Still
Searching for Free in Freedom
The Bill of Rights was constructed in 1791 to outline the
basic rights of citizens in the Constitution of the newly freed United States
of America. This freedom came after many years of protest towards British
Parliament and a war fought by Americans and their slaves against British
troops to ensure freedom of the country. The reason I say country instead of
citizens is because although slaves were placed on the same battle field with
people they had to call master, when the war was over these new found freedoms
placed in the Bill of Rights did not apply to them. If you want to take an extremist
point of view parts of it still do not pertain to their descendants. The very
first amendment of the Constitution has been in constant conversation over the
past year and the language and times in which “But they have the 1st
amendment right” has been interesting. Black athletes and commentators have
been under fire from sports organizations all the way up to the President of
the United States for using their first amendment right to speak out against
racial injustice against black and brown people by protesting during the
National Anthem. These athletes are not causing a ruckus or bothering anyone,
but are simply taking a knee with everyone’s attention focused on one thing to
bring attention to an important social issue in our country. These protests
have been met with a ton of backlash including President Trump stating that the
owners should get rid of any “son of a bitch” that disrespects the flag. This
stance was recently doubled down upon after his conversation with Cowboys owner
Jerry Jones leading to an announcement that he would cut ties with any player
that took a knee from this point on. The hypocrisy of this “freedom” that is
being stripped from black athletes that are being told to stick to sports was
championed by our President as well when speaking on the white nationalists in
Charlottesville. When asked previously about the Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville who
destroyed a city, injured numerous people and killing one, President Trump
referred to them as very fine people exercising their rights. This weekend
these same protestors returned to Charlottesville after not being denounced by
the leader of the free world because his ideology is much like theirs as they
believe they are fine people exercising their rights. When called out for his
racial shortcomings by ESPN commentator Jemele Hill the White House and Donald
Trump called for her job, all but proving her point. The Constitution was
crafted years ago to protect the citizen of the free United States, yet sadly
in 2017 a whole two hundred twenty eight years later, black and brown citizens
are still searching for the freedoms outlined in it.
Word Count: 472
On My Honor: Bryce Hayes
I agree very much so that all off these athletes have rights to the 1st Amendment but are still not being able to display this right on an everyday basis. Every time these black athletes have tried to resolve an issue through their own personal words, their ideas have either been overlooked or taken as a joke. These athletes have to keep their ideas continuously circulating so that they are not taken advantage of and have their thoughts completely go to waste. These ideas can go to waste due to the fact that those who are causing all of the commotion feel a sense of power once they are not constantly feeling threatened by otherness. Jemelle Hill encountered a similar situation, but she might have approached it the wrong way. Hill released some comments where she took some hard shots at both Jerry Jones as well as Donald Trump. The reason why this may not have been the correct way to handle this for Hill is due to the fact that her personal words may have made ESPN look bad as a whole.
ReplyDelete