BY JEFFREY BULLS

Earlier this week, Nike released a commemorative shoe for Independence Day that adorned the Betsy Ross flag. Which was the original flag of this country after the US won the Revolutionary War, and thus it's freedom from British Rule.

Upon the release of the shoe, Colin Kaepernick advised brass at Nike that, given the ideals at the time, celebrating that particular time period may not be the best gesture towards a particular customer base. That being black people, of whom were enslaved during this period of time.

Nike, listening to one of it's brand ambassadors shouldn't be a big deal at all. Kaep rightly, gave them another perspective on that flag.

The Betsy Ross flag has 13 stars on it.....representing the original colonies.

Guess what those colonies biggest claim to fame was? Slave labor. That flag may represent "freedom" to white people.

Definitely not its black citizens....of whom weren't even a whole person under it. Blacks were considered three-fifths of a person... for census purposes. 1776 wasn't exactly a year of celebration.... for us anyhow.

Controversy? Nah.

Just call it what it is.

Same thing that put Trump in the White House.

Bigotry.

This country has been whitesplaining & coddling non-black people since its inception. Diminishing their selfishness & xenophobia into nice, neat, racially tinged epitaphs like "economic anxiety."

Same bigotry that has more brown people in cages at the border as we speak.

No more. Stop it.

The stuff y'all celebrate like Independence Day... The songs you sing like The Star-Spangled Banner....

The stuff you celebrate has someone else's pain & blood attached to it.

We're not brushing it under the rug anymore.

To hell with you being uncomfortable.

....and save the patriotic bs.

We're MORE patriotic than anybody on this damn soil. Black people have been enlisting & fighting for this country, while enslaved no less & otherwise. Came home from wars & were lynched IN THE SAME UNIFORM you say you celebrate. Men who upheld the ideals you say you stand for.

We'll start pledging allegiance to that flag when this republic starts pledging allegiance to us.....and not just ideally.