He Called Society’s Bluff.

You have to protest peacefully, they said. You can’t disrupt business or traffic. No rioting or destruction of property. Stop shouting people down and wait your turn to speak. Be respectful. Don’t be disruptive. And when you can do all that we’ll listen to what you have to say and do our best to help you, they said.

So Colin called them on it.

He peacefully, non-violently, silently took a knee for the duration of one song before the game. He didn’t break anything, didn’t burn anything. He didn’t shout at, or interrupt anyone. He didn’t interfere with their ability to get to the game or watch the game. He didn’t prevent or disrupt anyone that was attempting to sign the song at the time.

When asked later why he did it, he calmly and articulately explained his reasoning, at length.

When called out for not putting his money where his mouth was, it was revealed that he had quietly been donating a vast amount of his personal income and time to charities that supported his stances on the issues he was protesting. And he continued to do so knowing he was putting his own future income from his career and endorsements at risk.

But despite doing everything exactly the way White folks have been directing People of Color to protest for years, decades, even centuries, they still lost their God-damned minds over it.

Proving that it was never about decorum or civility or methods of protest, it was only about getting them to shut up and not bother us with their suffering.

And if they were lucky enough to obtain some privilege of their own, they weren’t supposed to try and help others, they were supposed to go out there and gratefully but quietly destroy their bodies for our entertainment.