How to respond to the Nike flag sneaker recall: 'Just don't buy it' By Jonathan Turley

[mystery-ak]

How to respond to the Nike flag sneaker recall: 'Just don't buy it'
By Jonathan Turley, opinion contributor — 07/02/19 01:30 PM EDT

When it comes to free speech, Nike seems to have new slogan of “Just Don’t Do It.” This month, stores around the country received new Nike sneakers for the July 4th holiday, featuring an image of the Betsy Ross flag. Former National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick saw the 18th century flag image and was deeply offended. That was all that it took for Nike to order stores to return the shoes and not to sell a single pair.

No one is suggesting that we are at risk of moving from rounding up sneakers to rounding up speakers. Nike is after all a private company entitled to curtail its own speech and the First Amendment bars government censorship. However, the incident captured perfectly the new view of free speech taking hold on campuses and across the country. It is not enough to protest the flag or the national anthem. It is necessary to prevent others from wearing or seeing the flag you deem offensive. Nike rounded up the sneakers, stating that it decided not to release the sneakers because they feature “the old version of the American flag.” Nike seemed to suggest it was evident that an American flag on a sneaker was obviously offensive.

For full disclosure, I did not agree with Kaepernick on his anthem protests and previously addressed the claim that professional football players and other employees have a right to engage in political protests of this kind. There are legitimate and unresolved issues concerning race in our country, but the flag is as much a symbol of our aspirations as it is of our history. It embodies the very values that Kaepernick claims are denied to African Americans, such as due process, equal justice, and equal protection. It also symbolizes our core belief in free speech.

more
https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/451378-how-to-respond-to-the-nike-flag-sneaker-recall-just-dont-buy-it

[mystery-ak]

I stopped buying Nike after they gave Kaepernick endorsement contracts

[xyno]

I thought Kaepernick was all about police brutality and racial injustice.  The Betsy Ross flag?

[Fishrrman]

Nike? What's that?

I buy my "sneakers" at Walmart for twenty nine bucks or so...

[jmyrlefuller]

But it's clear they aren't getting the message. They don't want our business. So we have no other recourse.

What else can we do? Charge one of the ships at the port of entry and start dumping them into the harbor Boston Tea Party style? Could you even do that these days?

[Maj. Bill Martin]

But it's clear they aren't getting the message. They don't want our business. So we have no other recourse.

What else can we do? Charge one of the ships at the port of entry and start dumping them into the harbor Boston Tea Party style? Could you even do that these days?

I don't think Turley would disagree -- Nike has clearly made a calculated decision that it is not going to reverse.

Turley was a long time liberal Democrat.  He supported Obama in both elections, and Hillary in this last one.  But he's also no hack.  He very directly called out the Obama Administration for actions in took post 2012 that he believed violated separation of powers, and he's been horrified at how intolerant the left has become.  He's done a really outstanding job of blasting those kinds of actions, and is sort of my go-to response when some leftist or another wants to get in an argument.  I'm tired of argument with those morons myself, so I just say "Read Jonathan Turley".

[Hoodat]

I stopped buying Nike after they gave Kaepernick endorsement contracts

I stopped buying Nike after they opened up sweat shop factories in Asia surrounded by chain-link fences topped with razor wire, using slave labor to manufacture shoes they sell for $150 a pair.