What does it mean to be a patriot?

It is not patriotic to blindly agree with whatever the government states.

In fact, it is the complete opposite.

Protesting and arguing against the status quo is so deeply entrenched in our American values. It makes up our American DNA.

But then there is another facet that is part of our American DNA.

Racism.

So when white men stormed through Charlottesville with tiki torches and racial slurs they were simply exercising their first amendment. They were fine people with a different viewpoint we should simply agree to disagree with. When they plowed through a group of counterprotesters and successfully killed someone we had to acknowledge there were "fine people on both sides."

Yet when Colin Kaepernick silently kneeled during the pledge of allegiance, he was deemed unamerican. Anti-police. Hates our troops. Someone who believes in the death of all white Americans.

And this was for kneeling.

At one point we simply have to accept we are hypocrites. Free speech is not entitled to only white people. The benefit of the doubt is definitely not supposed to be entitled to only white people.

Yet everytime a black person exercises their first amendment by protesting against the racial inequalities of American institutions we employ tear gas, we misreport peaceful protests as riots, and now we are further codifying racism into American football.

The NFL's decision to force players to stand for the flag is unpatriotic at best and unconstitutional at worst.

Patriotism means wanting to stand for the flag because you are proud of your country. Patriotism is not and never will be forcing others to do so.