Some excerpts:
This is not a nation that cares much about its veterans or its football icons beyond invoking them either when they are neutered by a retrofitted narrative, or death, so I wasn’t surprised to see so many people posit Pat Tillman as a foil to Kaepernick, though the sacrifices Tillman made for his country were rewarded by an undignified demise at the hands of American troops, and a reprehensible cover-up by military leaders. Colin Kaepernick sits for Pat Tillman and his family, too.
Colin Kaepernick also sits for the concepts of community and societal responsibility, both of which are lost on the very people who disingenuously demand Kaepernick respect the interconnectedness of our United States by demonstrating a reflexive fealty to the flag while simultaneously asking how much money he has given to “his” community to shame him out of expressing empathy. And by Kaepernick’s “community,” they don’t mean the Milwaukee suburbs of his early life, the California of his young adult life, or anything related to home or his larger American community; they mean to lean on the old and faulty crutches of black pathology. They mean to say blacks are not allowed to protest injustice, because in their minds, the cyclical poverty and violence spawned by white exploitation, discrimination, and racism don’t exist. It’s an illogical rebuke born of an ahistorical perspective and outright contempt, certainly not from a sense that “together, we are stronger.”
Colin Kaepernick sits for the American Dream. Colin Kaepernick is the American Dream. Or, at least, he’s what we like to pretend it is. Born into poverty, a bi-racial baby adopted and raised by two white parents, Kaepernick is the sort of prototypical Omni-American who would have provoked a knowing grin from Albert Murray. Murray recognized America for the composite culture it always has been, as he famously wrote, "Any fool can see that white people are not really white, and that black people are not black."
You can read it here, in its entirety:
Colin Kaepernick Is The American Dream – The Cauldron
This is not a nation that cares much about its veterans or its football icons beyond invoking them either when they are neutered by a retrofitted narrative, or death, so I wasn’t surprised to see so many people posit Pat Tillman as a foil to Kaepernick, though the sacrifices Tillman made for his country were rewarded by an undignified demise at the hands of American troops, and a reprehensible cover-up by military leaders. Colin Kaepernick sits for Pat Tillman and his family, too.
Colin Kaepernick also sits for the concepts of community and societal responsibility, both of which are lost on the very people who disingenuously demand Kaepernick respect the interconnectedness of our United States by demonstrating a reflexive fealty to the flag while simultaneously asking how much money he has given to “his” community to shame him out of expressing empathy. And by Kaepernick’s “community,” they don’t mean the Milwaukee suburbs of his early life, the California of his young adult life, or anything related to home or his larger American community; they mean to lean on the old and faulty crutches of black pathology. They mean to say blacks are not allowed to protest injustice, because in their minds, the cyclical poverty and violence spawned by white exploitation, discrimination, and racism don’t exist. It’s an illogical rebuke born of an ahistorical perspective and outright contempt, certainly not from a sense that “together, we are stronger.”
Colin Kaepernick sits for the American Dream. Colin Kaepernick is the American Dream. Or, at least, he’s what we like to pretend it is. Born into poverty, a bi-racial baby adopted and raised by two white parents, Kaepernick is the sort of prototypical Omni-American who would have provoked a knowing grin from Albert Murray. Murray recognized America for the composite culture it always has been, as he famously wrote, "Any fool can see that white people are not really white, and that black people are not black."
You can read it here, in its entirety:
Colin Kaepernick Is The American Dream – The Cauldron
“In a society that despises intelligence and justice, our brightest lights are prone to self-immolation.” Kaepernick sits because he is one of our brightest lights, and he empathizes with that slow, gradually intensifying, inward burning so many of us — black and brown and white, male and female, oppressed and conscientious — understand well.
good read Kaep a real one