Protest at Texas State Football Game

    This Saturday at a Texas State home football game a few students decided to remain in their seats during the national anthem. To be honest, I was very surprised that this happened at Texas State. I'm not blind about the fact that we have different races at this school but the fact that their act of protest was recognized by The Statesman caught my attention. What also caught my attention was the fact that some of my acquaintances on Facebook decided to take the time out of their day to voice their disdain for this protest. To them I say, "Where is your disdain for the real problem?" 

     I did not want to talk about BLM or the protest but our conversation in class got me fired up. There are so many people complaining about the Black Lives Matter movement and taking it out of context that it is astonishing. One of the most common questions asked about is, "If black lives matter, why isn't anyone protesting black on black crime?" To those people I will say this, Black Lives Matter is about standing up against people in positions of authority, police officers, who take it upon themselves to play executioner for innocent black people. To reiterate, it is not about hating the police force or minimizing the value of anyone else's life. 

     The riots and looting that has occurred in response to these revolting executions are not a productive way to protest these crimes. But for people to get up in arms about someone not standing up for the national anthem when there are innocent people being gunned down by members of the police  force is equally revolting. Before we all start to question why people are choosing to protest by sitting down for the national anthem, we need to first exercise empathy to understand why there is a need for protest in the first place.