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I don't think the movement is dying so much as i think it is stalled, just marching in place, bringing about few results. For some reason, black leaders have not thrown their full support behind this organization, while Colin Kaepernick's solo crusade has captured the imagination and support of the black masses, stealing the thunder of BLM. There also seems to be undercurrents in regard to this organization having been co-opted by opportunistic individuals with their own agendas. In Chicago, a sensational trial is currently taking place involving the killing of a 19-year-old black male by a white cop who fired 16 shots at the knife-carrying victim as he walked away from him. Several black community groups are peacefully demonstrating outside the court house, but I'm not even sure whether BLM is among them; that's how invisible this group has become.

@Troy for somebody who crows about all the times he's been stopped by the "po-po" when driving while black, you ought be more invested in the whole campaign to put white cops in check, along with the NFL who exploits black players. ( Instead of posting videos of professional thieves accosting a suburban white kid in an effort to tell somebody from around Chicago that killing people for sneakers is still widespread, you might want to consider the circumstances for my statement to the contrary. As somebody who reads the head count of Chicago murder victims, - lists that for at least the past 10 years are printed everyday in the local newspapers, i can tell you i can't remember the last time any of the thousands of these homocides in this big city have been been missing his shoes, and his cause of death listed as sneaker theft.) You need to direct your wrath toward billionaire, Michael Jordan, instead of the object of your seething belittlement, Colin Kaepernick, - MJ who benefits from the blood and sweat of those overseas peons who work for slave wages to produce his exorbitantly priced gym shoes, a charge being leveled against NIKE all over FaceBook from those who stay woke, contrary to your belief that everybody but you is naive and gullible.

So basically you decide what or whose platform supports black people. by the way, most media outlets have stated they will no longer show the anthem portion of NFL games - most recently ESPN. So I guess, Colin Kaepernick has made an impact - because no more jingoism in televised sports. Any way, I gues you decide who has impacted someone's life in a positive way - and be damn the black men who ARE visible doing that damn thing ... LeBron James. And then you wonder why no one is interested in rank-in-file black men or reading about them ... they have no voice. Also since, you say I wouldn't understand because I'm not a black man - I guess we'll no longer hear from you about black women, right?

I use the terms Black and white as we understand them here in the US, but I also recognize that there is no scientific basis for the designations. I'm sure there are a number of Black folks who ascribe to Peterson's worldview. Indeed, someone described him as part of the "Coon Squad," a group of folks including Omarosa who take positions that serve white folks, usually at the expense of Black folks. (Generally I believe these people are mostly interested in serving themselves, but that is another story). To answer you last question: what I find is that we in the Black community, with rare exception, do not determine who is visible. Anyone who has any level of visibility that benefits Black folks is shut down. Whether it is Malcolm X, Colin Kaepernick, or any number of Black men who try to build a platform to support Black people. The Black men who are visible are there was because white folks put them in the position. Typically it is because they are the likes of Peterson or provide some form of entertainment. @Mel Hopkins, please don't give me the names of entertainers to counter my point or some obscure business leader who the general public never heard of because they don't impact anyone's life in a positive way. I used literature as an example, because the books we produce are excellent proxy for what the culture deems to be important. Again ours is a culture that marginalizes Black men -- middle aged Black men in particular. These are the men who should be having their greatest impact on the culture, but do not. I'm not even sure why the is a topic for debate... Again, if you want to believe Black middle aged men are truly visible go ahead, but I suspect now that this might be a situation that you really can't understand, because you are not a Black man. Camille Yarbrough understands:

Someone forwarded this to me today on Facebook with the instructions to "forward this every Black person you know." I have to admit I was a little excited because i thought now, finally, some Black leaders are getting together to take substantive action against the NFL since Colin Kaepernick has been neutralized. I dug a bit deeper into this effort and see that he video was created LAST YEAR! My hopes were dashed because obviously this effort had less than zero impact. Why didn't this effort go viral on the Web? The video has been posted several times on youtube. The one with the most views (that I could find) is shared below. It got less than 83K views. This is a video created by a bunch of ministers with presumably supportive congregations why am I just now learning about this?!. They even have a hashtag #blackout. The answer is obvious we don't control social media. We also do not own any platforms with meaningful reach that would promote this effort and that we also support. As a result after NFL "killed" Kaepernick their revenues are higher than ever... But the most important reason for the failure of this effort is that we, as a people, are too WEAK to boycott the NFL. We won't boycott social media we won't boycott Amazon, we are pathetically support those who have demonstrated, time and time again, that they dont give s hit about us. We deserve everything we get. It is not too late for the 2018/19 season.

You men on this site just don't get it! You're so busy trying to discredit another brotha, that you can't wrap your mind around the fact that his taking a knee has scored a moral victory because it is still being discussed, debated, challenged, and prolonged. It exposes and lays bare the hypocrisy of what the American flag is supposed to stand for. It embarrasses white patriots, it galls the twitter-happy fool occupying the white house, it makes franchise owners uneasy, it makes black athletes soul-search, it is a thorn in the side of white law enforcement. But, noooo, you naysayers stand around criticizing Colin Kaepernick when his only crime is that he is in the same category as all the other back men who have failed to make equal justice a reality is this country that doesn't give a damn about them.

Colin Kaepernick may not have affected widespread change in the life of black America at large, but as i continue to stress, he DRAMATIZED a grievance and agitated the country. The fact that he is still a relevant topic of conversation is, in itself, is a victory! What he accomplished was to embarrass America into to realizing that its beloved flag doesn't live up to its promises. That is the implicit take-away from his bending a knee and this makes patriotic Americans extremely uncomfortable. That's a good thing in what is becoming a fascistic country. Nobody really believed his demonstration would suddenly turn racists cops into Office Friendlys, but without lifting a finger, Kaepernick became a thorn in the side those, who in all of their white law and order privilege, consider the boys in blue to be heroic paragons. Furthermore, NFL players and owners were all forced to do some soul searching and this may yet have a trickle-down effect.

America is riddled with folk lore about larger than life heroes who sprang from the ranks (and imaginations) of the common man. And, of course, there are biblical characters who have been extolled in verse and sermon. Donald Trump is currently filling a need for resentful people fearing the status their white skin color guarantees is in jeopardy, thanks to the politically-correct and bleeding-heart liberal crowd. In every time of crises the masses look for a "man on a white horse" to appear and deliver them from impending doom.. Obama briefly filled this role for blacks but his sheen has gradually dulled. Colin Kaepernick stole a little bit of this shine but he has few successes to his credit. Also missing the mark are star athletes who marry white women and lend their names to a line of exorbitantly-priced gym shoes. So, as usual, blacks are floundering around looking for a Messsiah, but left with nothing but martyrs snatched from the populace of young males shot in the back while fleeing their misdemeanors. Or, embracing an irrelevant comic book figure like Black Panther whose alter-ego Chadwick Boseman was savvy enough to present the MTV Award he won for favorite movie hero to James Shaw, the ordinary Joe who single-handedly disarmed a shooter on a rampage, and just happened to be sitting in the audience at this TV event And so it goes. Black people continue to shuffle around claiming this one or that one to really be black, this place or that place to actually be the country of Mankind's black mama. Too bad we weren't "evil" enough to subdue our adversaries so we could enforce black supremacy and lie about how great we are. OK. Back to my perch, and the bird's eye view that provides me a good opportunity to spot any UFOs that decide to re-visit Earth and take me back home. I'm world-weary. Trumpism is stifling me.

Del you should widen your source of information everything you share just reinforces what you (what we all) want to believe). The reality is Trump is not going anywhere before the end of the year -- even if he is completely guilty. The wheels of justice turn slowly... if at all. Meanwhile time the Warner monopoly has been approved, net neutrality shut down, facebook owns social media and is working on destroying the rest of the web, and colin Kaepernick has been banned from playing football and no one cares

There's something about this "Black Lives Matter" movement that makes me a little suspicious of it's origin and intentions. First of all, I have no problem with them being women but why are the founders Lesbian and Bisexual? Secondly, from what I see on television more White people are participating in these demonstrations than Black people which makes me wonder how much effort they're really putting into actually mobilizing the Black community. Also, their methods of blocking traffic and causing social agitation seems to do more harm than good because it pretty much pisses off the public. The police are the one's who did the wrong, so why shut down the sports arena and disrupt games or shut down the freeway and keep people from getting home to see their families? I liken THEIR methods to Colin Kaepernick's who thinks kneeling is will be effective....... Not only are you NOT being effective, but you're actually pissing otherwise neutral people off and making more enemies.

@Troy Would you have any misgivings marketing Colin Kaepernick's forthcoming book by using a phrase like "we sell books by black "sons-of-bitches"?

I love it when a good plan comes together. Many who are dazzled by the media and may have missed the plot. We must remember, we're a civilization rooted in story-telling. We share information filled with iconic imagery, symbolism, and sounds. Celebrities are no different. They use the media to tell stories that voice their platform position or opposition. Case-in-point, On December 5, 2017 "Beyoncé surprised free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick with Sports Illustrated‘s Muhammad Ali Legacy Award." Here's the backstory for those who missed it. Beyoncé became Enemy #1 when she performed "Formation" during the 2016 Super Bowl. SUPER BOWL 50. It was the only time the NFL ditched the Roman numerals. Like a Trojan Horse, Beyoncé and her Black Panther styled-warriors marched out on their field. She resurrected Malcolm X and gave corporate America the finger. Without those who sound off every time a celebrity offends their sensibilities, we'd miss the story unfold. White folks screamed bloody murder and cops threatened not to provide security for her upcoming concerts. Butthurt. Now, 45 and white America are butthurt because Kaepernick took a knee 7-months after Bey danced into Formation. For a protest to be effective, you got to surprise them on their battlefield. Awarding the Sports Illustrated Muhammad Ali Legacy Award to Kaepernick is nearing the apex of consciousness raising. If this were a monomyth, also known as the Hero's Journey; it would be where the Hero gets the gift from the Goddess right before he returns from his journey. Together, whether it was planned or not, they used their platform to bring attention to police brutality and state-sanctioned murders. Beyoncé and Kaepernick didn't level a gun. They waged protest in an arena the military used to raise support. Raise. Support. For. War. Maybe like me, you weren't aware of how the National Anthem and the NFL wedded at the conclusion of World War II. The Washington Post shared that part of the story in September. Up until 2015, the Department of Defense contracted with the NFL using millions of taxpayer money. I never had a problem with military pageantry. I do have a problem with hypocrisy. Neither Beyonce or Colin Kaepernick used taxpayers money to advance the cause of bringing attention to police brutality. They told a story through their actions. Proving once again; a storyteller's wheelhouse is winning hearts and minds.

I love it when a good plan comes together... Y'all keep being dazzled by the media but still missing the plot .... Beyoncé surprised free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick with Sports Illustrated‘s Muhammad Ali Legacy Award

@harry brownYes, we can thank Colin Kaepernick's knee bending protests for nudging the AFL owners into making this gesture. Unfortunately, your are right about whether the money will trickle down to the people it is meant to help. Sports Illustrated magazine honored Kaepernick with the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award, and GQ magazine named him "Citizen of the Year". He was also honored by Native Americans at an indigenous peoples sunrise ceremony.

@Pioneer1Would you be specific about all the white men i am putting a lot of "praise and power on"? The men that Mel and i exchanged information about in our posts following your complaint, were black men as is Colin Kaepernick. We both give due credit to Barack Obama, as well as our own Troy Johnson. Name some white men who are heroes of "Afro American" women in this society?? You are the one who looks upon white men as being omnipotent. You imagine that on this board your persona is "forceful and dominant". But not to me, especially with all of your pouting about how my and Mel's "rejection" makes you "jealous", and how you mope about my not sharing your adoration for certain people. This leaves me wondering why you don't you stop craving approval. Why do you need my validation? i don't need yours. i don't care if you are put off by all of my new age spirituality and pondering about truth and reality. Why should it make a difference to you if i don't agree with you? Man up! Since you choose to guard your identity and professional resume, all i can go on is the impression you make here on this site, and you come across to me as a font of preposterous pronouncements, opinions that you pull out of your ass; someone who dwells on subjects i have lost interest in. You're good at that. BTW, you spelled "independently" wrong.

Yes, yes, yes. For somebody who is so slavishly devoted to this country and who constantly chides me about hating it, why would you ask this silly question? It should be obvious that i hate all white men of Trump's ilk and am indifferent to the rest of them who populate and run this BS country. Plus you had a fit because i backed Colin Kaepernick; guess he wasn't black enough for you. i happen to be interested in esoteric subjects and ancient wisdom. Besides Franz Fanon i don't know of any black men in these fields.

In New Jersey, Racist White Police ,Charged With Hate Crimes. He Was Caught On Tape Saying , Niggers Are Like ISIS ,They Have,No Value. He Bought A Police Dog To Intimidate Black,People At A Basketball Game. I Think He Slammed A Black,Male's Head Into A Steel Door,Who Was A Suspect..Quarterback Colin Kaepernick Should Be On The News,Now Saying ,This Is Why I Was Kneeling Down...They Need To Show How Many White Police Have Been Fired For Klan Members On The News,Those Caught Saying Racist Things...When Robert Mueller Finish Investigating Trump And The Russians ,He Should Investigate Neo Nazi,KLAN In Police And ,U. S. Military...

@TroyThat would be a 1 MILLION DOLLARS over 10 months.. $100-THOUSAND PER MONTH http://kaepernick7.com/million-dollar-pledge/ “I will donate one million dollars plus all the proceeds of my jersey sales from the 2016 season to organizations working in oppressed communities, 100k a month for 10 months.” – Colin Kaepernick And in my 50 something years ... I've never heard white america squeal like a stuck pig over anything Farrakhan has said or done...Even during the million man march - remember the joke that NPS counted black men as 3/5 - and returned a count of 400-thousand in attendance.. Farrakhan doesn't enter into white america's sanctuary. He's smart enough to stay in his playground. He's not a threat to white America's psyche. Beyonce was enemy no 1 , though, when she performed "formation" during the 2016 super bowl. THE SUPER BOWL 50. Like a Trojan Horse, she and her black panthers styled-warriors marched out on their field and she resurrected Malcolm X and gave corporate America the finger. White folks screamed bloody murder and cops threatened to not provide security for her concerts. Butthurt. Today, 45 and white America are butthurt because Kaepernick took a knee 7 months after Bey danced into formation . For a protest to be effective you got to surprise them on their own battlefield... https://youtu.be/SDPITj1wlkg

Cynique I understand that you, like myself, are simply individuals who wield little influence. Again my concern is not about you or I, but our culture. Whether it is Cardi B becoming the most significant rap artist of the day, Colin Kaepernick being the most visible activist today, or a great Black writers who remains obscure unless they are given the white co-sign. I tried really hard to explain why my point is not about you or I individually, but about us collectively. The only reason I speak about you specifically is because you bring up things that are specific to you, so I address those things and maybe that gives the impression that I'm making this about you--again that is not my intent. You like to state that Black people are not a monolith. Of course we are not, that goes without saying, we are all individuals and are all unique. I'd don't want anyone to adhere to my standard of behavior any more than I would want to adhere to theirs. So while I think the NOI is more significant that Colin. I would not want the NOI to run the entire country. However we as Black people must reclaim our agency. We can not continue to allow corporations who are run largely by white men motivated by profit, to set our agenda--to even determine something as mundane which Black owned websites survive. Individually, we have no power to change anything but together we do. These are the efforts that I personally engage in and support. I would not be surprised that Colin is engaged in more substantive activity. As I previously discussed substantive activity by Black folks is not something the media like to cover. Beyond kneeling, what activity did Coates say that Colin is engaged in? I did read somewhere that Colin has pledged to donate $100,000 to 10 charities over the next 10 years. As you said we'll see Colin's impact over time. I, for one, hopes it becomes significant.

@TroyI am not an important person who wields a lot of influence and what i say or think reaches very few people and has very little effect. So what difference does it make to you that i gravitate toward Colin Kaepernick instead of Louis Farrakhan who you aggrandize and continue to jam down my throat in spite of the fact that, unlike Kaepernick, this adversary of Malcolm X never sacrificed his job or his wealth to get his message across. A someone who i relate to very little. Being an arm chair supporter of Kaepernick is a personal choice i have made in the year 2017, something which i really don't have to justify or apologize for. So, you'll just have to somehow find a way to accept that i, and i alone, decide whose cause i support, and stop obsessing about my decision. Of course you will say that i typify those who gravitate toward Kaepernick and that we are all wrong and misguided, and that your aversion to the media and a guy you think is innocuous, qualifies you to be the person we should be listening to. This in spite of how little you know about what Kaepernick is currently and quietly doing with his money, something the media doesn't report, but which I am told appears on a web site, information i heard Ta-nehisi Coates dispense in an interview. History may very well be the judge of which one of these men had the most impact on the civil rights climate in this entire country rather than a small cult within a black minority in white America.

@TroyYou assume i don't know about the hood and what's going on in the clubs. I don't live in a bubble because, unlike you, i've always been interested in learning a little bit about a lot of things and over the years i've been in circumstances to do this. i grew up in what was the black neighborhood of a white town that was a true cross section of the country at large. I associated with just as many rough kids as refined ones. i was never a snob because i had a taste for what was edgy. i worked at the Post Office for almost 30 years. So don't tell me i don't know about common black people. When my husband was away serving in the Air Force, i lived down the street from an American Legion hall, a raunchy little hole in the wall that couldn't have been more typical of nitty gritty black night life. Amid a bevy of circulating hoochie mamas, I'd sit at the bar smoking Pall Malls and let "down-to-earth" niggas buy me drinks and engage me in interesting conversations before i observed my curfew and made my way back home to my empty bed. Even to this day, i will occasionally venture out with my daughter to a hot spot, just to observe the scene. I've mentioned that i had a 22-year old grandson killed in a drive-by because he got too intrigued with the street life. i may have mentioned that i have another Porshe-driving grandson who is a music producer making big bucks supplying beats for rappers, as well as background music for commercials. One of my granddaughters just entered the University of Indiana on a scholarship. Another one, who is gay, works as a sheriff's deputy. i talk all the time about my ghetto, lil Wayne-loving grandson who keeps me abreast of what's going on in Baby Mama/Baby Daddy land.( And, yes, Pioneer, he's the one who introduced me to the word "thot".) And then there are my children: one son who is preacher, another who is a weed-smoking, book-reading working class stud, the youngest one a comic book publisher. There's my upwardly mobile account exec daughter, my adventurous older one who relies on Jesus to keep her safe. i also have a niece who is a TV anchor woman in Chicago, a nephew who was a feature editor of EBONY magazine. You name it. My life is full of diversity! ( And , yes, I also watch TMZ to get the lowdown on the entertainment scene, a program which enjoys the reputation of being very reliable in its sources and rumor debunking.) So don't blow me off as living in a bubble when you tune out everything about the music scene except what you want to believe. Before you started mansplaining this aspect, i said that music reflects what trending in the black clubs, stating further that artists pick up on this and transform it into music. That's what goes on in with rap music, which is just one venue in the spectrum of black music. You seem unable to get past the idea that just as the black community is not monolithic in its values and life style, neither is black music. Not every young black person is mesmerized by Rap. Many are able to like this music without living it. Rap is what it is. it's not going anywhere. And the millennial discretionary black and bi-racial children of the black middleclass will expediently follow in their parents' footsteps, while the black underclass will continue to enjoy themselves, twerking down at the club between dodging bullets. Get out of your bubble and deal with this. And oh, yes, there is currently a revival of natural hair styles trending in black culture. Is this something the white corporate world is dictating? Obviously you and i will never agree on Colin Kaepernick so it should come as no surprise that i reject your POV about him just as you dismiss mine. Back in the 1960s, the Vietnam war inspired anti-establishment protests by the counter-culture community of hippies, college students and white liberals, and a lot of this was provoked by the profiteering of the military industrial complex as well as American hegemony Bending the knee is about exposing the intrinsic racism in patriotism, a ubiquitous racism that exists in the slave trade of the NFL and NBA, as well as police brutality with its undertones of white supremacy. They're all a part of the same matrix. So there is a difference in what the bending the knee demonstration has ripped the lid off of. It's a black thing. And the great silent white majority can't abide niggas messin' with their beloved striped flag with its ugly checkered history. If nothing else emerges from demonstrations by those who 45 calls "sonofabitches', it will become clear that their lives don't matter, and black folks just have to learn to live with this, and sometimes die because of it.

OK, Troy, here's your lunch!. Social media is all "a-twitter" over the latest flavor of the week, an uproar stemming from NFL bi-racial quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s choosing to sulk on the bench instead of standing up during the traditional flag raising ceremony that accompanied a rendition of the national anthem at a preseason football game last week The explanation he gave to avid reporters crowding the San Francisco 49er's locker room after the incident, was something to the effect that America is mistreating its citizens of color and this is his way of protesting injustice. Kaepernick is the offspring of a single white mother and an absentee black father and was given up for adoption to a white couple whose surname he took. So the "brother" obviously has issues Anyway, reaction was immediate. Patriotic white fans are burning their jerseys in outrage and posting the videos of them doing this on line. Football purists are reprimanding Kaepernick for committing the cardinal sin of not making his team the priority by creating a distraction that could interfere with winning games! Players all over the league are straddling the fence, but everybody has an opinion. Pro and con arguments abound, ranging from how people died defending the flag Kaepernick dishonored, to how he is exercising the freedom the flag symbolizes by speaking up for what's right. Many feel he should protest on his own time! As usual, the racial lines are being drawn. Having never been a flag-waving, American cheerleader, myself, I side with Colin even after I learned more about his back story. Kaepernick has recently converted to the islamic faith of his girlfriend, leading me to believe that this is what influenced his angry gesture. I have little use for organized religion, in general, and the Muslim one in particular which I regard as stealthy, dogmatic, and misogynistic. Personally, I'd have no objection if this bearded, disgruntled, pigskin passer who looks like a candidate for an Isis bomb thrower, would just fold up his tent, and fly away on a magic carpet with his Arabian sweetie-pie. I know I'm being prejudiced and irrational, but I don't care. Why should white people have all the fun? So far, Colin Kaepernick has not been officially penalized or banned from remaining seated during the national anthem, a gesture he intends to continue doing, but undoubtedly subtle repercussions will begin to kick in. Americans are such sports nuts, and athletes so idolized that who'd have thought these jocks would start risking their futures by taking to the arena of protest to speak out against racism? I concede that those doing so are worthy of praise, and more power to them. The 2 black Olympic track stars who raised their fists in a black power salute during the medal ceremony back in 1968 must be proud of them.

@Troy Are your daughters influenced by Nicki Minaj and Cardi B? None of the young women in my family are. Believe it or not there are millions of black women who can separate fantasy from reality. They can watch and enjoy these performers without emulating them in their day to day lives. Of course many others do, but they know how to be "thots" on their own. They're who the entertainers are emulating. This rhetoric that you and Pioneer are dispensing is the same ol-same ol people have been spouting since the 1980 videos with half naked booty-shakin background dancers. Everybody knows that record companies are manipulative and mostly concerned about their bottom lines But i still think black tastes are geared to rather than dictated by corporations, who just give fans what they already like and what is trending in black clubs. @Pioneer1Most young sistas don't relate to white "Becky's" like Taylor Swift because she just isn't their cup of tea.They, instead, prefer artists like Alicia Keyes and Rihanna and Jennifer Hudson, who represent a different genre and have huge followings. Furthermore, white Katie Perry and Miley Cyrus' performances and lyrics are very edgy, vulgar and anything but wholesome. Or, are black girls anymore corrupted than the white teen-aged girls texting nudies of themselves to their high school boyfriends. I don't know why an old lady like me has to remind you guys that this is 2017. BTW, Troy, no surprise that i don't think Colin Kaepernick's protest is a "fiasco". It has opened up a whole can of worms and ripped the lid off of white America's blind loyalty to a flag that is "exclusive" rather than "inclusive". Kaepernick's original protest against police brutality cannot be separated from all of the other issues that have arisen because they are all at the root of racism in a country whose flag does not represent justice and equality for all. Just ask Puerto Rico! The knee-bending is, of course, dividing the country, but it time for the boat to be rocked and for the chips to fall where they may. And what's so bad about the NFL being put on the hot seat? This organization where 90 percent of the players are black gladiators who have been bought, sold, and traded like chattel, - highly paid employees entertaining white spectators, but never allowed a stake in the ownership ranks. Neither the NFL or NBA deserve to be protected or exonerated. Well, this board is back to business as usual. Conflicting opinions.

After reading the information Mel showed in another thread, I'm seeing this Colin Kaepernick so-called "protest" in an entirely new light. It seems as if he was heavily influenced by a White football player who gave him bad advice....probably on purpose. Del White people need to talk to each other That's the problem, White people ARE talking to eachother. And they're talking about YOU....lol. You're right, the system isn't broken but it's working EXACTLY how it was designed to work. The system is called White Supremacy and it's designed to keep Whites in charge.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/heres-how-nate-boyer-got-colin-kaepernick-to-go-from-sitting-to-kneeling/ Although this feels like an update - here's a new part to the story circulating on social media "For all those who care enough to understand: Did you know this? Aug 14, 2016- Colin Kaepernick sits for the national anthem.....and no one noticed. Aug 20th, 2016- Colin again sits, and again, no one noticed. Aug 26th, 2016- Colin sits and this time he is met with a level of vitriol unseen against an athlete. Even the future President of the United States took shots at him while on the campaign trail. Colin went on to explain his protest had NOTHING to with the military, but he felt it hard to stand for a flag that didn't treat people of color fairly. Then on on Aug 30th, 2016 Nate Boyer, a former Army Green Beret turned NFL long snapper, penned an open letter to Colin in the Army Times. In it he expressed how Colin's sitting affected him. Then a strange thing happened. Colin was able to do what most Americans to date have not... He listened. In his letter Mr. Boyer writes: "I’m not judging you for standing up for what you believe in. It’s your inalienable right. What you are doing takes a lot of courage, and I’d be lying if I said I knew what it was like to walk around in your shoes. I’ve never had to deal with prejudice because of the color of my skin, and for me to say I can relate to what you’ve gone through is as ignorant as someone who’s never been in a combat zone telling me they understand what it’s like to go to war. Even though my initial reaction to your protest was one of anger, I’m trying to listen to what you’re saying and why you’re doing it." Mr. Boyer goes on to write "There are already plenty people fighting fire with fire, and it’s just not helping anyone or anything. So I’m just going to keep listening, with an open mind. I look forward to the day you're inspired to once again stand during our national anthem. I'll be standing right there next to you." Empathy and understanding was shown by Mr. Boyer.........and Mr. Kaepernick reciprocated. Colin invited Nate to San Diego where the two had a 90 minute discussion and Nate proposed Colin kneel instead of sit. But why kneel? In a military funeral, after the flag is taken off the casket of the fallen military member, it is smartly folded 13 times and then presented to the parents, spouse or child of the fallen member by a fellow service member while KNEELING. The two decided that kneeling for the flag would symbolize his reverence for those that paid the ultimate sacrifice while still allowing Colin to peacefully protest the injustices he saw. Empathy, not zealotry under the guise of patriotism, is the only way meaningful discussion can be had. Mr. Kaepernick listened to all of you that say he disrespects the military and extended an olive branch to find a peace. When will America listen to him?"