I love all these comments of “find some other way to protest—you could easily protest on Monday—don’t do it during the anthem.” Here’s the deal: this conversation means it’s FUCKING WORKING. No one would give a shit or pay attention of they protested on Monday. And frankly, the time between games is when the real work gets done in terms of community outreach that I know for a fact is occurring in multiple NFL cities across the country (contra the assholes that say to stop kneeling and DO SOMETHING).

My other fave: The protest has been coopted and isn’t even sending the same message any more. The fuck it isn’t. It starts over protesting police brutality as an example of systemic racism. Now, you have a rich white, racist asshole occupying the White House telling black athletes to sit down, shut up, or get fired for daring to point out that race relations in the US aren’t at kumbaya levels or even approaching it. So the athletes, in turn, stage a larger protest. Ya, protesting in response to the comments of a white supremacist who is effectively stating “we let you have some money, now shut the fuck up and get to the back of the bus before we take it away” is TOTALLY not the same as Kaep and Reid’s initial protest.

I have so had it with this shit.