A lot of white people are still very much under the impression that the United States of America is their country and theirs alone. They respond to anyone who doesn’t fall in line with their ideals and traditions to “get out of my country” or “go back where you came from” as if they were kicking houseguests out of their homes after said guests had worn out their welcome. But America is not theirs to dictate who is welcome and who isn’t and they are not entitled to have their traditional values respected or celebrated.
College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Ditka is the latest flag-humping “patriot” to declare publicly that anyone kneeling during the national anthem to protest systemic racism in America should “get the hell out of the country.”
Ditka is chairman of the X League, a women’s football organization previously known as the Legends Football League.
In a recent interview with TMZ Sports, Ditka talked about his support of the league, but he also revealed that his progressive attitude towards women in sports doesn’t extend to athletes using their platforms to show support for Black Lives Matter by taking a knee during the anthem.
When asked if he would support X league athletes kneeling in silent protest, Ditka responded, “If it was up to me, I’d say no.”
“If you can’t respect our national anthem, get the hell out of the country,” he said. “That’s the way I feel. Of course, I’m old- fashioned. So, I’m only going to say what I feel.”
Ditka went on to commit a common act of caucasity by dictating the right and wrong methods of protesting the systemic racism that he will never experience. He also echoed the same “Shut up and dribble” rhetoric that white people have used to scold Black athletes protesting racism for decades because they believe that Black ballplayers making money in America should automatically cancel any sense of duty they might have to the communities they came from.
“I think there’s a way you protest, and there’s a way you don’t protest,” Ditka said. “You don’t protest against the flag, and you don’t protest against this country who has given you the opportunity to make a living, playing a sport, you never thought would happen. So, I don’t want to hear all the crap. You want to try it, try it. You don’t, it’s okay.”
Clearly the former Chicago Bears coach has learned nothing from 2017 when he had to apologize for revealing to the world that he was in a white fragility-induced coma throughout the ’50s and ‘60s and didn’t know about any oppression happening in America over the last 100 years.
“All of a sudden, it’s become a big deal now, about oppression,” he said. “There has been no oppression in the last 100 years that I know of. Now maybe I’m not watching it as carefully as other people.”
NFL agent David Mulugheta pulled Ditka’s white supremacy card Sunday in a tweet responding to his TMZ comments.
“This doesn’t surprise me at all, Mulugheta wrote. “Mike Dikta traded his helmet in for a white hood as soon as he retired from football. Racism hiding behind faux patriotism is still racism.”