In response to Kate Upton’s recent IG post
As a first generation American I am a gung-ho, full-on, super patriot. I believe that America is the greatest country on the planet and our best values of equality for everyone that were written at the inception of this country will make the planet a better place. A true patriot will know this and not be in denial about the problems that these protests are addressing. A true patriot will acknowledge that there's a problem and do everything in his or her power to rectify it as soon as possible so that the dream America promises stands true undoubtedly for everyone.
The people mad at Colin Kaepernick’s actions sound like the execs in tobacco companies in denial about the truth that their product causes cancer. The only reason we are still talking about this sixty years after the Civil Rights movement is because these so called patriots are pretending that institutional racism within the police force is not a reality. It is. Every single independent investigation into an American police force across the country comes back with evidence of systematic racism. And this needs to be protested. If you’re a true patriot then you should be appalled because it’s nothing less than Americas reputation at stake.
Nobody is protesting the hundreds of thousands police officers keeping us safe but rather the injustices within the system that cannot be ignored because they do bring down the entire institution. As Russell Simmons writes in his open letter, “There is never a convenient time to protest.” http://theundefeated.com/features/russell-simmons-there-is-never-a-convenient-time-to-protest/ Instead of complaining about the timing of these protests, why don’t we address and fix the problem so that you don’t have to complain about the timing of a protester’s same exact protest in another sixty years?
What a beautiful day it would be when an athlete protests police brutality and everybody can laugh together and say “What are you talking about? There hasn't been an unarmed black man shot in twenty years.” But as of today we are far from that ideal. A true patriot will not ignore the consistently proven institutional racism committed against an entire cross-section of our communities by a police sworn to protect all Americans. A true patriot will stand up or down in protest to make the change towards a more civilized community where racism is not accepted and where justice is truly blind.
Sincerely,
Aleks Rastovic
In honor of the memory of those who died for this country, as true patriots, it is our duty to stand up to tyranny wherever it is.
