I wanted to wait a minute before I posted this, but as it is often heard, there is never a “right time” to do what is right.

Even if you do not follow sports, you know the news about Colin Kaepernick the QB of the San Francisco 49ers.

Colin has decided to not stand during the national anthem. His purpose, as he said, was to protest the police mistreatment of African Americans.

When the world got wind of this, there was outrage and praise.

“How could this man sit during the anthem?!”

“He has no respect for our soldiers!”

“Oh yea, sure a multimillionaire can sit during the anthem. What a crock!”

“I support Kap, go on and sit. It’s his right!”

All the noise drowned out what Kaepernick is actually doing.

He is trying to bring attention to the problems between police and African Americans.

If anyone has seen the news, we know what is going on, what has been going on but hasn’t been caputred on phone and video cameras.

Philando, Alton, Tamir, Walter.

We’ve heard the stories, seen the graphic videos. Again and again.

Kaepernick has finally decided to speak out about it and folks go ballistic.

Why? Is he not allowed to excersise his first ammendmennt rights?

The people claiming that Kap is disrespecting soldiers by not standing for the anthem, saying soldiers “fought and died for that flag, for that song!” Do you not know your first amendment rights? Do you not know what soldiers actually fought for?

Soldiers didn’t fight and die for a song or flag, they fight and die for freedom. For the freedom to choose. The freedom to excersise the rights afforded to us by the U.S. Constitution.

Not for a flag, not for a song. For the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE.

I love that veterans came out on social media in support of Kaepernick with the hastag #VeteransForKaepernick. Stating just that. That they didn’t fight for a song but for every American’s right to exercise their rights and those rights include the freedom to choose.

Kaepernick CHOOSES to sit because he has every right to do so.

No I don’t have a problem with Kaepernick sitting or taking a knee during the national anthem because until something is truly done about the mistrust and mistreatment between police and the African American communities, I’ll sit too.

Until we stop talking and start acting, we can all have a seat. We can refuse to sing a song that in all actually wasn’t suppose to represent African Americans anyway.

I don’t need permission to exercise my rights and neither does Kaepernick.

Those rights had to be fought for years until it applied to ALL of America, and now that we have these rights, people don’t want us to exercise them?? Stop it!

Kaepernick can sit and so can anyone who wants to join him. I applaud him.

If you have a problem, go ahead, have one, but you are missing the point entirely and you are not helping anything.

The point is to bring attention to the tension between officers and citizens.

The point is for Kaepernick to show that yes he is famous, but he is also still an African American man who has said on numerous occaisons that he has had less than desirable experiences with police that many African Americans have. His celebrity status, doesn’t overide the fact that he is a Black man.

And to Rodney Harrison, who claimed Kaepernick wasn’t “Black enough” to speak out about what is going on because he is mixed race, sit down somewhere!

Harrison has since apologized for his comments but it doesn’t take away the fact that he said it. Like Kaepernick and any other mixed race person doesn’t have a right to speak out about the problems within the Black community because they are “half Black.” These people are still Black and they know that being Black is a blessing and a curse and they can speak out on whatever they choose.

Folks who are criticizing Kaepernick by saying he is mixed race so he shouldn’t and can’t have an opinion on the state of the Black race are some of the same ones who criticized Jesse Williams back in June over his BET Awards speech mainly because he is also mixed race. What is the point of that? Mixed race people can’t have an an opinion?? That doesn’t even make any sense.

Kaepernick, Jesse, Zendaya, and any other mixed race person with a platform can speak on Black lives and have every right to do so.

I support Kaepernick and I’ll continue to support him.