RadioOnFire.com - Shouts of "Kill them all" and "N****r," are just some of the ways in which locals have responded to a youth football team that recently selected to take a knee during their pre-game National Anthem ceremony.
The Beaumont Bulls of Jefferson County Texas have found inspiration in the protests that have spread throughout the NFL since Colin Kaepernick began abstaining from the observance of the star-spangled banner in mid-August. The adolescent squad of football fanatics got a chance to experience an exercise in their constitutional right to free speech on Saturday night, September 10, when during the anthem they knelt before one another, with each their hands on the shoulders of the teammate kneeling before them. "Even though we're kids, we can still get the information and know about the stuff that's going on," said 11-year-old Jaelun Parkerson of having come into consciousness about the actions being taken in sports and entertainment, to address issues affecting the Black community. But what Jaelun hadn't been prepared to meet, was the vitriol he and his teammates would face in reaction to their stance.
"Our players have been called the n-word by opposing teams. I had to explain to my son what that meant when he was called that for the first time at, you know, 9-years-old," his mother, April Parkerson said. Despite the treatment the Bulls have become subjected to, Mrs. Parkerson says the team, and its families are prepared to keep their dissent going through the season. While the Bulls have come under the scrutiny of a few close to the team, including a past coach, they have received the support of others, including the team's executive board, who delivered a statement to Eyewitness News that reads: "It is our hope and desire to cultivate young men that will be leaders in our communities that will make a difference in this world, and though their stance was not seen by all as a sign of progress, we believe it was, and we will continue to support them."
Source: abc13.com
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