I had no idea who the hell Colin Kaepernick was until he decided to take a stand against this country’s brutal past/present by not standing for the national anthem and the fires of hell (mindless critiques all over the internet) rained down on him.

Honestly, the way people are spinning his stance has been by far one of the most mind-boggling, just straight ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. 

Apparently, protesting the anthem for a country that has countlessly, without fail, disappointed, alienated, actively oppressed, willingly endangered, neglected, and exploited people of color is tantamount to, and this is in no particular order:

Selfishness
Shame
Disloyalty
Treason
Promoting Division
Violence

In my opinion, having the guts to stand up to a regime that has unapologetically silenced, ransacked, and belittled the hearts and minds of people of color is more a sign of:

Selflessness
Confidence
Patriotism
Humanity
Hope
Weariness (FED UP)

America is all about free speech and when it’s hate speech people are quick to use the First Amendment to protect their drivel, but when someone uses that very right to critique the government, all of a sudden it’s unacceptable. How can any sane person view what Kaepernick is doing as anything other than healthily, peacefully protesting the systemic disenfranchisement of people of color? He has said it, other people have said it, it’s been tweeted, it’s been blogged about, again, Kaepernick has confirmed, it is a protest. He is allowed to protest. Just like the KKK is free to march wherever they feel like it, Kaepernick is more than allowed to take a stand by sitting down. So you go ahead on Kaepernick!

One of my favorite comments of support for Kaepernick come from people in the military who applaud him for his actions. One soldier tweeted:

                #VeteransForKaepernick because I didn’t volunteer to defend a                             country where police brutality is swept under the rug.

This country is always talking about fighting for freedom. Criticizing your government is a freedom that I’m exercising right now and even though I don’t consider myself patriotic, I am glad that my blog posts won’t get me thrown in jail and that we can protest the government without fear of imminent death (on the most part?). I used to stand up for the pledge, but didn’t say it in high school, because the thought of pledging allegiance to a nation that enslaved my ancestors and had yet to apologize or acknowledge its detrimental effects, just didn’t really sit right with me.

It’s people who don’t want to understand why this kind of protest is so important that are the people who need to educate themselves the most (BUT REFUSE), and because of this pompous one-sided view of the world, they will continue to interfere with progress and minimize the effectiveness of any kind of protest for equality. I sincerely don’t know how to get through to people who decline fact for sensationalism. Instead, all I can do is stare off in disbelief and hope something will penetrate that dense shield of ignorance. 

Anyway, I see more athletes following suit in this protest and I am so excited about the support he is getting despite the haters.

In completely unrelated news, if you type in “team gif” in Google you will get a very many twerking gifs… #themoreyouknow