I Will Not Stand
The United States flag has been catching fire with a debate that has split the country in half. The two opposing sides of whether to stand for unity or unite to oppose oppression that society has contradict its flag's mission of equality. There has been a growing movement of people taking a "sit" from saluting traditional commodity the country that is believe to be equality. However, there has been rise of police brutality and gun violence in recent years that has resulted in dramatic life threatening events. It may seem that these issues came at an instant but it was always occurred. There are just more cameras surrounding it. Coincidently, the dramatic events has involved people of color, LGBT community and women to lose their lives. The peaceful protests to not support a flag that only unites those who are not in marginalized groups of people against oppression started by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media." It would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder," the NFL player continued.
Leilani Thomas, a high school freshman from California, was recently one of the growing many participants to sit
during the Pledge of Allegiance. The fourteen year old who identifies as with the indigenous Pomo tribe in Northern
California, has protested the pledge since she was in second grade. The persistence of her protest is due to America’s
violent history with indigenous communities, Sacramento news station KXTV reports. Unfortunately, one of her
teachers told her she didn’t have a choice to protest and lowered her grade to a C-. Thomas says [her teacher]
told her she was being disrespectful and Thomas was pretty mad. Leilani told KXTV, “she was being disrespectful to
me also, saying I was making bad choices, and I don’t have the choice to sit during the pledge.” Since teachers do
make an impact on students, taking away the right of the amendment of free speech about social change is very disarming. Leilani told NBC that standing doesn’t feel right to her. "I feel like it's a lie to me in, like, what they did to my people," she told the news station. "Notably here, but around the country. It's still going on to this day." She's making references towards from people like Colin Kaepernick, USA soccer star Megan Rapinoe and students in schools basketball and football team around the country. People around the country including Leilani's school superintendent believes that students “have the same rights when they walk into the schoolhouse as anybody else does.” The issue resulted to Leilani beng transferred to another class. Hopefully even more people will come forward with words and actions to make people think of a different perspective about the flag. And it can influence on how they treat people as a whole will support what's more patriotic to them.
