It’s Time to Fix What’s Wrong

by Ryan McCoy

How do you react when a doctor tells you that you have a broken arm?  Do you scream at him and say that you are never coming back to this hospital again?  Do you just get up and leave? I hope not, I hope that you get a cast so that your arm can start healing.  This country has a broken arm and our doctor has let us know and we did not like it.

Colin Kaepernick is back in the news after Nike debuted a new ad campaign with Kaepernick as its face.  The backlash was nearly instant. People began to take to Twitter announcing boycotts of the brand. Videos and pictures circulated of people burning and cutting up their Nike gear in a childish attempt to hurt the company.  

These people genuinely destroyed their own, paid for possessions in a move that did nothing to hurt Nike.  The company’s stocks dropped three percent but have since made up that lost ground and are now trading higher than before.  All of this under the guise of a patriotic wave that only seems to crash when the right gets “triggered.” This same zeal is not applied to anything that will fix the problem.

Kaepernick never set out to protest the nation, the flag, the anthem or veterans.  His goal two years ago was to raise awareness for racial injustice. His protests have been both civil and respectful; under the guidance of a vet, he went from sitting through the anthem to kneeling.  Still this was not enough and everyone blew past the actual problem to attack Kaepernick.

If just a portion of this energy went into fixing race relations, we would all be living in a better country and Kaepernick could again stand for the anthem, but no.  We, a nation of apparent children are too immature to seek a solution. We would rather throw a tantrum and boycott everyone related to Kaepernick, including the NFL as a whole, now that other athletes have taken to kneeling as well.  

If we want to see any progress we must throw aside our childish antics, put on our grownup pants and get to work. There is much that needs to be done to fix race relations in this country and while both sides have some work to do, white people have much more. Now let’s get to it.