WHY I AM TAKING A KNEE AND WHY YOU SHOULD TOO

At a rally Friday night, Trump had this to say:

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners,” wondered the president, “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!’ ” The hypothetical was met with cheers from the assembled crowd (1).

Trump was referring to Colin Kaepernick who during last year’s NFL season took a knee in support of the “Black Lives Matter” movement and as a form of protest, protesting police violence. We probably could have used that moment and people’s reactions to it, as a way to identify Trumpsters and maybe could have used it as some sort of litmus test to avoid our current state of affairs. There were those who were unable to grasp the significance of the constitutional right to protest. They focused on what they perceived to be disrespect to America, disrespect to the flag. They could not look past the kneeing to understand the “WHY” part, the significance of the act. People protest to make things better. People protest to fight oppression, hatred, ignorance, fascism, racism, and all forms of social injustice. I never imagined I would see so much protest in my America, but here we are…

Systemic racism is worthy of a protest. Don’t you think? Black lives matter and if you counter with “all lives matter”, then you are part of the problem. Wake up, this requires higher thinking. This requires empathy; putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. Not to mention a good grasp of constitutional rights and basic human decency.

Well, after his divisive speech, he then took to twitter to bully one of the most well liked athletes (at least according to my boys) of the day, Steph Curry. Curry had, I assume, vocalized his hesitancy to visit the White House. It did not take long for our Bully-In-Chief to take to twitter like the petulant child he is.

And just like that Trump started a civil rights movement…

Reactions like LeBron’s and the post below erupted on twitter. Yes, there are Trumpsters who probably will never be able to understand the significance of this protest but if Trump’s goal was to create civil unrest (yes, he is still looking to Brietbart Bannon for counsel and Stepford Stephen Miller is still on staff–both driven by racism so deep that nothing short of a holocaust will stop them), he has succeeded.

Thankfully, there are people who are willing to stand for the right to protest. People who defend the Constitutional right to protest. Are you one of them?