TERRY MOSHER
COLIN KAEPERNICK
Colin Kaepernick refusal to stand for the national anthem is wrong. He’s an idiot to believe that this will reverse over a century of racism in this country. It just makes him look stupid, and at a time when his professional football career as a member of the San Francisco 49ers is hanging in the balance, it’s more than dumb.
But who said you have to be smart to be a quarterback?
Racism in this country will continue to exist because there is a culture on both sides – white and black – that perpetuate it. It lives on among whites, especially in the deep south where confederate flags still fly, because for some stupid reason that bothers me to no end skin color makes a difference among a large segment of the white population.
Some among the black population also continue to live separate from what they perceive to be a ruling white society where they don’t believe they are treated as equals, whether that is true or not.
There is, and always has been, a second almost underground society where some blacks still live because there they feel safe. That underground society is a black culture thing with its own language, its own traditions. So by having this underground society, the blacks do not fully acclimate into the white society and use it as a clutch to justify their actions.
Is that underground society wrong?
No. If I was black I would probably be a leader in it because, fairly or unfairly, I likely would not feel I would get an equal shake if I fully integrated myself into the white society.
As long as black families teach their young children that there are some things they cannot do – like walking down the sidewalk at night in a mostly white neighborhood – than the black child will never fully embrace living among and in white society.
I don’t know that this country will ever escape it’s savage and horrific past where blacks were bought and sold like a piece of meat on the open market, and subject to hanging sometimes just for the fun of it by white oppressors.
We can shout from the tallest buildings that this is the land of the free, but it really is not when it comes to skin color. Being black often means taking a figuratively backseat and keeping quiet.
Sure, things have gotten better in this country when it comes to black and white, but as shown by the actions of Kaepernick – as dumb as that may be – the issue has not and probably will not go away anytime in the near future.
Kaepernick makes a base salary of $11.9 million this year under a contract of six-year $114 million ($61 million guaranteed) that he signed in 2014 and with that much money he could have made a stand a long time ago just by talking about it one of his many press conferences.
But, instead, he choose to disrespect a lot of Americans, especially veterans, with his actions. If you are going to go out on the limb at least pick a strong limb.
This was not a strong limb.
When the dust settles from this, though, Kaepernick is right. We have come a long way in race relations, but clearly still have a lot of work to do to erase the skin color issue and make all of this country’s citizens feel free, and that includes minorities like the Hispanics and Muslims and all the various nationalities and religious sects and all the browns, the reds and all the colors in between.
So let’s get with it.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.