“Amanda, what are your thoughts on kneeling and the National Anthem…are you going to blog about it?”
This is the thing: no blog, social media post, quote, essay or argument will change someone else’s opinion. And honestly, that is okay. People are entitled to believe what THEY believe. Whether we like it or not.
What we need is this: conversation. Because conversation leads to understanding.
If you don’t understand why people are kneeling during the National Anthem…ask. Because you will probably find out that it has nothing to do with our military who risk their lives for us…or our actual flag. It goes much deeper than that.
If you don’t understand why people continue to stand during the National Anthem…ask. Because you will probably find out that they are not standing up AGAINST anyone else…but they’re standing up for what the flag means to them. What this country means to them.
This whole situation is like an onion…there are so many layers to it…peel one back, there is another issue. At the core…is racism.
I recently overheard someone say “I am so sick and tired of hearing about racism!” Hmm. If you’re sick and tired of hearing about racism…imagine how tired some people are of experiencing it.
I am a white woman. I have never experienced any direct racism. Sexism, yes. But not racism.
My husband has.
My close friends have.
Just because it hasn’t happened to YOU…does not mean it doesn’t happen.
Racism is everywhere. It is a DAILY thing.
We all have to open our eyes. Take the rose-colored glasses off. Remove the blinders. Let’s take a 360 degree look around us…not just what’s happening in “our world.”
My hope is before we take to social media to bash the “other side,” we start having conversations first. Get a little understanding of why your neighbor believes in what they believe in. I guarantee it will give you a new perspective.
It’s about respect.
It’s about empathy.
It’s about compassion.
We don’t all have to be right.
But it would be nice if we were all understood.
It’s hard to believe you haven’t experienced racism. Being white doesn’t make you immune from it. We all have prejudices and preferences and make judgements based on stereotypes because stereotypes aren’t wrong they represent the statiscal norm. And this all falls in the ….so what category. We all faxe it. Rbete are lots of laws protecribg agai st and promoting fair hiring by for example providing ADVANTAGES to minority groups. After decades now why isnt this now called reverse discrimatuon..leading to racism. What we are sick of is the cry of racism being an excuse for a person or group who fits one of the oppressed identity groups not doing as well. As Ben Shapiro days shoe me@ Show me the correlation! And I will fight against thst racism.
Hello,
My name is Abby Lashbrook and I am a senior at Hudson High School. I work on our high school newspaper and for our October issue we are having a feature page on race. I loved this response on the question, “Amanda, what are your thoughts on kneeling and the National Anthem.” I was wondering if I could include a quote or an excerpt from your response and also a photo on my page? I think this would be very beneficial for our readers to see such an influential persons point of view. Thank you so much for your time. I hope to hear from you soon. Please contact me by email at [email protected].