This week encourages too many people to display both their ignorance of American history and their naked narcissism. It's a remarkable pathology to observe.
A current leader in the narcissism sweepstakes, a former athlete who "lost everything" by having to accept $15 million to serve as a spokesman for
“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 4, 2019
- Frederick Douglass pic.twitter.com/IWLujGCJHn
Yeah, you maybe should have read the entire speech. Here's the part that the sneaker company employee left out:
Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain.I would note the date. The speech was made 11 years before emancipation. Everything Douglass said about the Declaration was accurate and worked to enable freedom.
I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from ‘the Declaration of Independence,’ the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.
- Frederick Douglass, as delivered on July 5, 1852, in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York, addressing the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society
Speaking of slavery, here's a factory where the workers make $9.30 a day and work up to 72 hours a week.
Yeah, they make Nike sneakers.