DiscussMormonism.com

In case you haven't been following, Drew Brees said in an interview last week that he'll never be ok with disrespecting the flag. After getting pummeled with appropriate criticism for his ignorant comments, he apologized, and actually articulated the problem really well:

Drew Brees wrote:Through my ongoing conversations with friends, teammates, and leaders in the black community, I realize this is not an issue about the American flag. It has never been. We can no longer use the flag to turn people away or distract them from the real issues that face our black communities. We did this back in 2017, and regretfully I brought it back with my comments this week. We must stop talking about the flag and shift our attention to the real issues of systemic racial injustice, economic oppression, police brutality, and judicial & prison reform. We are at a critical juncture in our nation's history! If not now, then when? We as a white community need to listen and learn from the pain and suffering of our black communities. We must acknowledge the problems, identify the solutions, and then put this into action. The black community cannot do it alone. This will require all of us.

Brees was one of the people not really paying attention and was easily persuaded to make the issue about the flag and the military, which was what Trump decided to superimpose over the protests. Brees was one of the assholes who decided to ignore what the protests were about and make it about something else at Trump's request.

Kap and the other players protesting never said anything about the flag. They were the ones protesting; they should know what it was about. If you didn't listen to them, you're an asshole trying to deflect.

But now we have the Brees example, where we find out that maybe some of the people who took up the flag/military argument just weren't smart enough or paying enough attention to realize they were sucked into a false narrative. Will Brees influence others in the same way?

Somehow, I doubt it. If you're an asshole set on being an asshole, you will definitely keep making this about patriotism and ignoring systemic injustice.

But good for Brees, at least. I'm not a big fan of the guy, but I like that he's making an effort to listen. Shows character.

Yeah, I don't think it will help either. Unless you also happen to fall in the white QB leading a group of angry African American teammates demographic, you'll probably still think kneeling during the anthem was about the f u c king flag if that's what you thought before George Floyd's death.