Nike pulls patriotic Betsy Ross shoes because Colin Kaepernick called it "racist".

Nike's 4th of July trainers that were pulled. BBC/Nike.

Nike has pulled a special edition 4th of July shoe that featured the Betsy Ross American Flag after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick called it "racist". BBC. The move has been criticized heavily by conservatives, including Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Ted Cruz. The Betsy Ross flag was claimed to be a symbol of slavery. In response to the incident Arizona's governor Doug Ducey canceled an $1 million grant to the company. 

My Comment:

I know I am a day late on this story but there is almost nothing else going on and it was a pretty huge story. It's a fairly minor story in the big picture sense but it does show just how deep the cultural divide goes in America today. 

What's my take? Well, I personally find the shoes to be tacky and overpriced. They don't look significantly better than any normal shoes and it sounded like the MSRP was twice as expensive than it should be just because it was a special edition. Even if I wanted to buy Nike's these wouldn't be my choice. 

That being said, I do think that Nike are a bunch of utter cowards for pulling these shoes off the market. The idea that they are racist is, in fact, racist itself. The Betsy Ross flag is a part of American history and to tar it as a symbol of slavery is a huge insult to patriotic Americans of any race. 

But I am convinced that Kaepernick's problem is that he is racist himself. He doesn't hate America because of slavery, he hates America because white people live their. Almost every country has had slavery in its history and America had a huge civil war to end it. With no living Americans still alive since slavery has been abolished Kaepernicks complaints are nonsensical and obviously motivated by deeply held racism. 

I personally stopped buying Nike shoes after they hired Kaepernick as I won't support a company that hires someone that obviously hates me because of the color of my skin. Their behavior here can't make me think of any less of them because I already hate them. I still wear my old shoes because they are still in good condition but when it is time to replace them there is no way I am buying Nike shoes. 

But is this a bad move for Nike? I don't know. It seems very likely that they don't care if they abandon the mainstream consumer. They are playing for the "woke" racists that will eat this up because they too are bigoted. And there are plenty of people that either don't care about the controversy or aren't even aware of it. 

Of course a lot of people are outraged by this as well, but unfortunately not much will happen. As long as the woke liberals are buying these shoes they don't care about lost sales. Political action, like what happened in Arizona, might have more of an impact but other than that I don't see Nike changing course here. 

Part of the problem is that the right doesn't have an army of protesters and trolls like the left does. Had Nike not pulled the shoes after Kaepernick complained there would be people protesting at Nike stores and trolls would be harassing both the companies that sell Nike shoes and the company itself. The right just doesn't do stuff like that, at least not effectively. There is very little organization to send people to protest and even if we did have that, there aren't that many unemployed losers on the right that can show up on a moments notice to protest whatever needs to be protested. 

Until that changes things like this will continue to happen. Right now there is a lot of pressure on Nike from the left and very little from the right. And their sales haven't been hurt. As long as that is true we can expect more nonsense like this from them.