most foolish and foul things. They get drunk and they harass people,
and most don't take their caps off. People will be on their cellphones, talking, and laughing while
the star Spangle Banner is playing. They’ll fight you for not liking their team, and they’ll fight
you over a parking spot, but yet it is their American freedom to act out as they please for as long
as they don’t break the law. The man has not broken a law. All too often, almost every time a
person of color stands or sits down for what they believe in, which is an American right, the
White Privilege comes unglued.
Sadly, I’m most uneasy with those who claim a soldier has died or been injured for our America
freedom. Often said here in these situations, as in Colin Kaepernick sitting down, so-called
patriots say he is being disrespectful. I look at it as this…he would be disrespecting his American
right for freedom of protest (first amendment right), if he acts as if he does not have concern for
the injustices that continue to transpire in this country. It simply his NONVIOLENT form of
protest which is his chosen right.
Here is a question, and Google if you need to; Jackie Robinson was up on Court Marshal
charges, and for what? Seriously…if you don’t know take a few moments to look it up. Now, we
have black men who have served for our American rights, but are being shot, and Colin
Kaepernick has had enough.He chose to take a seat to bring discussions of right and wrong, life
and death. I personally believe it’s arrogant to tell someone what he or she should do as an
acceptable way to protest, which then can be easily overlook.However, the whole point of
fighting for rights is for all Americans to be able to express their rights. There is no dispute in
that. Just take some politicians, for example, who can and has said the most awful statements but
yet a certain segment support all that is said by that politician and often double down with even
more ugliness...they have an American right to express themselves no matter the manner that
was fought for. Despite that right, do you not think they are not hurting anyone? But yet they are
still able to express themselves because they have a right to do so.
It’s Colin Kaepernick’s money, his time, his life, and to be hated by a system that loves to tell
him what he can and cannot do says a lot about that system. Ali was the most hated Black man at
one time in America. He took his version of making a stance and followed through with it with
no compromise. Now, most love him for refusing to be a part of an unjust war. Colin Kaepernick
is not on the level of an Ali, but he is a part of a new awaking. He is a cut from the same “willing
to take stance action” DNA of John Carlos, Malcom X, and all the Black men and women who
have died from not complying too the powers that be. R.I.P. Emmett Till, and Travon Martin,
and to a man expressing his second amendment rights, PhilandoCastille.You know
PhilandoCastille…as in the young man, shot in front of his daughter while reaching for his gun
permit. This is one of the moments etched in blood into recent American history for which Colin
Kaepernick has sat down, for enough is enough.