Ingraham on defending Drew Brees for his stance on kneeling during national anthem
In order to heal and shed light on gross injustice, our country needs more dialogue, not less.
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees apologized multiple times last week for his comments against kneeling during the national anthem. His wife, Brittany, followed it up with an apology of her own on Saturday.
In an Instagram post on the “Brees Dream Foundation” page, Brittany posted a message which featured two quotes from Martin Luther King Jr., and comments of her own that started with, “WE ARE THE PROBLEM.”
“I write this with tears in my eyes and I hope you all hear our hearts,” Brittany Brees wrote. “I have read these quotes and scripture 1000 times and every time I read it and the words sink into my heart. I think yes this is what it’s all about...Only until the last few days, until we experienced the death threats we experienced the hate… Did I realize that these words were speaking directly to us.. how could anyone who knows us or has had interactions with us think that Drew or I have a racist bone in our body? But that’s the whole point. Somehow we as white America, we can feel good about not being racist, feel good about loving one another as God loves us.
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“We can feel good about educating our children about the horrors of slavery and history. We can read books to our children about Martin Luther King, Malcolm X., Hank Aaron, Barack Obama, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman.. and feel like we are doing our part to raise our children to love , be unbiased and with no prejudice,” Brittany Breez continued. “To teach them about all of the African Americans that have fought for and risked their lives against racial injustice. Somehow as white Americans we feel like that checks the box of doing the right thing. Not until this week did Drew and I realize THAT THIS IS THE PROBLEM. To say “I don’t agree with disrespecting the flag” .. I now understand was also saying I don’t understand what the problem really is, I don’t understand what you’re fighting for, and I’m not willing to hear you because of our preconceived notions of what that flag means to us.
She continued: “That’s the problem we are not listening, white America is not hearing. We’re not actively LOOKING for racial prejudice. We have heard stories from men and women we have known and loved for years about the racism that occurred in their lives .. stories that were never shared or talked about because somehow they were considered normal. To all of our friends and anyone we hurt ...we will do better.. We want to do better, we want to HEAR you, and we will fight for you because thinking we are not part of the problem...is checking the box it means we are are not doing enough. It’s our job to educate ourselves. We are sorry.”
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President Trump criticized Drew Brees on Friday after the quarterback apologized for his comments against kneeling during the national anthem in the wake of the George Floyd protests.
Trump took to Twitter to share his thoughts on Brees, who had twice apologized since saying in an interview on Wednesday that he “will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country.”
“I am a big fan of Drew Brees. I think he’s truly one of the greatest quarterbacks, but he should not have taken back his original stance on honoring our magnificent American Flag,” the president wrote on Twitter.
“OLD GLORY is to be revered, cherished, and flown high … We should be standing up straight and tall, ideally with a salute, or a hand on heart. There are other things you can protest, but not our Great American Flag - NO KNEELING!”
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Brees responded to the president in an online post on Friday night.
"Through my ongoing conversations with friends, teammates, and leaders in the black community, I realize this is not an issue about the American flag. It never has been," Brees wrote on Instagram.
"We can no longer use the flag to turn people away or distract them from the real issues that face our black communities," the quarterback continued. "We did this back in 2017, and regretfully I brought it back with my comments this week. We must stop talking about the flag and shift our attention to the real issues of systemic racial injustice, economic oppression, police brutality, and judicial & prison reform.
"We are at a critical juncture in our nation's history! If not now, then when?
"We as a white community need to listen and learn from the pain and suffering of our black communities. We must acknowledge the problems, identify the solutions, and then put this into action. The black community cannot do it alone. This will require all of us."
Back in March during the heart of the coronavirus pandemic, Brittany and Drew Brees were praised after they announced they were donating $5 million to organizations that give food to people in need. Now, they are making the best out of a situation which started off wrong.
Fox News' Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.