A Black Woman who stands with Colin Kaepernick

Throughout time Black Women have continuously had the backs of Black Men and we will continue to do so, therefore I stand with Colin Kaepernick and his decision on not to stand during the national anthem.

I truly do not understand what all the uproar is about when it comes to a man who just so happens to be an NFL player choosing to exercise his first amendment rights. This has nothing to do with him not standing and everything to do with his Race. Let’s be real here, if a man who was an NFL player and of European decent with no melanin in his skin decided to take a stand on behalf of minorities in this country, he would not receive this type of backlash. People want to act like they are so patriotic when in fact they are not. We have service members continuously dying in the middle east and I do not hear anything from anyone about how great the country. You want to yell what about the service members who died fighting for the country that gave him the right to have freedom of speech. But where were your voices when members of the Westboro Baptist Church choose to exercise their first amendment rights and protests at those Service Memers funerals. Do not bring service members into the discussion because the first amendment rights were established when the nation was founded therefore being born as a citizen in this country automatically give you those right.

It’s amazing how all these NFL coaches and players want to have an opinion on Kaepernick’s decision but never had anything to say about police brutality within American society. It truly makes me think how much do they truly care about what goes on in this country.

Although he is being called every bad name in the book, and even things like go back to Africa. This entire ordeal has done 2 things. One it has opened the eyes of some folks and it has brought awareness to the possibility that the National Anthem does have racial undertones.

Overall I think that any song discussing slavery can’t be good especially one that pays honor to the nations heritage which is rooting in darkness and mistreatment of those of African decent. Knowing of how America was when that song was written I know the mention of slavery can not be too pleasant. There is no way to sugar coat the truth and that’s facts. The song was written during the war of 1812 and during that times blacks were not even considered to be an entire person but instead only three fifths.

Kaepernick choosing not to stand made others think about just why wouldn’t he want to stand for the OH SO GREAT ” STAR SPANGLED BANNER” It led me to take a deeper look at the words that were written within each stanza and from their I decided that I did not like what I saw especially in the third STANZA when the blood shed of slaves were mentioned.

Now lets take an in depth look at the 3rd stanza and its lyrics

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Could Francis Scott Key not find anything else that rhymed with grave-wave and brave. Must he speak ill of the American Slave. Additionally I can’t help but chuckle when I hear (O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave) when this song was written during slavery and was filled with cowards who chose to own another human being.

Also if you ever truly wondered what kind of man the writer of the national anthem was check out what the information the smithsonian has on him saying that slaves were a “distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community.”

My last comments on this situation is that the Star Spangled Banner is A SONG that folks care so much about yet they fail to care about the lives that are being lost in this country every single day at the hands of those who are suppose to serve and protect. I personally think we need a new national anthem and would appreciate my nation honoring a song that does not make mockery of the blood shed by slaves.