On the Betsy Ross flag and Nike
A good take on the topic is this National Review article by Jonah Goldberg, from which I’ll quote liberally:
Nike was all set to release a line of sneakers for the Fourth of July featuring the original Betsy Ross American flag with 13 stars in a circle.
According to reports, Kaepernick took offense because a handful of extremist groups like to brandish the original American flag to make some sort of point about something no one should care about. (I gather it has something to do with how this was “their” country before the federal government was formed. Or maybe, like many gibbons, they just like the sparkly stars and bright colors.)
The thing is, most Americans — and when I say most, I mean, like, nearly all of them — had no idea white supremacists were doing this. In countless news stories, reporters contacted experts who either didn’t know about it or were only vaguely aware that this is one of the things these groups like to wear as capes during dress-up time…
…[I]t’s true that if you search through enough old photos of Klan rallies and neo-Nazi pageants, you can spot a Betsy Ross flag from time to time.
Do you know what else you can probably spot if you look long and hard enough? Nike sneakers. Does that make Nikes symbols of white supremacy?
Of course not…
Nike followed the advice of a man whose business model is to stir grievance and controversy for its own sake. Suddenly, millions of people who once thought the Betsy Ross flag was just an admirable bit of Americana now associate it with hate groups. Worse, other entirely decent and patriotic Americans will now likely start brandishing the flag to offend people who, until recently, had no idea some hate groups adopted the flag in the first place.
The ranks of the perpetually offended will misread this trolling-to-own-the-libs effort as an endorsement of hate speech, and the culture war will have yet another idiotic fight on its hands, and a symbol of the country’s founding that should be a uniting image for all Americans will now be reduced to a weapon in that war.
The left sees that as a feature, not a bug.
This sort of thing has been going on for a long time, step by step by step. There are many who toil in the fields of taking completely innocuous and even laudable portions of American history and making them seem something vile and repulsive, and this is just one tiny chapter—maybe one tiny paragraph, or one tiny sentence—in that lengthy process.
What is a somewhat recent development is the willing acquiescence and cooperation of mainstream (or formerly mainstream) corporate entities such as Nike. I think, actually, it’s a business decision by Nike. They have decided they’ll gain more business by going along with Kaepernik than they would gain by opposing him, and so they are all in.
[NOTE: See also this.]
Of course the photos of 0’s inauguration featuring the Betsy Ross flag must prove that 0 was a racist white supremacist. His record of achievement for blacks in the US only augment the proof.
See I can play ‘spot the racist’ too.
How does a marginally talented ‘never was’ still get this much media oxygen?
I believe Nike has chosen poorly. Only time will tell, but I think we’ll know one way or the other.
And if I was sitting on some venture capital, I’d be printing a whole bunch of merchandise with that flag all over it…selling like hotcakes I tells ya!
I’d also be dumping my Nike stock if I had any that I knew of.
So, does that mean that it isn’t the shareholders, it isn’t Nike management who’s in charge of the corporation, it’s really Colin Kaepernick who’s in charge of Nike?
He’s the guy behind the curtain, now stepping “out of the shadows” to claim his power, and the accolades he deserves?
I had been running in Nike shoes since the late 1980s. No more Nike anything. Get Woke. Go Broke. Colin’s a Joke.
Mike Doran tweets: https://mobile.twitter.com/Doranimated/status/1147226301033603072
** Ted Cruz respectfully urged Colin Kaepernick, and by extension the rest of us, to read Frederick Douglass’s speech in its entirety – his “mighty and historic speech.” Look how a NYT reporter and member of its editorial board responds to Cruz. **
Doran then attaches a paste of the tweet from Mara Gay aimed at Sen. Cruz: ** Frederick Douglass is an American hero, and his name has no business in your mouth. **
What the actual fuck? This is where we are?
Nike, Gillette, and now, to follow, an ignorant out-of-context quotation from Frederick Douglass designed to incite racial animosity. (I’m giving Kaepernick the benefit of the doubt here; I assume he just pulled that quote from somewhere and has never read the whole speech.)
“What is a somewhat recent development is the willing acquiescence and cooperation of mainstream (or formerly mainstream) corporate entities such as Nike. I think, actually, it’s a business decision by Nike. They have decided they’ll gain more business by going along with Kaepernik than they would gain by opposing him, and so they are all in.”
Quite true.
There are ideological reasons, also. See Kevin Williamson’s essay from 2017, “Why Corporate Leaders Became Progressive Activists”, at: https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/03/corporate-leaders-progressive-activists/
No doubt if Frederick Douglass was alive today he’d be running around in Nike Betsy Ross sneakers.
John G. – I’ve already seen an ad for some tshirts with the flags – limited edition w/r/t time to order and shipping starts after that date. Smart move – they can start printing and update the final count at the end. The group also has a shirt that is “Just Stand” tag line. The company is Nine Line Apparel and is veteran run. None Line refers to a med vac request.
I’ve saved the F. Douglass speech to a pdf file – it would have printed out at 17 pages! Evening reading…
Truly effete and decadent as many of us are, we are descending into madness.
Here for your edification is piece of evidence #1, that PETA has sent a letter of protest to an Idaho Mayor, demanding that the offensive name of a road be changed.
The name of the road? “Chicken Dinner Road.”
To quote from the letter from PETA, “Just like dogs, cats, and human beings, chickens feel pain and fear and value their own lives,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in the letter.
She wants the mayor to change the name of the road to “one that celebrates chickens as individuals, not as beings to kill, chop up, and label as ‘dinner.’”
Now we know, Chickens “value their own lives,” and we are to “celebrate chickens as individuals.”
Meanwhile, in other news, since the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, an estimated 60 million babies have been aborted in this country.
Apparently those babies, although capable of feeling pain and reacting to stimuli at a few weeks after conception, were not developed enough yet so that their lives could and should be “valued” and, so, they were not to be allowed to be born in order that–just as chickens do, they, too, could “celebrate themselves as individuals.”
See https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/peta-finds-name-of-rural-road-in-idaho-distasteful-asks-for-change/ar-AADTTen?ocid=spartanntp
sdferr:
Yes, this is where we are.
And that’s one of the only good things about Twitter: it reveals the once-secret thoughts of those in the MSM who used to profess to be neutral and objective and non-partisan.
It makes it easier to see what’s going on with them.
The Babylon Bee pounces again;
“Nike Releases Bernie Sanders Signature Shoe That Helps You Survive Under Socialism” The “Air Marx”
https://babylonbee.com/news/nike-releases-new-patriotic-bernie-sanders-signature-shoe
And there is another one
“Nike Execs Stop Breathing After Kaepernick Points Out Racists In 18th Century Also Breathed”
Kaepernick doesn’t look very African American to me except for a bit darker skin. He was also adopted by whites. Is he suffering from white guilt?
Is he suffering from white guilt?
No, he’s a self-aggrandizing prick, and his mother and father say they’re ‘supportive’. He didn’t grow up in Detroit. He grew up around Appleton, Wisconsin and Modesto, California.
expat…no he’s suffering from a radical black muslim BLM girlfriend.
But that has never stopped him from cashing his checks. He likes that two-way street of “black/white privilege.” (He learned it from the former Oval Office occupant)
Just order my Betsy Ross T Shirt from Amazon.
They have decided they’ll gain more business by going along with Kaepernik than they would gain by opposing him, and so they are all in.”
No, I think they decided that pandering to the left would keep those same lefties from complaining about their Asian sweat shops.
Whatever Nike’s rationale, they are a perfect example of Lenin’s assertion; “the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we’ll hang them…”
Snow on Pine:
I have some ideas.
How about “Chicken Crossroads.” As in “why did the chicken cross the road?”
Or perhaps “Chicken Little Road.” Chicken Little was a real individual.
But if you want rugged individualism, this one would be even better: “Little Red Hen Road.”
Careful with all those Betsy Ross shirts and sneakers; you might trigger a Klantifa attack.
https://babylonbee.com/news/antifa-shatters-mirror-in-attempt-to-punch-nazi
The genesis of Williamson’s post is a different flag, but his conclusions are relevant to the Kaepernick Krisis.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/one-flag-is-enough/
Mike Pence said no. Not that anybody asked him, really.
Nobody asked you either Mr. Williamson, but we still have to hear from you. Mr. Pence is a federal official of some prominence and the former Governor of Indiana. You, on the other hand are paid an obscene salary by a philanthropic concern to write obnoxious topical commentary. (IRS 990 forms reveal that in some years Mr. Lowry was misappropriating donor dollars to such a degree that he himself and Mr. Williamson were receiving salaries in excess of $200,000 a year. If you fancy market rates are to pay these two what the president of a small corporation or what a medical specialist earns, I’m vending bridges and I want you as a customer).
NeverTrumpers delenda est.
I don’t buy the “business decision” spin. They invested in this shoe line — design, marketing, production — only to capitulate to a reactionary clown who has no fiduciary duty to the stockholders and should not, in fact, make business decisions like this.
It’s like the SJW mob is running the show now.
It’s like the SJW mob is running the show now.
The film critic Michael Medved has been saying for 20-odd years now that considerations which do not show up in balance sheets and income statements – like peer respect – are big motivators in media. It looks like that mentality has sped to other industries that produce products which have an aesthetic dimension and a quality that used to be called ‘snob appeal’. And that the executives in said industries have a mentality that used to be limited to faculty and the media. Thanks millennials.
Calling it a “business decision” does not imply it’s smart — but that’s the impression they want to leave with the public.
It’s also a “business decision” when globalist corporate leadership sees no downside to telling Americans “we don’t care about things you care about”.
antifa-shatters-mirror-in-attempt-to-punch-nazi
“Betsy Ross shirts and sneakers; you might trigger a Klantifa”
Ah, the socialist, communist, fascist, KKK axis. #HateLovesAbortion
That, and bright red colored pro-American hats are known to trigger bullies.
Imagine if Americans had kneeled. Kneeled to involuntary exploitation. Kneeled to redistributive change. Kneeled to diversity. Kneeled to political congruence. Just imagine.
n.n
John Lennon had a song about that.
Liz on July 5, 2019 at 5:07 pm said:
John G. – I’ve already seen an ad for some tshirts with the flags – limited edition w/r/t time to order and shipping starts after that date. Smart move – they can start printing and update the final count at the end. The group also has a shirt that is “Just Stand” tag line. The company is Nine Line Apparel and is veteran run.
* * *
This one:
https://www.winknews.com/2019/07/03/clothing-company-releases-betsy-ross-flag-t-shirt-amid-nike-controversy/
om, n.n:
Loki had a speech about kneeling, too. It didn’t go well for him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ8tpYr_cJo
Ordered my Betsy Ross t-shirt last night for Rangerup.com.