Given the general self-pwning idiocy of this protest, it’s highly probable that if he isn’t he soon will be.
An otherwise reasonable person who misunderstood Kaepernick’s protest as a sign of disrespect to soldiers and who wanted to protest Nike’s hiring of him might say “ok, then, I’m not going to buy Nike products until they drop him [or perhaps forever].” However, these aren’t otherwise reasonable people but Know-Nothings and/or bigots, fans of the same sort of grand, stupid and self-defeating gesture that’s prompted many of them to vote against their own economic interests for the past 40 years.
I am a USAR veteran. I served in uniform for 8 years, as did my spouse. As parents of 2 young black sons, we support what Kap has done, both his cause and methods in bringing attention to that cause. And this says it all for both of us as to why:
President Andrew Shepherd: [in the white house press room] … America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say "You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can’t just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the “land of the free”. …
I get that some veterans see his protest as it was intended, and support it. Many do not. I was trying to explain the mindset of those people, and why it is inappropriate to just call them racist and disregard their concerns.
It’s not though. The people that served the country fought and died for our freedom to say and act as we should, our ability to speak out against injustices and tyranny. This includes our ability to burn the flag, kneel during the national anthem, not say the pledge of allegiance, etc. To make the argument that kneeling during the anthem is a disrespect to troops is a distraction. He is not disrespecting anything, if anything it is the most respectful way he can protest police brutality and racism.
Go back to Jim Crow era and i bet a lot of people thought that black folks doing sit ins and quietly protesting was a huge disrespect too. I don’t for a second buy that kneeling is a disservice to the country, the flag or service members. That’s bullshit.
Well, if you tell them that the shoes were made in sweatshops, they might start buy Nike again.
Or, better, whenever you come across someone’s GIF of them burning their shoes to protest Kaepernick, re-purpose it to an anti-sweatshop protest GIF. Heads will explode.
It’s obvious to us here, but the people protesting Nike or Kaepernick are not systematic or critical thinkers so they really can’t make the connection. They simply jump from superficial point A to point B to point C without considering that there are a whole bunch of interconnected sub-points that touch on deeper matters.
That’s not to excuse their irrationality and ignorance but to acknowledge how it plays out in situations like this, because it is an alien thought process to you and me and many others here.
I question if those who are pissed and claim to be vets actually are…because I have canvased my former brothers and sisters from my service days, and not a single one has been against Kap. I’ve only found a couple people I know to be vets or are still serving that are against his methods, but those handful are also ardent Trumpkins. Anecdotal as it is, I can only conclude that they have put their politics above their service.
Yeah he still holds an emeritus position and sits at board meetings.
I don’t believe for one second that a move this big did not receive the approval of Nike’s largest individual shareholder.
Does Phil Knight have much to do with daily operations, and general decision-making? Probably not- he’s like fuckin 80 now. But between him and his surviving son he very much still owns Nike. If he’s not on board with something it’s not happening.
First, I don’t think you understand what emeritus means. Because no…he is fully retired so he does not make decisions and does not sit in on board meetings.
Second, perhaps someone from the board or the current CEO Mark Parker do reach out and inform him of large scale decisions that were made; and to some extent you could infer they are getting his “blessing” but that is a stretch.
Lastly, if you have hard evidence to counter this public statements and press releases, by all means I am open to listening. Otherwise you are merely interjecting your version of the facts as they have been presented by the company itself. Your original post was about Knight being a political conservative/libertarian which I fail to see how his politics matter to what the company he founded and is no longer an active voice in its direction does. You haven’t said anything that changes that.
It’s worth noting, while I agree with your conclusions, that Phil still wields a lot of power through Swoosh. In 2015, he transferred his class A stock to an LLC. Nike is a bit unique because the class A stock, 75% of which was owned by Phil and is now owned by Swoosh LLC, elects 3/4 of Nike’s board. Swoosh has 4 directors including him and Travis; Phil gets two votes to the other Swoosh directors’ one. So while he’s out of the day-to-day at Nike, he still has control over the majority of the board.
And I am all for agreeing to this if there is some proof of it. Documentation, org structure, press releases, etc.
Otherwise all I have to go on is what Nike has stated publicly…which is that he is emeritus and retired and while they still act on the values that the company was founded upon, Phil is not the decider in chief.
Regardless of any of this, because I really don’t think we need to belabor it…I think Nike has made a great choice here.
Yeah, the org structure is all public. You can find some press releases from 2015 when he announced it. He did a companywide live stream at the time and explained it. He told us he’d still be involved, but that it was time to ensure that the class A stock stayed in trusted hands. He attributed much of Nike’s success to not having to worry about corporate raiders being able to swoop in and take over the board—which allowed Nike to take a longer view and, I imagine, take stands like this.
Yes, this is a great move. A lot of us here feel pretty proud today.
Did they have the same level of concern when Tebow kneeled for anti abortion? Do they have the same level of concern about every stadium that continues to sell beer and hot dogs during the anthem? Do they have the same level of concern regarding the 80k fans that scream “land of the free and the home of the CHIEEEEEEFS!” at every KC home game? The answer is no, it’s not nearly the same level of concern.
We heard the dead veteran argument, but the hypocrisy makes it unbelievable.
