“Nike pulled a sneaker featuring an early version of the U.S. flag off shelves after endorser Colin Kaepernick reached out to the company and expressed concerns about the design, The Wall Street Journal reports.”
It's not going to be about the Betsy Ross flag itself, it's RWNJs' use as a faux-secession proxy for the Confederate battle flag 'stars & bars'. Expect faux-outrage.
Colin Kaepernick will get dragged by Individual-1, but it is not about the Betsy Ross flag itself as the symbol of slavery but its contextual use by Trumpists in neo-nazi parades of white supremacists. Pulling shoes with that flag off the market is relatively trivial, but wait for the usual trollery online. Those with entrepreneurial instincts should look into such flag appliques for the market of white reactionaries.
Like the traditionalist return to the Tsarist Russian double-headed eagle, the Betsy Ross flag (sic) has been used by RWNJs as means to bypass the problem of flying the “stars and bars” Confederate battle flag.
The passive-aggressiveness of Jim Crow has many workarounds for states-rights fetishists. The Betsy Ross flag is purpose-made for those without drawls who want to express ‘heritage’ despite the implicit racist meaning of slave-holding. Darn that coding.
As if the RWNJs could bring back pre-industrial human trafficking to the US, complete with concentration camps and sovereign citizen idiots. In the latter case, a Trumpian America becomes a Balkanized ‘states-rights’ nation based on the wardlordism of county sheriffs.
There will likely be arbitraging of scarcity as sneakers did make it to the market. Expect a pair to wind up being presented to Trump.
Nike pulled a sneaker featuring an early version of the U.S. flag off shelves after endorser Colin Kaepernick reached out to the company and expressed concerns about the design, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Air Max 1 USA, reportedly created to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, featured an embroidered 1770s “Betsy Ross” flag with 13 stars to represent the original colonies. The design was slated to go on sale this week, but the company reportedly asked stores to return the shoes with no explanation. Sources told the WSJ that Kaepernick reached out after seeing images of the shoes online, and said he and others thought the flag was an “offensive symbol because of its connection to an era of slavery[.]”
Kaepernick reportedly declined to comment. A Nike spokeswoman said the company decided “not to release the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July as it featured the old version of the American flag.” However, the Journal reported that some of the shoes made it onto the market—with some selling a pair for up to $2,500 on shoe selling site StockX.
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