When I was in fourth grade, I started questioning why we stood up every day with our hands over our hearts, pledging allegiance to flag. I knew the flag was a symbol of America, but I have never been able to wrap my head around the divine quality so many people ascribe to it.

There was a girl in my class who never spoke. Our teacher came up to her one day and told her that she had to stand and say the Pledge. I remembering thinking this was crazy and unfair to ask of a girl who never talked at any other point during the day.

Largely because of that interaction, I have always been weary about doing these "American" rituals that are often expected of people. It really bothered me that I was never taught what the Pledge of Allegiance meant. I was never even really taught the words at school — teachers just expected I knew it and then demanded I follow the "rules."

When Colin Kaepernick sat during the National Anthem, he wasn't being "un-American." He wasn't saying he hates America, and while he definitely offended people, he peacefully sat in protest of the treatment of black people in America.

Americans have free speech. That is probably the most obvious statement I could make. Americans have free speech. By sitting down for the anthem, Kaepernick exercised that right. It doesn't matter that people are offended. It doesn't matter that so many people think it is "un-American" because they only think "un-American" is trying to force people to do something against their will.

I've seen arguments that he can't really have an issue with racial injustices because he makes millions of dollars and lives a rather privileged life, and it's true. Kaepernick has privilege, but that doesn't change the lived experience of being a black man.

Football aside, if Kaepernick were walking down the street full of people he did not know, he would be treated like any other black man. It would be idealistic to say that he wouldn't experience any injustices, but there are hundreds and hundreds of personal accounts out there of people being treated badly for no other reason than the color of their skin.

I'm sure all people of color who have some degree of privilege still experience racial injustice, and the fact that they have money or status should not negate that because an injustice is an injustice.

Kaepernick has even stated that he wasn't insulting America or the men and women who have fought and who continue to fight for their country. He was simply protesting an issue he saw, and in response, people who thought he was in the wrong resorted to calling him racial slurs and sending him threats.

Forcing Kaepernick to stand during the Anthem is not only wrong, but it's infringing on his right to speak out against injustices and to protest peacefully. Having my fourth grade teacher force students into the Pledge showed me that to be "American" is often mistaken for following rituals without knowing the meaning because that's the "patriotic" thing to do. But in America, we value getting to make our voices known and getting to decide what we do with ourselves. Forcing others to comply with what is seen as "the right way" is not American. He should not be forced to stand because that is what has been deemed as "American."

To the people who disagree with him and his methods, please just look at history. If you don't think Martin Luther King, Jr. — and other social activists who protested and fought for justice — pissed some people off, then you need to go back to history class. Like it or not, Kaepernick had every right to sit when he did, and the response of people calling him unpatriotic instead of looking towards the problem he was pointing to shows that America still has a way to go.