My First Blog

A Perspective on Colin Kaepernick’s Protest

During the month of August, Colin Kaepernick has protested against the treatment of minorities by refusing to stand during the National Anthem at NFL games. This has drawn an equal amount of criticism and support from others.

Let’s cut to the chase: I support his decision and right to protest. However, I do not agree with his method of protesting.

I know the American flag represents freedom, equality, democracy. I also know that the flag represents what we could be, what we should be. In a nutshell, I challenge Colin (in addition to his protest) and his supporters to reach out to community and law enforcement leaders to engage in dialogue that will move our communities forward and ensure more transparency and accountability with law enforcement personnel.

Also, we as a society keep our fears, stereotypes, profiling, prejudices, bigotry, and ignorance from preventing us from being the united nation we could truly be. We should take time to listen to all disagreements instead of using (or hiding behind) social media, laptops, desktops, and smartphones to voice our disapproval when someone says or does something that conflicts with our beliefs. Because it’s so easy to criticize a protest or protestor, it’s just as easy to remain silent when injustice or unfair treatment of minorities occurs.

So here’s the big question: do we engage, have dialogue, do we listen, do we make changes, or do we remain with the status quo, which clearly isn’t working from a minority perspective?