bballman posted:Kaepernick has a right to do this. However, people also have a right to disagree and express their displeasure with it. People can legally burn the flag. It doesn't mean I am ever going to condone it. With all due respect to Swampboy and other veterans who have given to this country, this type of behavior is despicable. I understand your point Swamp, but people also have the right to disagree with this viewpoint. They have the right to teach their kids that this is NOT the type of behavior to emulate. I'm sure you don't disagree with me.
What is most infuriating to me is this is coming from a man who is making $19 million a year. In what country are a group of people supposedly "oppressed", but can make $19 million a year?? I was flipping in and out of the VMA awards last night and saw almost NO white people. Every one of the "oppressed" people that were on the stage were multi millionaires. They all certainly have MUCH more money than me. I think this idea of an "oppressed" people is getting blown WAY out of proportion.
America remains the land of opportunity. It remains the land where if you work hard enough and want to succeed enough, you can do whatever you want. This goes for sports, music, business, trades, whatever. I just think when you have a multi millionaire protesting that his race is "oppressed", there is something wrong there...
Of course, this is JMHO, but I don't think anyone is going to convince me otherwise.
The ones that either have not had as much oppression or have been able to overcome it are the ones who have the voice for others. I'm pretty successful, I would venture, and yet to get here I've been accosted by white supremacists, told I was only good for nigger work, and held in my home and arrested by cops who referred to me by both racial and religious slurs...and those are the OVERT acts. The majority of racially-based actions are covert and often unintentional. I'm very lucky that I am as light-skinned as I am, because at a glance, I just look like a white guy that tans well (except in the summer,) and I know I avoid some of the 1000-meter harassment that exists. That skin allowed my family to blend in when we moved to a very non-diverse community when I was a child. Other kids and their families weren't uncomfortable with me. My first professional job was a result of those relationships.
If I (and my family) hadn't been able to do that, I would not have had the opportunities I did. Even with those opportunities, my path was still harder than my peers because of the actions of others (what would have happened to me had I been convicted of those assault charges those cops were trying so hard to hang on me? I shudder to think what would have become of me if I hadn't been able to hire a very good attorney, which isn't an option for many people of color. Without that aforementioned professional job, I would have been jailed for something I didn't do, and the domino effect of that...)
This isn't to say poor me. This is to highlight that there are plenty of people who simply don't understand that failure is not dependent on one's work ethic...many people simply get fewer chances when they do fail (which we all invariably do at points in our lives, even when we give our best effort.) The margin of error is just so much smaller when you have significantly reduced opportunities compared to others.