Agreed.
And allowing a group of odious bigots to appropriate something that belongs to all of us is a noxious and cowardly concession.
Nike, Did We Ever Really Know Ya?
As I celebrated Independence Day, yesterday, oddly I found myself ruminating over Nike' s recent decision to pull the Betsy Ross Flagged sneakers from their stores, just because Colin Kaepernick was offended that the Betsy Ross Flag represented a time in our nations history when slavery was accepted. To my mind, that's a pretty ridiculous stretch. The Betsy Ross flag represents a lot of very positive things to a lot of good people. Hell, several of our Founding Fathers owned slaves. I believe the records show that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. owned, or lived in households maintained by and operated through the efforts of slave labor. Should we discard the Constitution? Do we disavow the contributions of any who may have at one point been touched by or benefited from the efforts of slave labor. I think not. That would be woefully shortsighted and decicedly stupid. Don't get me wrong...I am a fire breathing opponent of even the concept of slavery and find it to be one of the most unfortunate and hateful threads that were woven into the fabric of the United States of America. However I realize the extended threat(s) of trying to pull such hateful thread(s) from our cloakes of patriotism to be a fruitless undertaking and one that could lead to the unaveling of the very fabric of our society! Jeez Louise Nike, have you totally lost your good sense?
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And allowing a group of odious bigots to appropriate something that belongs to all of us is a noxious and cowardly concession.
Not such a stretch when you realize that was not the reason he was objecting to it, else he would ask the mint to stop printing dollar bills because they have Washington's face on them.
He objected to the Nike shoe because along with the swastika and the confederate flag the 13 star Ross flag is also used as a white supremacy symbol, for that wonderful time 250 years ago when we all were white.
And while I, and you apparently, did not know the Ross flag was used that way, supremacists and black peope did and that's enough for me (he said, as he proudly laced up his Converse Chuck Taylors, now owned by Nike).
Just to be clear, by its own admission Nike simply made a business decision to please its target market. The decision was grounded in principal, not principle.Agree completely. Good on Kaep and good on Nike for pulling it.
Yes, I do find something wrong with that -- as explained in my previous post. Of course it is their right, just as it is mine to criticize it.
And no -- not supposition. Based on a rather lengthy NPR report heard Wednesday.
And no -- not supposition. Based on a rather lengthy NPR report heard Wednesday.
Sorry I was not clearer, Peak. Nike's decision to remove the shoes in question implicitly concedes to the successful appropriation of the so-called Betsy Ross flag by certain poisonous racist fringe groups. IMO it is wrong to make such a concession, even for profit, precisely because it serves to empower these groups.
Peak -- FWIW it is not at all unheard of for a large company to send legal work to various law firms they would rather not have to face in litigation. It is also not unheard of for law firms to decline such engagements, especially if modest in scope, in order to be free to accept more lucrative engagements adverse to such a company. In my 35 year career in so-called Big Law, I've witnessed both phenomena.
I somehow doubt that. 😉
It's a metaphor, Peak -- that's all. Unless I'm mistaken Eagle is saying that this is our country (i,e., dance) and we should not allow a fringe group of hateful knuckleheads to decide what our symbols and history mean (i.e., call the tunes).I agree with what you say. Except of course the dance part. What t'hell was that? One of the attributes that Conservatives seem to share is fear of stuff. I wish they would tone that down. For their sakes. Maybe concentrate more on Now. It's not that scary. Now did not happened all at once. It crept up on us, gave us a chance to get ready, which maybe we didn't take advantage of. Lord knows you and I, and perhaps Mike who's in on this too, have years long knowledge of Then. Not even a little tired of it? I'm quite fond of Now.
As far as Then and Now, I'm not taking the bait to go down that unproductive rabbit hole.
On the other hand I'm willing to concede that CK is probably mostly sincere. But I also think he is mostly wrongheaded, and this wrongheadedness is grounded in a phenomenon common among ideologues, these days especially on the Left -- a naive understanding of history and the human condition that is revealed by hubristic virtue-signaling, which is likely more compulsive than mercenary.^^(In response to post #30)
Very well put, my friend. I do hope you are right and that over time, some good will come of this. However, I must confess I harbor substantial doubt that Colin Kaepernick's motivations in this most recent dust-up are pure, but rather he wants to reclaim the spotlight for his personal edification. I suppose I just might be a bit of a cynic? :icon_scratch:
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