Express yourself with protest. Express yourself with art.

We are seeing changes in our society regarding black lives matter and racial justice.

The NFL has flip-flopped on its former stance. Four years ago, the league banned Colin Kaepernick from playing in the league. His offense? He dared to protest police treatment of African-Americans peacefully. That was four years ago. Now the NFL has changed its stance. The commissioner released a statement saying black lives matter. He also said that there is systemic racism in America.

Folks are knocking down statues and Confederate monuments. Some are being ripped down by mobs of people. In other cases, judges are saying take them down. Yesterday, I saw a video of a group of Native-Americans dancing around a fallen statue of Christopher Columbus. This "fallen statue video" is America. It's as American as any Norman Rockwell painting. I like public art, especially statues. I wrote statues previously in my blog here. As much as a love a good statue, I'm glad these statues are down. 

NASCAR banned the confederate flag from its events. Bubba Wallace, an African-American driver, recently drove a car in a NASCAR race. It had the words "black lives matter" painted on the hood of the vehicle.

It seems like only yesterday; people were burning their Nike gear. They were upset because Colin Kaepernick was in a Nike commercial. Many people swore never to wear Nike apparel again. Somehow they saw Colin Kaepernick as a traitor to the country or the military. I wonder how many people will refuse to go to NFL games now that the league released a statement saying black lives matter and recognizing systemic racism.

It is important to note what caused these changes. We all watched the death of George Floyd. A policeman killed him. While the officer was killing George Floyd, three other policemen stood around and watched it happen. We all saw this.

The fact that police officers needlessly kill black people is not new. What's notable about the George Floyd case is that we can see it. We can see in a way that removes any justification for his killing. The police officers were not in danger. Whatever Mr. Floyd may have done, he was clearly in police custody.

 Without this video, we would only have the police's version of what happened. Without this video, the police would have claimed that they had to kill him. They would have blamed him for his own death. The recent killing of Rayshard Brooks the latest example. 

People are demanding change. We are demanding that we be heard. We are demanding that we take a serious look at how we fund the police.

The NFL flipped flopped. At first, they banned black Lives matter protests. Now they say they support it. The NFL changed because black players demanded it. Here is the video released by the players. A few days later, the commissioner issued a video explaining the change. Note the commissioner is using the words the players demanded he use. 

People are demanding that the Confederate statues and memorials come down. We have lived for too long in the shadows of these traitors and segregationist. New artwork, new statutes should replace them. 

Art for our time. 

Express yourself with protest. 

Express yourself with art.  

Let your voice be heard!

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