I was going to write a piece about the woes Kentucky Basketball team is going through this season, but then the players kneeled during the national anthem before the Florida game. All heck broke loose with the fan base(mostly white) and changed the course of this write up.
I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky and spent my first 18 years of my life in that town. It's a University town but also a town filled with racist images. The confederate soldier statue downtown near City Hall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hunt_Morgan_Memorial, the backward values of blacks being subservient to whites. The worship of a racist long time head coach(Adolph Rupp), a racist state song, getting a high achievement award(being a Kentucky Colonel), and other racist images. These things you can still see all over the South, but I'm talking about the state where I grew up. The streets named after famous horses like Man O'War which I think is a good thing. It is a horse state, a tobacco state, a marijuana growing state(the raids on farms by the DEA every summer when I was a kid), and a basketball loving state. It is also a racist state and a slave state from the Civil War. It claims to be neutral but then why was crossing the river into Ohio considered free for black folks? Neutral state my foot!!!!!!!!!! It is also a Red state politically, though it was Blue when I grew up there. So when the backlash came to the Kentucky Men's Basketball team for kneeling during the National Anthem, I was not surprised at all.
Racist people always try to find a different narrative of a protest when it offends their sensibilities. The players protest had nothing to do with the military. The players were offended by the events at the Capitol building on January 6th,2021(my brother's birthday by the way). He'll certainly remember this one forever!!!!!!!!! They are also offended by the cops freely killing unarmed black men, choking them out with leg on the neck, cops breaking into the wrong apartment and killing Breonna Taylor. The fact that nothing happened to the cops in that situation(it happened in...oh yeah Louisville, KENTUCKY!!!!), came to a head for the players. They decided to peacefully protest about all of these things. It's funny these racist Kentucky fans have done NOTHING nor said anything to condemn the goings on at the Capitol in the Rotunda. This does not surprise me either when you get brainwashed by an idiot sitting in the White House. So the reaction of the Kentucky fans to this does not disappoint me, it's something I expected and that is the tragedy here.
I am a United States Army Veteran who joined the military out of my home state of Kentucky. I pledged to fight against all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC!!!!!!!!! DOMESTIC FOLKS!!!!!!! I saluted the flag but never worshipped the flag. Saluting the flag was part of my job. MY JOB!!!!!!!! I did it to the best of my ability and was honorably discharged. So anyone who wants to try and insult me because I don't wrap myself around the flag, don't even try it. I fought for the right of Americans to do as they please when the National Anthem is played. Some folks kneel, some folks stand, some folks hold their hand on their heart, some folks sit(like I do). I fought for the right of Americans to do these things. It's not the same for everyone. Everyone does not see the flag the same as you do. This is supposed to be a country that celebrates our differences, not to be zombies, robots, and react the same way. Every human being should be on the Kentucky players side because they knelt as a protest for human rights. Not just for them but for EVERYONE!!!!!! Change makes people uncomfortable, that's what it's supposed to do. Change upsets people, it does not ever go smoothly. The players wanted attention to their plight especially the black players, who like me could get snuffed out anytime by cops, or right wing nut job just for the color of our skin.
If you're a true American you first listen to them, and then support them to try and make change. Or maybe you don't want change? Or you're comfortable being racist and brainwashed to worship a flag which is a piece of cloth? Is the flag a symbol to some? Of course it is but it is not something to be worshipped. I won't go too much into the racist National Anthem, you might check the third verse. Or why the racist Francis Scott Key wrote it in the first place?
I'm glad I grew up in Kentucky because it taught me how to identify what a racist is. Oh and I had plenty of opportunity growing up there. So don't get me wrong I don't regret growing up there, it taught me not to be naive about white people. I can tell which ones are genuine and which ones are avowed racists. Kentucky's fan base gets upset when someone criticizes the players game and how they are playing it. Right now though they are criticizing the players for a PEACEFUL protest, and are upset at the pushback from right minded people. Back to my original question? After reading this and seeing how Kentuckians in general are reacting should answer that question. And rather easily.
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