As they are wont to do, leftists have hijacked the narrative around race relations and police misconduct in America.  #BlackLivesMatter (Soros Inc.) and now Colin Kaepernick have done what the left did with global warming – assert a conclusion (black people are oppressed, white people are the oppressors, police are indiscriminately shooting black kids in the street), determine the issue "settled" (if you deny the above conclusion, you're a racist), disregard any facts that disprove the conclusion, and then stomp their feet (like little children) until they get the attention they demand.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

Colin Kaepernick's assertion:

I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.

His first sentence implies that our flag and our country oppress black people and people of color.  What is our flag, and our country?  Many, like Colin Kaepernick, and sadly our president, view the American flag as a symbol of oppression and imperialism.  Because America once had slaves (as did all other nations), we are guilty today of oppression.  This argument is specious at best.  Few blacks in America are descendent of slaves.  Few whites in America are descendent of slave holders.  The sins of a previous generation of slave holders does not carry forth to our current generation of non-slave holders.

America, and by extension our flag, are symbols of the high ideals established at our founding: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

While we as a nation haven't always held up to these ideals, and it is granted that these "rights" were long in coming to many black Americans, it is not a failing of the ideals, but of the men and women who have tried (or not) to uphold these ideals, not of the ideals themselves.

For us to accept that our flag and our country oppress black people and people of color (today), we must also accept that if we are not black, or of color, we are the oppressors.  This is nonsense!  I am oppressing no one.  This "privilege" that I hear spoken of must have passed me by.  I am just a schmuck tryin' to get by like my fellow neighbors (black and white).

As with global warming, it is not possible to reason with someone who has asserted what the facts do not affirmatively support.  There are no doubt instances of oppression, but they are not universal and, more importantly, not limited to black people being oppressed by white people.  Acts of racism are abhorrent and, safe to say, almost universally decried.

In Kaepernick's closing statement, he asserts that "there are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

A reasoned conversation can be had about police misconduct, but it can't begin with false accusations and, in many cases, blatant lies.  There are instances of police misconduct.  There are bad police-involved shootings, and in those instances it serves all America (black and white) that justice prevail.

The problem for Colin Kaepernick is that he's attached himself to a cause, like global warming, that is premised on a lie: hands up, don't shoot.

The suggestion that cops are getting away with murder is inflammatory and, from a legal standpoint, specious.

Murder is a legal term – the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.  Police officers, as all citizens are entitled to their day in court, with the burden of proof being on the prosecution to make their case, beyond a reasonable doubt.  In the case of Michael Brown and Darren Wilson, the Grand Jury determined, after evaluating the evidence, and hearing from countless (black) witnesses, that Michael Brown confronted Darren Wilson, tried by grab his gun, and by all accounts was the aggressor in the altercation that lead to his death, ruled an act of self-defense by Darren Wilson.

The Department of Justice, led by Eric Holder, provided oversight into the Ferguson Grand Jury and were predisposed to wanting Darren Wilson found guilty.  If they deemed injustice occurring in the finding, they should have made their case, which was their prerogative.

Sadly for all, but for black people particularly, BLM, and the DOJ have browbeaten the Ferguson and Baltimore Police Departments into draconian reform measures that have seen a significant increase in violent crime.

With members calling for the "killing of police," and subsequent murders being committed, Black Lives Matter, like the Weather Underground, is a domestic terrorist organization.

We should have a conversation on race relations in America, and on police misconduct.  As is (or was) our policy, we should not and will not negotiate with terrorists.

Racism – settled science?  Not so much.