For the last several years, the U.S. has been in the midst of serious political and social upheaval and a lot of the problems have been intensified in recent years because of politicians who insist on stirring things up even further. Unfortunately, the nation is still a hotbed of racial inequality and systemic racism and the problem doesn’t seem to be going away anytime in the near future. Americans continue to slowly chip away at the racism that has plagued our country, but things that took centuries to build don’t come down very quickly. The sporta arena is a very public place and some of the attention surrounding this issue is focused there.
Because it’s multicultural and interracial, sports is one area where poeple started to quietly and respectfully display their own convictions and have peaceful protests in both an individual and a public way. One of the most well-known peaceful protesters is NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who famously kneeled during the U.S. National Anthem to protest police brutality against Black Americans. Because he got so much negative attention under this issue, he even lost his job. However, he soon picked up lucrative endorsement deals and is largely seen as a national hero. As time has gone by, more protesters havce raised awareness around the world about what really goes on here in the U.S.
Outside of that issue is the fact that a lot of people are still very patriotic. One high school football team from Texas decided to take matters into their own hands when they learned that the National Anthem wouldn’t be played before a game. To be clear, the reason the National Anthem wasn’t being played is that the band couldn’t be there. It was a makeup game and the band had a prior committment at a competition. Even still, the Grandbury, Texas Pirates decided to just sing the song themselves when they learned that there wouldn’t be a recording or the band playing it.
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To the pride of their families, these young men stood and proudly sang their young hearts out. Sadly, the Pirates lost that day by one point to their competitor, Crowley, Texas. Watch the video below.
