The Seattle Storm and New York Liberty got EVERYBODY’S attention on Saturday as the WNBA’s season tipped off in Bradenton, Florida. As the national anthem was playing they both walked off of the court in protest to police brutality, racial and social injustice. They also held a 26-second moment of silence for the 26-year old black woman, Breonna Taylor, who was murdered by Louisville police while sleeping in her own bed back in March. The officers responsible for her death have yet to be charged with a crime.
I’m quite sure there a lot of ignorant and naive folks upset with these players for walking off during the national anthem because they’re running with the false Trump narrative that they are disrespecting the flag.
Well playas, if we’re going to keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! The flag represents our freedom to peaceably protest as written in the First Amendment. It specifically says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
So while many folks want to see a diverse America through ONLY the lens of one race. It’s no longer one size fits all. I’ve said for years to my white friends, although we live in the same neighborhoods and breathe the same air. We don’t live in the same world. My experience in America isn’t the same as yours.
Therefore, you can’t expect people that look like me to love it the same way that you do. People talk about respecting the military because they fought for our freedoms like black folks didn’t fight for those same freedoms.
However, many of our grandfathers, fathers, uncles, brothers and sisters fought in those same wars only to return home to be black in America. Our grandfathers and great grandfather sacrificed the same blood in World War I and II only to come home to legal segregation, lynchings of their family and friends, segregation, terrorism at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan and the police.
Surely you can’t expect them to love the American Dream the same way their white counterparts did. When Breonna Taylor and so many other unarmed black folks are consistently being killed by the police and no one is going to jail for it there has to be outrage and protest. Right? It would be un-American not to protest. Right?
I can remember learning that on December 16, 1773 American colonists known as the Sons of Liberty held a polictal protest at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston. They literally broke into British ships that did NOT belong to them and threw 342 chests of tea into the harbor because they were upset that Britain was imposing “taxation without representation.”
If that were today and they were black. The news would have read like this, ‘A bunch of gangsters and thugs broke into ships that didn’t belong to them and destroyed property. Something has to be done to keep these hoodlums from rioting and destroying our cities.”
We aren’t looking for revenge, we’re simply looking to be treated fairly. If the First Amendment says that we as American citizens have the right to peaceably protest then we should be able to do just that. The reason for the protest should be irrelevant under the law as long as it’s done in peace.
Some of our white brothers and sisters were literally storming state capital buildings with guns several months ago because local governments were shut down due to the pandemic and that was considered permissible and even patriotic.
So why is it that when black folks decide that enough is enough when it comes to police brutality, racial and social injustice and peaceably protest it’s a problem? I applaud these women for standing up for what they believe in and they did it as TEAMS. Stop me when I start lyin’!