Comments

@famousone I admire your service to the American armed forces, I really do. But you do realize that you serve for an organization the ROUTINELY judges regimes from other eras by modern sensibilities and sends in troops to maintain their present day opinion of what peace should be? My point is that the meme positions things as though Kaepernick’s objection was to Betsy Ross and her works, which I don’t think is why he’s upset, and tries to make it seem like he’s stupid or misguided or something. Look, I actually kind of liked the shoes and understood what Nike was trying to do. I just don’t like that this meme seems to be missing the point about Kaepernick’s stance - whether you agree with him or not - and what he was actually trying to make a statement about.

Also, the U.S. Flag code states: ‘The flag should never be used for any advertising purpose, nor embroidered on cushions or handkerchiefs, printed on paper napkins or boxes, nor used as any portion of a costume.’ It also says ‘The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.’ So, technically, the flag probably shouldn’t be put on shoes (merchandise) that touch the ground all day long then advertised to get people to buy them.

The objection is not to Betsy Ross or her works. The objection is to a flag created at a time when ‘independence’ only meant independence for a select subset of the population. Keep in mind women couldn’t vote in 1776 and even the Irish were considered minorities then. So it wasn’t really a time of ‘freedom for all’. Just ‘freedom for some’. Which I think is where I think the issue of using this particular flag on a shoe comes about.