Little Kaepernicks
Emmitt Till.
Addie Mae Collins.
Cynthia Wesley.
Carole Robertson.
Denise McNair.
George Stinney.
Some of these names are well known while others are known less.
But all six of these little kids exposed the ugliness and evil that America tries to cover up and ignore in its quest to believe that it is the perfect nation.
Racists murdered these six children. But it is up to this generation to make sure that racism does not affect our children in that way ever again.
Those who doubt the existence of racism will say those deaths occurred in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and such hatred does not exist anymore.
And while murdering children is beyond heinous, no one would dare even think about doing something like that to children in 2016.
Unfortunately, children and their parents are being threatened by new millennium racists, so it is hard to not side with those protesting bigotry like embattled San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
History will one-day view Kaepernick in a positive light.
Although football fans the world over hate Kaepernick, his protest of the national anthem has proven his point that African-Americans face injustice throughout this country from police to regular citizens.
Never has the reality of racism been so apparent as it has become for the members of the Beaumont Bulls little league football team out of Texas.
According to the Beaumont Enterprise, “The Beaumont Bulls senior league football team, which became ensnarled in a high-profile controversy after players kneeled during the national anthem before games, has ended its season early amid disagreement between the parents, coaches and organizational leadership.
“Bulls president Senterria Anderson, whose son is on the team, said the team disbanded because several players quit, leaving the Bulls without enough players.
“April Parkson, another parent, said the board canceled the rest of the season over the protest.”
Regardless of the reasoning behind the cancellation of the Beaumont Bulls’ season, what is disturbing is the reaction from those opposed to the Bulls’ protest, which was modeled after Kaepernick’s protests.
Many players and leaders of the team, including Anderson and former Bulls head coach Rah-Rah Barber (who was removed as coach before the cancellation of the season) have received threatening phone calls, text message and social media posts because of the protest, according to the Beaumont Enterprise.
Any bigot that would threaten anyone, especially young children, is what is wrong with this country, not politically conscious activists like Kaepernick and members of the Beaumont Bulls.
Many delusional Americans believe that racism is non-existent or will disappear when the people of the Civil Rights Movement die out.
But, it is probably a guarantee that the people making these threats are not senior citizens, and probably closer to the age of the parents of players.
Whether or not the season was canceled because of the protests or because Barber singled out and pressured those who did not protest is beside the point.
Empathy should be felt because these young men lost their season.
However, even more empathy should be shown because of the threats that they have received from so-called patriots across the country.
If patriotism causes one to threaten little kids because of their protest, which is based on their experience as African-Americans, then patriots have proven how racist America is and why people like Kaepernick refuse to stand for the anthem.
If anyone can threaten the safety of a child, that person is a disgrace to America, not Kaepernick or the little Kaepernicks, the Beaumont Bulls.
Therefore, it is up to adults like Kaepernick to continue standing up (or in this case take a knee) so that America is forced to live out the true meaning of its creed and not revert to the mistakes that killed so many of our children many decades ago.
