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Black Soldiers Are Black First And Foremost
For Lt. Caron Nazario, a military uniform and his service offered no protection from Virginia police
Police brutality is a blight on America. As the country processes the outcome of the Derek Chauvin trial, and protests the killing of Daunte Wright and Ma’ Khia Bryant, American society’s crimes against Black people are an increasingly heavy burden for us to carry. It’s why the CDC director declared racism a serious public health threat as we probably rolled our eyes in disgust and whispered, “Yeah, no shit.”
After Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem in the 2016 football season and launched a silent and personal protest against police brutality, White people, to the surprise of no one, were irrationally angry. It seemed to matter very little that the idea for kneeling came courtesy of a military veteran. White folks’ cries of “military disrespect” and “not supporting the troops’’ made it clear Kap’s greatest faux pas wasn’t his protest but the (mis)interpretation that he disrespected a group who “died for our freedoms.” It’s interesting to juxtapose those reactions with the ones after two Virginia police officers assaulted a military veteran on camera.
When Nike released its pro-Kaepernick ad in 2018, White people were all too happy to…
