What exactly did Brees do wrong? (1 Viewer)

He (Drew) should have taken a cue from that WHO doctor and pretended not to hear the question while trying to subtly turn off his video connection so he could later claim technical difficulties. Either that or feign a heart attack.
 
The blueprint has always been there from the 60s. Did Dr. King not make progress?

I'm not telling anyone exactly what to do. I'm just pointing out that, regrettably, the flag and the anthem are quasi-religious to many. I have the same frustration about it because you can't change US foreign policy for the better because as soon as you criticize the policies someone waves the flag and makes it about the military so you run into the same roadblock. The religious or quasi-religious wars are the most vicious.

Do we want to burn down our houses to "win".

So start with police forces, city councils and prosecutors and why that is not changing. The boring stuff. Vote, mobilize, put people in office. Or try to.

Then when you find the two flavors of the corporate won't let candidates onto the ballots that will take the steps requires to enact the kind of reform and change needed at all levels, I think you will get closer to the root cause of why things don't change with police forces, courts, corporately run prison systems, schools and the way your tax dollars are collected and spent.

So that makes me a gradualist and inevitably in these times another division is between the strategic gradualists and those who just want to burn the thing down. I have no ultimate answer, it's just the pattern of history that I see...

I agree with all of those efforts. But the spark that brings awareness which brings about the political will to do those things must come from protest. And we also must remember that Dr. King understood that the only way to get the nation to see what was really going on was to make sure the world saw the violence of the protests. I know we think Dr. King was non-violent, and he was. But he knew that the police weren't. And he knew the tv cameras would be rolling at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. And when the world saw that violence, things began to change.

The flag is special to me. I also have been harassed by police. I have nephews who are teens with black skin. I have always worried when I jog around my neighborhood, day or night. This is my country, but I am not equal. What do you suggest I do, leave? Where would I go? I'm American. So, I protest. March, kneel, chant. We are comparing people's feelings about the flag with the fight regarding real life consequences of being black in this country. One is symbolic; the other very real.
 
I seriously don't understand. I've watched the interview multiple times and can't see how I would have answered differently. I'm against police brutality. I'm against bullying, in any form. I'm against social injustice. I wish everyone could just be seen as equal. I wish no one was stereotyped just because of their skin color. I don't need anyone, especially rich celebrities, to tell me what my beliefs are or how to think. I think people have the right to do whatever they want to as long as it doesn't effect me or mine. I was in the Navy so the flag means something to me. Yes, we are all allowed to believe in whatever we want to but, I would never, ever, ever kneel during the national anthem. That is my own personal belief and apparently it is shared by Drew Brees. So why is he having to apologize for it? Should I apologize for it as well? Why is it ok for one man to tell another man to Please stop! while he himself is asking to be heard? To me that seems like double standards. I don't see how it is right to ask for something while trying to take it away from someone else. I see alot of people saying that Drew doesn't understand the issue and what Kaepernick was kneeling for, but they themselves don't understand what Brees, or me for that matter, means when we say it is disrespectful to kneel during the anthem. Sure, you can peacefully protest anyway you want to but don't say it isn't disrespectful because it's not about flag when do during the national anthem makes it about the flag.

It saddens me on what the state of our country has become. It saddens me that George Floyd and others have lost their lives senselessly. What can I do to help? Stereotyping the police isn't fair either. We can't fix a problem by doing the exact same thing that black people are suffering from.

Please just help me understand. I don't want this becoming some flame war. I just genuinely don't understand what Brees did or said wrong.

Going to drop a video discussing this exact topic. Will update thread when it’s ready
 
The blueprint has always been there from the 60s. Did Dr. King not make progress?

I'm not telling anyone exactly what to do. I'm just pointing out that, regrettably, the flag and the anthem are quasi-religious to many. I have the same frustration about it because you can't change US foreign policy for the better because as soon as you criticize the policies someone waves the flag and makes it about the military so you run into the same roadblock. The religious or quasi-religious wars are the most vicious.

Do we want to burn down our houses to "win".

So start with police forces, city councils and prosecutors and why that is not changing. The boring stuff. Vote, mobilize, put people in office. Or try to.

Then when you find the two flavors of the corporate won't let candidates onto the ballots that will take the steps requires to enact the kind of reform and change needed at all levels, I think you will get closer to the root cause of why things don't change with police forces, courts, corporately run prison systems, schools and the way your tax dollars are collected and spent.

So that makes me a gradualist and inevitably in these times another division is between the strategic gradualists and those who just want to burn the thing down. I have no ultimate answer, it's just the pattern of history that I see...
Dr. King made progress in conjunction with a growing backdrop of riots and unrest in the south making leaders fearful of what could come if they didn’t give peace a chance. People forget that.

When Robert, John, and Lyndon got together and decided they must do something about African American civili rights, Robert Kennedy didn’t speak primarily of King’s words, as powerful and as true as they are, he spoke of a fear that if they failed to finally give people their civil rights, the Birmingham Riots of 63’ that they just experienced would merely be a prelude to far greater unrest and violence from centuries of built up oppression and rightful anger on the part of black people and those racists wishing to suppress their liberties. That it could spread all across the south and create a governing crisis.

Kings’s words are what we remember, what over time helped massage public sentiment, but it was flash points of unjust violence like the murder of Emmett Till and the fear of violence on the part of protestors that actually moved the needle.
 
I would love to hear Drew's answer to this question. I want a play-by-play of the hours after the interview. When did he have that "Oh bleep what have I done" moment.

I spend a lot of time in those moments. The ones where you obsess over what you should've said or done. You think about how easy it would've been to say anything else. You chastise yourself for leading with your ego. Hopefully he'll get a chance to elaborate on it.

He stepped in it. The biggest pile imaginable. Like, how could he not see it? He's got to be asking himself that same question.
 
Brees was asked how should the NFL respond to players protesting in the NFL. He could have just said "I respect players rights to protest."
This is the problem. My guess is people have either not actually seen the interview or, if they have, didn't pay attention to what was actually said or decide to twist the words to fit their preferred narrative. He was not asked about "players protesting." He was asked specifically about players kneeling, and he gave the same answer he's been giving for years.
 
Dr. King made progress in conjunction with a growing backdrop of riots and unrest in the south making leaders fearful of what could come if they didn’t give peace a chance. People forget that.

When Robert, John, and Lyndon got together and decided they must do something about African American civili rights, Robert Kennedy didn’t speak primarily of King’s words, as powerful and as true as they are, he spoke of a fear that if they failed to finally give people their civil rights, the Birmingham Riots of 63’ that they just experienced would merely be a prelude to far greater unrest and violence from centuries of built up oppression and rightful anger on the part of black people and those racists wishing to suppress their liberties. That it could spread all across the south and create a governing crisis.

Kings’s words are what we remember, what over time helped massage public sentiment, but it was flash points of unjust violence like the murder of Emmett Till and the fear of violence on the part of protestors that actually moved the needle.
I'm glad you brought up King because many people are not familiar with his later writings like Chaos or Community, where he began to focus on economic inequality, de facto segregation in the North, and spoke out against the Vietnam war. I just watched his new video and I think it's starting to sink in that he did cross a line.
 
If he didn't chose the timing, people need to stop faulting him for it.

If you think his answer was bad, can you be specific using quotes from the interview? Because I don't think there was anything wrong with it, especially if you listen to all of it.
I feel like when he used the term "disrespecting" the flag, it implies the players who kneel are being disrespectful, and he didn't acknowledge their position at all. Instead, he talked about how the flag made him feel because of his family's military history, while not acknowledging the history of how this country has treated black people at all. MJ's video, Shannon Sharp and others have specifically pointed out how the experience of black people who returned home after fighting WWII was quite different. Considering current events, his answer came off to many as tone deaf at best, and dismissive of black people's grievances, at worst.
 
I feel like when he used the term "disrespecting" the flag, it implies the players who kneel are being disrespectful, and he didn't acknowledge their position at all. Instead, he talked about how the flag made him feel because of his family's military history, while not acknowledging the history of how this country has treated black people at all. MJ's video, Shannon Sharp and others have specifically pointed out how the experience of black people who returned home after fighting WWII was quite different. Considering current events, his answer came off to many as tone deaf at best, and dismissive of black people's grievances, at worst.
Even though I support what Brees said and it was ill-timed granted the situation now, I do understand this point of view. Good job explaining this.
 
Brees did not one thing wrong. He got caught up in the wave of thought and speech control police. What is disappointing is it was done by people who have known him for years and know what type of person he is.
When does voicing your opinion become speech control?

Brees implied protestors to be morally wrong for their form of protest. Wants them to stand up.

His teammates declared his posture and focus on criticizing them to be tone deaf and wrong. wants him to stop talking for a while and listen.

You declare brees statement criticizing others as doing nothing wrong, but his critics criticizing him to be controlling speech.

Seems to me what you are really saying is not that you are outraged at people attempting to control speech, but at what speech is allowed to be controlled. Brees going out of his way to tell protestors they should stand up is perfectly fine, but protestors telling him why he should stop and listen is wrong.
 
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I feel like when he used the term "disrespecting" the flag, it implies the players who kneel are being disrespectful, and he didn't acknowledge their position at all. Instead, he talked about how the flag made him feel because of his family's military history, while not acknowledging the history of how this country has treated black people at all. MJ's video, Shannon Sharp and others have specifically pointed out how the experience of black people who returned home after fighting WWII was quite different. Considering current events, his answer came off to many as tone deaf at best, and dismissive of black people's grievances, at worst.
This is where we disagree. In the interview I saw, he said the flag doesn't just stand for the military but also for those in the civil rights movement. He then went on to acknowledge that things are not right in this country, that there's work to be done and that the best way to achieve a solution is to be united.

Edit: here's a link to the interview for anyone who hasn't bothered to listen to his words.

 
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Lots of people with their faux support for the cause, but let just one single uprising in just one suburban neighborhood happen outside those inner city communities and watch the man behind the curtain come out across the nation "against" that cause...real talk
 

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