There was a whole lotta hubbub earlier in the week as Nike recalled shoes that’d already been sent to stores. The kicks (a little hip lingo for ya there) sported Betsy Ross’s flag, which Colin Kaepernick spoke against. Hence the ol’ 86.
Could this be, perhaps, the first time in history a manufacturing giant’s made such an about-face in response to an inactive-duty athlete’s thoughts on politics and history?
Yep. Could.
Either way, bye bye, Betsy.
The world’s changin’ — I remember when history was of use. Even Bugs Bunny thought so.
But Colin ain’t like the Bugs. And Nike is woke. So much that the sports mammoth signed Colin — who didn’t and doesn’t currently play for a team — to a multimillion-dollar deal last year (here).
In fact, it’s starting to seem that — whereas there were once entertainment and sports (here) and politics (here) and religion (here) and culture and education (here) — there are now instead woke politics and woke politics and woke politics and woke politics and woke politics and woke politics.
To me, not nearly as interesting.
As for Nike, outspoken military hero Dan Crenshaw had a thing or two to say about the revolutionary reversal.
He took to Twitter to air his grievance:
“If you’re offended by a shoe celebrating the flag of the American Revolution, it’s a good indication that you may be better off living in a permanent safe space.”
If you’re offended by a shoe celebrating the flag of the American Revolution, it’s a good indication that you may be better off living in a permanent safe space.
Or Cuba.
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 3, 2019
I do hear Cuba’s nice this time of year.
There’s a good chance Colin thinks so — he praised the nation’s communist dictator during his last year in the NFL. After wearing a shirt featuring Malcolm X and Fidel Castro, he opined to the Miami Herald:
“One thing that Fidel Castro did do is they have the highest literacy rate because they invest more in their education system than they do in their prison system—which we do not do here, even though we’re fully capable of doing that. ”
The journalist pointed out that Castro breaks up families, to which he responded thusly:
“We do break up families here. That’s what mass incarceration is. That was the foundation of slavery, so our country has been based on that as well as the genocide of Native Americans.”
In my view, it wouldn’t hurt to also consider the fact that people here go to prison due to having violated the law, whereas Fidel Castro and his henchman Che violently overthrew the government and murdered thousands of people. That seems a bit of contrast.
To be fair, a few days later, Colin specified, “Trying to push the narrative that I was supportive of the oppressive things [Castro] did is not true.”
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t note that Malcolm X was a brilliant, passionate, and compelling man with the deep desire to learn what is right and act accordingly. I highly encourage you — as well as Colin — to read his amazing biography. He was a far cry from a brutal dictator. He met Castro almost half a decade before leaving the Nation of Islam, which came after a colossal personal evolution.
As for Colin’s ideas of America, he certainly isn’t alone.
Dan had brimming thoughts, too, on the “myth” of the U.S. being best:
Wow. What a dismal, cynical, ungrateful, and context-less depiction of America.
Just remember NYT: as you criticize the US for not being perfect, your misguided speech will always be protected. #WhyILoveUSA #Freedom #HappyFourthOfJuly https://t.co/On23Wi95Hv
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 2, 2019
Look out when people discuss notions of fact as “outdated;” reality doesn’t have an expiration date.
But here’s an outdated bit of entertainment for ya, on this Happy Fourth of July:
-ALEX
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