With the total fallout that happened over Sit-Gate (and Castro-Shirt-Gate), we need to reassess ourselves.
What was the real goal? What is the real goal of the people who support Kap? What’s the goal of the people who don’t?
If you supported Kap, where are you now in supporting the Native Americans being mauled by attack dogs and hosed by pepper spray? Seems real 1950s-ish, but the Kap crowd is eerily quite on it (at least of my “friends” on Facebook).
We could debate those things fruitlessly and tirelessly for ages. If you didn’t support Kap’s sitting (like me – even though I support his right to say whatever he thinks) – being for progress means you move past him and start talking about the issues in this country.
If you support Kap’s seat – being for progress means you stop referring to Kap and use this moment to talk about the issues.
Stop vilifying people for disagreeing with Kap. He wore a Fidel Castro t-shirt. Castro! One of the most oppressive and murderous dictators in the world today. Makes it easy to think it was an attention-seeking idiotic move (like Ryan Lochte level of both).
I actually really like his kneeling this past game. He’s clearly been coached by PR experts. His speech was polished, like it had been memorized. But I like the choice. Be respectful of the people who fought and died for your freedoms but don’t stand (literally or metaphorically) for the abuses in this country. I get it. I like it. I may even join that movement.
Completely failing is wasting this opportunity on defending Kaepernick tooth-and-nail or calling people racist (explicitly or implicitly) for voicing an opinion critical of Kaepernick.
We’ve been needing a thoughtful and heartfelt discussion of the issues for a long time. I would’ve thought many of the better articulated points would have done the trick. They didn’t.
Let’s talk about police brutality and targeting, demilitarization of police, use of non-lethal force vs lethal force, education opportunities, private prisons, mandatory sentencing, the War on Drugs (failed and racist, IMO) and more. But that’s a good starting point that covers a lot of racially driven issues.
Let’s set some ground rules for the discussion though: criticizing someone of a different skin color does not automatically make you racist. Anyone who makes blanket generalizations about people of certain pigment is being racist. Like the guy who commented on my last post calling all white people “bitches.” Racist? Yep. Sexist? Maybe. I know a few super politically correct people who hate the use of that word, at least to describe women – which that guy did, but nobody who defended Kap called him out. Only me and the people who called out Kap called out this guy’s racist remark.
So – no name calling. No blanket generalizations. No horrible factual inaccuracies. If you want to talk statistics – cite them. With the source. Remember statistics can be massaged to paint a picture. Including the statistics you use to justify your paradigm. Be aware. Keep an open mind.
If we can avoid confirmation bias, listen first and think positively about what our future can become – I’m sure we’ll do quite well and achieve greatness.