Nike’s new ad is based around Colin Kaepernick, and how he knelled during the national anthem, that’s played before football games,s to protest racial injustices in our society, but specifically the police brutality towards against black people. Nike’s statement made a huge impact in both negative and positive manners, despite all the burning of already bought items as backlash, sales have gone up 31% since the ad was published according to Time Magazine. Kaepernick played for the 49ers as their quarterback, they signed a contract having him play for them in 2011. Then on September 5 of 2018, Nike stepped up to present an ad with his face on it,depicting a very strong statement, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything,” and that is exactly what Kaepernick did. After several accounts of kneeling, he was not allowed to renew his contract with the NFL team and became a free agent.
Kaepernick did not deserve to be fired for protesting, especially because it was something that he firmly believed needed to be challenged and changed. It was in his every right as an American to kneel for the anthem, as its a peaceful protest.According to the Bill of Rights under the first Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” To take away people’s right to speak is taking away their say in society, taking away their chance to help change what they believe to be wrong. It’s understandable for people to get frustrated, seeing a face of a person they think disrespected our country as a whole, but kneeling because of injustices and kneeling to dishonor the flag are two very different actions. The flag is a symbolic item meant to represent our amendments and our freedom. But if our ‘free’ country is the root of so many problems for innocent people just because of their skin color, then we have a problem. That is no longer called freedom when people are put in danger because of stereotypes. America was built up on the idea of every person is equal, and Kaepernick was representing the following words by Thomas Jefferson, himself.
Backlash towards the ad came in like a tsunami wave, with many customers posting videos of burning all their Nike products, specifically shoes, and cutting the Nike swoosh off their socks. Ex-customers stormed twitter with all their thoughts and concerns, while others promoted the ad and were overjoyed at the strong political stance Nike was taking. In reality, it is completely up a person whether they want to protest their beliefs or not and should not receive backlash for such actions.
