The Atlantic

Why Cede the Flag to Trump?

Colin Kaepernick and other athletes have a better claim on the United States’s symbols and their meaning.
Source: Andrew Boyers / Reuters

President Trump apparently slept on it overnight and woke up early on Sunday morning thinking: “Yes, I will fight a cultural war against black athletes.”

In two Sunday morning tweets, Trump urged a boycott of the National Football League until owners punished players who refused to stand for the national anthem, in protest of police brutality and racial injustice—capping a weekend of taunting and trash-talking that began at his Alabama rally Friday night. He’s now created a situation in which it will seem almost unmanly for to take a knee during the anthem. If they stand for the anthem, they will seem to do so at Trump’s command. How can they resist?

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