America-hating Colin Kaepernick convinced Nike to drop it from one of their shoe designs. Was it an offensive racist symbol? Was it something else the company shouldnt endorse?
No. The former NFL quarterback and Nike spokesman found intolerable … the so-called Betsy Ross flag. The United States first flag. The one that symbolized the new country that
declared to the world We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal."
Kaepernicks Problem
Nikes Air Max 1 USA was meant to be released on the Fourth of July. Apparently Kaepernick had a problem with the design because when Betsy Ross created the flag the colonists held slaves. As the newly independent Americans located primarily in the South would for another 86 years until President Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation.
The Betsy Ross flag looks very similar to the modern day American flag. It has the red and white stripes. The most noticeable difference is that it has 13 white stars in a circle on a blue background instead of the 50 stars in nine rows of the modern flag. There are only 13 stars because at the time there were only 13 colonies.
Kaepernick may have had a little excuse. Or maybe he didnt. Some white supremacist groups like
Identity Evropa reportedly use the flag to
symbolize their desire to return to the good old days. The evidence for this seems sketchy. Even if they did all Kaepernick did was go along with their co-opting of the flag. He conceded a symbol of liberty to the villains.
But many patriotic groups also use the flag. It symbolizes their identification with the American revolutionaries. It is similar to their use of the
Gadsden Dont tread on me" flag which also comes from the Revolutionary War era.
Its not even certain that Ross designed the flag. She sewed flags for many occasions producing uniforms tents and flags for Continental forces. Rosss grandson William J. Canby told the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1870 that his grandmother made the first flag of the U.S. He got this information from his aunt 20 years after Ross died. He said George Washington brought Ross a drawing of the flag in 1776. She altered the design slightly by replacing the six-pointed stars with five-pointed ones.
The Irony
Kaepernicks ill-directed protest gets worse. First if she did sew the flag Ross didnt support slavery. She was a Quaker a pacifistic religious group that opposed slavery.
Second the Betsy Ross flag is often displayed at presidential inaugurations. It was prominently displayed at both of guess what? President Barack Obamas inaugurations. Does Kaepernick think he was a racist? That he identified with white supremacist groups? That he endorsed slavery because people who flew that flag had slaves?
Did he really think about this? Or was he just reacting for the cameras?
Help us champion truth freedom limited government and human dignity.
Support The Stream
More sensible Americans reacted. Arizona governor Doug Ducey
tweeted that he would be pulling financial incentives for Nike to open up a plant in that state. He
said Arizonas economy is doing just fine without Nike. We dont need to suck up to companies that consciously denigrate our nations history."
A Tennessee minor league team
drew a Betsy Ross flag on the infield before their last game. A veteran-owned company
released a Betsy Ross flag T-shirt. Meanwhile at the Betsy Ross house in Philadelphia on July 4 13 children
became citizens.
Where Will it End?
Its unfair to let white supremacists and Kaepernick dictate the meaning of the Betsy Ross flag. For 250 years everyone has viewed it as a symbol of the wonderful things about this country. To use the logic of these new haters
everything from that era must be ditched because it was during the era of slavery. Take the Founding Fathers off our currency.
Christine Flowers writing for
The Philadelphia Enquirer observes maybe we should just rip every identifying characteristic off every building thoroughfare park waterway church school and every other object that existed before the 13th Amendment was passed because it all predates the time when America eradicated its original sin."
And why stop there? Why not let the white supremacists appropriate the modern day American flag too since it existed during the Jim Crow era? Its only a later version of the Betsy Ross flag. How about the cross? Since the KKK uses the cross as one of its symbols burning it should we ban the cross? Dismantle all of Arlington National Cemetery?
There are other symbols that truly represent the hateful era of the past such as the KKKs white uniform. Let those symbols continue to represent that era not our flag.
Follow Rachel on Twitter at Rach_IC. Follow The Stream
at streamdotorg. Send tips to [email protected].
Reprinted from The Stream
