This blog was originally a response to a Facebook post suggesting that because Colin Kaepernick was raised by White parents (he is adopted), he suffers from white privilege, along with a photo showing Kaep in a clearly expensive suit, standing next to a clearly expensive sports car, and in front of a mansion, suggesting being Black (he is half Black) hasn’t hurt him at all.

Whatever else one can say about Colin Kaepernick, his being raised by White parents has zero to do with systemic racism or how he was treated once outside the home. I grew up with a few kids of mixed heritage and/or Black kids raised by White parents. They were often treated worse than the “normal” Black kids, in a “well, don’t you think you are better than you are” kind of way. It doesn’t even speak to his treatment within his neighborhood. A meme is currently making the rounds; a White woman married to a Black man and with mixed kids shared a letter she received from her HOA, asking her to keep husband and kids under control, like they are animals to be leashed. And this is 2020.

Kaep could still have been called the “N” word. He could still have felt the microaggression of stepping into an elevator with one White woman and seeing her take a not-so-subtle tighter grip of her handbag–because naturally she will be mugged in the middle of the day in an office elevator. Or any other number of overt or subtle acts of racism, no matter his riches or (brief) success.

Look, I get many people think the flag is equated with the military (it isn’t). I get that lots of people (and not just conservatives) are uncomfortable with that particular form of protest (more on that below). I get that many people believe that celebrities of any ilk should just shut their mouths and do their jobs. Here is my response on all that:

Have none of you ever defended someone being picked on? Stepped up to a school-yard bully? A child of yours? A spouse? A co-worker? Used social media to defend a complete stranger, because while they did something you did not entirely support, they did it in the name of something you do support? How many of you have used your social media to post political memes or comments? Would you stop doing if your readership grew, if your message would get to greater people, or would you be more likely to use your words (or someone else’s) for what you believe is the greater good? Has anyone ever asked you to stop posting on your own account, because nobody cares about your opinion? (I had that happen to me!) Has anyone ever told you to just go back to your job teaching, or construction, or retail or whatever, because your job doesn’t make you fit to speak? As Americans, don’t we all, in point of fact, have a voice and the right to use it? What makes celebrities less special or less worth of their First Amendment rights? Those with the most influential voices should totally use their voice for “good” and that isn’t just defined as your own side. Or is it not celebrities in general, but only liberal ones? How many of you have criticized Hollywood celebrities like Clint Eastwood, James Woods, Jon Voight; singers like Gene Simmons, Ted Nugent, Kid Rock; athletes like Curt Schilling, Peyton Manning, Dennis Rodman?

I said above that many don’t like the flag being used in protest. Which raises what they are okay with. Because they also don’t want marches. They don’t want people blocking their way to work, to the store, their way to jog; they don’t want their way of life blocked. They don’t want famous people to leverage their voice. And God knows, the ballot box hasn’t worked and many conservatives don’t want “activist” legislation or SCOTUS decisions, either. So what exactly are Black activists and those that support them supposed to do? Accept their lot? And, is that the point?