According to the Bill of Rights, citizens of the United States have the right to freedom of speech and the right to petition for a redress of grievances. The latter, for those who don’t know, means that you have the right to complain to the government without fear of repercussions. In short, we are allowed to openly criticize the government without fear. These rights, however, are unbeknownst to the president apparently, who recently called out football player Colin Kaepernick for exercising said rights.

In protest of racial tensions in the U.S., Kaepernick either kneels or stays sitting down during the national anthem. Many view this as disrespectful, but considering the history of how black people have been treated in this country, and the fact that the anthem was written when slavery was still in practice, his protests seem fair. In response, Trump referred to Kaepernick as a “son of a b*tch,” and called for him to be fired.

While that in itself a very Trump thing to do and could be easily overlooked as another one of his poor excuses of being presidential, it becomes more disturbing when you realize something; after the despicable acts in Charlottesville, Trump took several days to condemn said acts, and referred to the perpetrators as “very fine people”. KKK members and neo-Nazis get to be “very fine people”, while a football player exercising his freedom of speech is an SOB.

What’s more disturbing is the fact that Trump thought a peaceful protest is a reasonable excuse to be fired from the NFL. The NFL has been incredibly slow if not unresponsive to punish their players who commit actual crimes, such as drunk driving or domestic abuse. Most “punishments”, if any, consist of missing out on a few games. Being suspended for two or three games seems very mild to losing your entire career. The NFL and the president truly need to rethink their priorities.

In short, people need to stop claiming “free speech” for everything except actual free speech. Taking a knee during the anthem is incomparable to domestic abuse or driving while inebriated. Until racial tensions improve, Colin Kaepernick has the freedom to exercise his rights, just as much as anyone else.