Most white people seem perfectly happy to live inside their little bubbles where they pretend that racism doesn’t exist. And when a black athlete or performer speaks out about racism, they absolutely lose their minds. The Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

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Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers is taking a lot of heat right now for not standing up during the national anthem and for saying that how can he stand up and support a flag of a country that continues to oppress, murder, kill black people and people of color. That’s what Kaepernick said in defense of his refusal to stand up during the national anthem during a recent preseason NFL game.

Kaepernick is absolutely right but here’s the problem. The white NFL fans out there are absolutely losing their shit right now because they don’t want to hear anything political from a quarterback, from a black athlete, from somebody who, you know what> Maybe instead of just throwing a ball, maybe they want to have opinions on the news of the day. They do have opinions. They go out there and vote. They see what’s happening, they watch the news. They’re just as important to the political conversation as anyone else in this country.

White people absolutely lose their minds when they hear a prominent black athlete, black performer, anyone in that kind of situations stand up and say, “Listen. Racism is real. It’s happening. I’ve seen it. This country needs to change.” They don’t want to hear that. White people want to live in their little secluded bubbles and assume that everything outside that bubble is just as wonderful as it is on the inside. They don’t want to pay attention to the black people getting mowed down by police officers in the street. There’s always some kind of justification like, “Oh, well he was running at the police officer.” “Oh, well they thought he had a gun.” There is no excuse. Stop trying to rationalize it and justify it. There is inherent in police forces sometimes. You could probably find that in any profession at this point.

Don’t attack a man like Colin Kaepernick or a performer like Beyonce Knowles when they stand up and point this out. It needs to be pointed out. You don’t see this huge backlash when white celebrities like George Clooney or Leonardo DiCaprio get out there and start voting for Hillary or the need to address climate change. But a black person stands and has an intelligent, important political decision, and white people absolutely lose their damn minds. All they want to say is, “You know what? Just shut up and throw the ball. Do your little trained circus tricks for us.” That’s the problem with racism in America today.