Whitley missed Nike critics’ point

While David Whitley’s rant against Nike’s decision to pull its Betsy Ross flag-themed shoe (“Nike yanks U.S. flag shoe but toes Communist Party line,” July 4) makes its point about the company being hypocritical, he once again could not just go with the facts. I understand that this was an opinion piece, but Mr. Whitley’s use of intended humor and hyperbolic statements does nothing to further the conversation of race in this country.

When he says that Colin Kaepernick “raised a fist” in protest, and that to be offended by the shoe, “one must also be offended by the Declaration of Independence,” he is missing the entire point of what Nike’s critics were trying to say. The founding principle that “all men are created equal,” didn’t do much for African slaves, or women for that matter.

While he points out that in China “charges are concocted, verdicts are predetermined and penalties are brutal — assuming there’s even a trial,” he ignores the fact that our country’s history involves these same issues. Scores of black people were wrongly accused and convicted by all-white juries in this country. Their lives were taken based on lies. Some were lynched on the spot without even the benefit of a show trial. As Kaepernick and others have tried to point out, this continued through the Jim Crow era of our nation, and still happens with the shooting deaths of unarmed black men, women and children.

From one old “geezer” who also experienced white privilege, please Mr. Whitley, stop talking and listen. You may come to realize that you can never fully understand something where you have no personal experience.

Jeffrey Martin Orlando