Thread by @bryanbehar

For the millionth time, NFL players are kneeling to protest the disproportionate use of police violence against Black Americans.

They are not protesting against the flag, the anthem or the troops.

And just because a race-baiting president says it, that doesn't make it so.

In fact, I will continue to argue that exercising your non-violent right of free speech isn't un-American. It is the very essence of what it means to be an American.

Trump says there are good fine people on both side of a white nationalist rally in which a protester was mowed down

But predominantly Black players who nonviolently protest violence are sons of bitches?

Anyone who doesn't see the transparent race-baiting isn't paying attention

Whenever Trump needs a polling boost, he attacks successful people of color. Whether it's NFL players, ESPN anchors or Steph Curry.

Just because it's an effective political tactic doesn't make it right.

It's transparent fomenting of racial strife for better number. Never right!

The entire premise of this presidency has been to divide the country. Into what he perceives to be "real Americans" and the "others."

His definition of true patriotism only works if we accept his definitions. I do not

Nonviolently asking for a more just society is very American

I believe in the flag and the troops. I also believe that Americans have the right to challenge racial disparity and disproportionate police violence

I don't find those mutually exclusive. I find them part and parcel of being an active, engaged American citizen.

Sorry for this rant. But nothing enrages me more than the argument that some folks are more American than others.

Especially when those others are being diminished simply for asking American to live up to its promise and highest values.

Trump can praise dictators, turn a blind eye towards electoral meddling and crap on Gold Star families.

But if a rich Black man silently asks for fair police treatment, they are somehow against this nation?

It's bullshit. And even Trump himself knows it.

So to those who want to talk to me about this issue, do you really want to get into a discussion about the threats Trump poses to free speech? An unfettered media?

Want to talk about the severely raw deal that African-Americans have historically received at hands of police?

There is no bigger political winner on the Right than dividing American into us and them. Black and white. The powerful and the voiceless.

But that doesn't make it right. It doesn't make it morally correct. And anyone who cites poll numbers is on the wrong side of history.

We should be talking about the real assaults on our democratic norms. On our civil liberties. On free speech and free unfettered media.

Our elections were tampered by a foreign adversary, but instead you want to talk to me about football players kneeling?

There are families being born asunder at the border. There are children being stripped away from their mothers and put in actual cages!

But instead you'd rather focus on the perceived lack of patriotism of a player protesting police brutality?

Are we so far down the fucking rabbit hole that supposedly kindhearted Americans care more about players kneeling than kids being put in cages? Than cozying up to dictators? Than elections being tampered with?

Seriously? Is that really what we've become? Seriously?

Are people so desperate to feel superior to another group of people that you are truly buying into this bullshit, manufactured issue.

Trump knows this has nothing to do with the troops. He just knows that attacking rich Black guys is good for his brand.

Deplorable.

Instead of addressing the root issue of American racial injustice, Trump deflected by making this a phony litmus test on American patriotism.

I can't believe people fall for such a cynical ploy.

It may be good politics. But it's bad, bad morality.

I can’t think of any issue infuriates me more than this. It’s White people telling Black people not to exercise their free speech or ask for just treatment.

This is what it’s about. This is what it’s always been about.

God almighty, do I hate hypocrites. People who hide behind the flag. This has nothing do with patriotism. This has nothing do with the the troops.
It has everything to do with dividing Americans along racial lines.
And it always has.