I have commented on Facebook about the NFL kneeling controversy, but I have concluded that more time needs to be spent on the subject than is generally allowed by Facebook (specifically, most people don’t read long posts). Tradition in this country is that individuals stand with their hands over their hearts to salute the flag or during the playing of the National Anthem. Those whose religious beliefs preclude giving homage to anything other than God, have, of course, been exempted. By honoring the flag and the National Anthem, we honor the country that has provided us with lives far better than those lived by anyone else in the world.
One of the factors that make our lives better, is that we have freedom of expression under the First Amendment to the Constitution. And that amendment gives Americans the freedom to express themselves in ways that might sometimes offend the rest of us. Americans have the freedom to shout racial epithets, to carry the Nazi flag, to tie bananas in trees, to peacefully demonstrate even on Inauguration day, and yes, to refuse to stand in honor of the Stars and Stripes before a football game. But sometimes, exercising our freedom of expression may not be the wisest thing to do.
Shouting racial epithets wins no one over to your cause. Neither does carrying the Nazi flag or tying bananas to trees, or even demonstrating on Inauguration day. The rest of the country, regardless of color, is simply antagonized and disgusted, and the perpetrators look more and more like sorry losers. When NFL players fail to honor the flag, it doesn’t win them any points either. But before we condemn all NFL players, it is only fair to report that on the Cowboys, Cardinals, Bears, Vikings, Bengals, and Jets’ teams, not a single player protested by kneeling, sitting, or raising a fist during the pre-game anthem. These teams need to be congratulated for the courage not to follow the lemmings in their mindless march into the sea.
Why do I call their protest mindless? Why do I compare them to lemmings who simply follow the ones in front of them without considering what they are doing? Well, let’s look at the purported reason behind their protest. Most of the NFL players are black. They claim they are protesting the brutality of police against blacks which has left “innocent black bodies lying in the streets!” This all began, if you will remember, with the “hands up, don’t shoot” demonstrations following the shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, when a friend of the black victim Michael Brown claimed that he was shot while standing with his hands raised and his back to the white policeman, attempting to surrender. That incident, which also created the now international “Black Lives Matter” movement, was a total lie. Three separate investigations, one conducted by the Justice Department led by a black Attorney General and under the administration of a black president, found that Brown had in fact been running towards the policeman to attack him, fists clenched, refusing to stop after repeated orders to do so by the policeman whom he had already attacked once in his patrol car.
As far as innocent black bodies lying in the streets, there are, in fact. In 2016 alone, 8,881 blacks were killed (1,305 more than whites and Hispanics) but they were killed . . . mostly by other blacks. 243 of those blacks were killed by whites. In that same year, the police fatally shot 233, only 16 of whom were then found to be unarmed. Peter Kirsanow, an attorney, past chair of the Board of Directors for The Center for New Black Leadership, and current Commissioner on the Civil Rights Commission had much to say on the subject in a recent appearance on the Tucker Carlson show. He agreed that groups like Black Lives Matter and many liberals like to say that given their percentage of the population, blacks are 2 ½ times more likely to be shot by police than whites. However, he pointed out some other facts that those same groups refuse to recognize. Blacks are 3 times more likely to be killed by black police officers than by white police officers. Also, blacks engage in criminal activities at a higher rate than whites. Blacks commit 35% more robberies, 38% more murders, and 51% more shootings than whites (Kirsanow, Interview with Tucker Carlson, FOX News, 29 September 2017).
In addition, if there is a war between police and blacks, it is the police who should be marching in the streets chanting “Blue Lives Matter!” In the last decade, although they make up only 6 % of the population, blacks have committed 42 % of the murders of policemen. According to FBI crime statistics, in 2015, a policeman was 18 ½ times more likely to be shot by a black male than a black male was to be shot by a police officer. In 2016, thanks to the narrative pushed by Black Lives Matter and the media, the murder of police officers has risen by 52%, those murders committed largely and disproportionately by black males.
This narrative has had the unintended effect of making life more dangerous for all blacks. Instead of helping their communities, Black Lives Matter has in fact made life more perilous, not from police officers, but from their neighbors. A recent Pew Research poll found that 72% of police officers are less likely to get out of their cars to stop and question suspicious people because of the rabid anti-cop atmosphere. As a result, violent crimes, especially in black neighborhoods, has risen over 8% in the last two years and homicides 19.6%.
According to the New York Post, four separate studies came out in 2016 rebutting the charge that police shootings are racially biased. Those studies only add to the FBI figures which reveal that blacks are not shot by police more than whites, certainly not in proportion to their involvement in crime. But as the Post also concludes, “That truth has not stopped the ongoing demonization of the police — including, now, by many of the country’s ignorant (emphasis mine) professional athletes!” (Mac Donald, Heather, “All that kneeling ignores the real cause of soaring black homicides” (New York Post, 26 September, 2017).
But wait, there’s more! (Just like those T.V. ads!) Colin Kaepernick did not say he was kneeling to protest the brutal murder of innocent blacks by police. Not at all. Kaepernick said instead, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” Mr. Kaepernick should get his facts straight. In her article, “Attention NFL, America is as Good as it Gets,” Ashely Herzog explains the following: The World Value Survey, a global network of scientists and researchers based in Sweden studies racial attitudes across the world. They ask people questions like “Would you mind having neighbors of a different race?” Those who answer “yes,” are considered racially intolerant. In their most recent survey they discovered that the least racist countries in the world include Scandinavian countries, England, Australia, and yes, the United States! In those countries, only 5% of the people fell into their definition of racist. Other countries which did not fare so well in racial tolerance include Macron’s France at 20% racist and Merkle’s Germany at 10%. Italy, Poland and Spain also come in at 10% racist, while communist and socialist societies are even worse. Russia and China — 15% racist. Vietnam, Cambodia, and Venezuela – — 30% racist. In Cuba, Herzog writes, the ruling class is “100% lily white” while 80% of those in Cuban prisons are black! (Herzog, Townhall, 20 September 2017). No country in the world scored less than 5% who were racially intolerant.
So all those NFL football payers, their coaches and in many cases their owners, have fallen for a lie, wasting their efforts to protest a situation that does not exist. Is there racial intolerance in America? Yes. The World Value Survey shows that at least 5% of Americans are intolerant of other races. Can we improve that? Of course we can. But at the same time, that is ONLY 5%! No other country in the world is more tolerant of other races than America! No other country in the world assimilates other cultures into our own and makes them Americans like we do. So the wasted effort of the NFL is only hurting them in the end. People have burned their tickets. People booed the players at the games when the knelt. Two player had been invited to ride a float in the famous Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans but now their invitation has been rescinded. Die hard football fans have turned off their television sets and vowed not to watch another game as long as the players continue to “disrespect the flag.” ESPN has been losing viewership on football games since Kaepernick first dropped his knee, and the ratings are continuing to plummet. The NFL’s approval ratings dropped from 30% to 17% in the week following their “grand gesture” and the sale of tickets at one online resale site dropped 17.9%. DirecTV reversed a standing policy and refunded the $200+ cost of their football package to anyone who asked. America is angry. And it is all for nothing.
Liberals and their media propaganda (remember that the majority of news media personnel self-identify as Democrats) want the turmoil and the feeling in the black community that they are being suppressed and oppressed by Republicans, moderates, conservatives. They want to keep the black community convinced that they and they alone can save the blacks from the rampant racism that is surging (according to them) across the country. They must do this because they are desperate for black votes. But they are peddling a lie. Republicans have always been the party wanting to lift blacks up from before the Civil War, and it continues to be Republicans who try to improve the lot of the blacks from Secretary of Education de Vos pushing school choice to President Trump signing an order to pour millions of dollars into STEM education for all children, including children of color. Republicans want to prepare them for jobs that will lift them from the slums of cities like Chicago and Baltimore where the Democrats have left them to rot for decades.
Let us pray that those intelligent blacks in American like Ben Carson, Pete Kirsanow, Larry Elder, Herman Cain, Harris Faulkner, Stacey Dash and others can begin to make inroads on the lies that many liberals continue to spread. America remains the greatest country on earth and the American Dream still calls to every American, no matter the color of his or her skin. Work hard and you can achieve. This is not the mantra of white supremacy. This is the legacy of the freest country in the world and it is a truth that embraces all Americans, regardless of race!