Politics - News Analysis

Trump Is STILL Offended by Black NFL Players Kneeling, Takes to Twitter to Scream: ‘NO KNEELING!’

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’ “You know, some owner is going to do that. He’s going to say, ‘That guy that disrespects our flag, he’s fired.’ And that owner, they don’t know it [but] they’ll be the most popular person in this country.”

Donald Trump
September 23, 2017

A kneeling NFL player disrespects our flag? What about a white guy with a flag on his police uniform shoulder kneeling on someone’s neck? Does Trump think that the guy suffocating to death under that flag thinks it’s a bit disrespectful?

That same disrespect shown to black men caused them to be hunted and gunned down in the streets – or suffocated to death, as the case may be – that lead many black men to have a hard time standing with the utmost respect to the national anthem, especially when so many who enforce the laws in this nation seem to treat black men as subhuman.  These men can kneel as a First Amendment right. Of course, many players, including Colin Kaepernick, were effectively shut out of the league after exercising that right.

Drew Brees is a great quarterback for a great team, one near to our hearts, as some of us live in Saints country. But Drew said something galactically stupid and tone-deaf the other day:

He said, in short:

“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country,” Brees said. “Let me just tell what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played and when I look at the flag of the United States. I envision my two grandfathers, who fought for this country during World War II, one in the Army and one in the Marine Corp.

Brees is a kid of white entitlement, brought up in Dallas by not one, but two lawyers, from the Dallas area. He has never known life as a poor white kid, a poor black man, nor even a rich black man. His teammates promptly educated him on life as a black man, forcing Brees to re-think his position:

Brees apologized:

“I know there’s not much I can say that would make things any better right now, but I just want you to see in my eyes how sorry I am for the comments that I made yesterday. I know that it hurt many people, especially friends, teammates, former teammates, loved ones, people that I care and respect deeply. That was never my intention.

“I wish I would have laid out what was on my heart in regards to the George Floyd murder, Ahmaud Arbery, the years and years of social injustice, police brutality and the need for so much reform and change in regards to legislation and so many other things to bring equality to our black communities.

It goes on, but you get the idea.

Things were getting closer to where they should have been all along. Brees’ teammates accepted his apology and wanted to talk to him about what they faced, as should happen.

Then Donald Trump walked his ass into the situation, wholly uninvited, and proved exactly why just about every black person in America is right to hate him.

And:

Yes, Donald. You are another “kid” of white privilege, only unlike Brees, you seem intent upon making the problem worse at each stage. And you damned sure aren’t about to listen to others, hear them, and reframe your position.

I bet that George Floyd would have loved it if officer Chauvin had gotten off his knee and stood high with the flag on his shoulder. I would bet that George Floyd would have loved to have had the officers around Chauvin to remember the ideals of the flag on their shoulders and told Chavin to get off a fellow American citizen, a teammate.

I would bet that all the black men that have been needlessly shot to death by the police would love to be cherished half as much as some Americans cherish a non-living flag and that the cops stood silent with their hand to their heart as they remembered what that flag represented instead of recklessly shooting innocents.

The bottom line is that Donald Trump wants his voters to know that he cares about an idea that the flag represents – much more so than the “lesser Americans fighting for American rights – and Trump’s “heart” is with them. They wrap themselves in the glory of a flag to hide something hateful in the heart.

It is no wonder that Trump would prefer that Brees not apologize. Brees realized he hurt his friends and teammates. Trump wants to hurt the very same people that he’ll never see as “teammates” in this country.

****

Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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