Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Leftist History over American Herstory
Just where does an American-based corporation and their rich, male, former jock, brand representative get off imposing history over the narrative of a woman? I had thought we were past powerful privileged men silencing, dismissing, and trivializing herstory. Yet here we are, with another patriarchal pack mansplaining a woman’s original work. The corporate leadership of Nike, following the lead of Colin Kaepernick, have branded Betsy Ross’s original flag design a white supremacist symbol.
Leftist propaganda organs have amplified this slander, claiming white supremacist groups use the original flag design to signify rejecting the post-Civil War constitutional amendments. The left’s real objection, of course, is to the actual history, the Declaration of Independence that they despise, assigning to it the same strained and stained meaning claimed by the black-robed bigot, Chief (In)Justice Taney in the fraudulent Dred Scott decision. Instead of supporting herstory, and taking back a woman’s original creative work from some knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers, the leftist elite privileged this attack on women, thus banishing a woman’s art as shameful.
All people of good will should push back, rejecting such a shameful assault on a woman’s work and her important place in America’s story. Reject Nike’s leftist hate. True history must include her story. Fly the Betsy Ross flag with pride, as President Obama did at both of his inaugural ceremonies, as did his predecessors and successor. See the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. See, also, the New York Times on President Obama’s 2013 inauguration:
Published in HistoryTHE CAPITOL FLAGS: The West Front of the Capitol is festooned with giant flags to provide the backdrop as Mr. Obama takes the oath. Look closely, and you will see that three flags are represented.
The outermost flags, with a ring of stars, are the Betsy Ross flags, which appeared in the early 1790s. Next to those are the flags adopted after Mr. Obama’s home state of Illinois entered the union in 1818; they have 21 stars. The center flag is the current Stars and Stripes.
Perhaps Nike could make a pair with the democrat mascot donkey with approval of Bernie Sanders.
The motto:
Just Take It.
Thank you Mrs. Ross. America will be forever indebted to you.
And … nevermind about a Kaepernick dude in 2019. He’s a fraud.
Interestingly, it’s apparently not just Leftists treating the good in America as bad. They also treat the bad as good.
Until recent events in the Dem primaries and commentary on conservative podcasts, I don’t think I had ever heard that there was anything wrong with busing. My parents and grandparents never happened to tell me about that, and being born in 1983 that means all I knew about busing I learned from history books.
What does a Leftist say about busing in a history book? It was a government action against racism, so obviously the history books have to tell the kiddies it was good.
Not to mention disrespecting the tens of thousands of women in various crapholes in Asia sewing their shoes together for slave wages.
It really bothers me when I see my fellow conservatives adopting the language of the radical feminist agenda like “mansplaining”, “male privilege”, and “herstory”. Though I disagree with some of their methods, I mean, say what you will about the ayatollahs view of women but at least it’s an ethos.
Just kidding, good post.
I am usually up on the white identity politics memes, but I have not seen the Betsy Ross flag. The whole thing seems hinky to me.
<<<<<<——
From her comments both at the debate and since on this subject, it certainly appears that is Harris’ opinion, which is kinda scary to me. The fact that it was a failure doesn’t matter to her, only that the government’s intentions were pure which is what is important. I don’t think she is capable of learning from history.
I think I’ll be getting one.
https://elmersflag.com/product/betsy-ross/
You may not be the only one. @willowspring reports (in a comment on a completely different thread) that the Betsy Ross flag is on backorder at an Alexandria VA vendor of historical flags, suggesting that they have gotten lots of orders. I’ll take that as a good sign.
You need to learn to think like a Leftist: busing was good b/c it integrated the schools. It “failed” due to “white flight,” which only goes to prove that white people are even more racist than was initially feared since they preferred to move rather than send their children to integrated schools. The solution, naturally, is more government intervention. Perhaps next time the law could insist that even if parents move to the suburbs, their children must still be bused to the same inner-city school district, no matter how far away.
So Betsy Ross sews up a flag that allows herself and her daughters to show off their talents at being decent seamstresses. And that flag is now deemed racist.
Meanwhile, Nike, a company that allows for the use of slave laborers in China to actually create its shoes goes and decides to take the critiques of a NFL football player to heart. As though Kaepernick even knows what racism or patriotism happen to be.
P.S. Inner-city children being trapped in failing public schools is a legitimate grievance. The solution, however, is not to bring back mandatory busing. The solution is school choice, vouchers, and more charter schools. Parents should pick the best school for their children, not state bureaucrats or federal judges.
I remember reading circa 2003 to 2005, that kids in the San Francisco school system were finally no longer to be bused around any more. It seems that ever since the time of busing, several school districts did busing. In one case, the kids had to sit in a bus for 1 hour 45 minutes – each way! – to commute to the school deemed to offer them a better education.
School buses are notorious for being poorly maintained. And they rarely have such amenities as AC or decent heating. So you had children breathing in traffic fumes, deprived of sunlight and play and all so they could go to a school outside their district? Why?
And don’t get me started on the drivers…
That would solve a lot of problems. Nike could manufacture these shoes with the motto in Spanish and distribute them at the U.S. border as the underserved cross over. To score extra points, Nike could translate the motto into the many languages of underserved peoples and distribute those shoes to encourage border crossings into other privileged nations such as Switzerland. U.S. citizens, the most privileged of all, are likely to pay extra for pairs with the motto in English to finance such a worthy project.
There’s a revealing article on this from the Chronicle archives: San Francisco gives parents a say in where their children go to school — and that is leading to less diversity
See what happens when you give parents a say? They make the wrong choices.
The story focuses on two schools:
The story admits that parents are mostly happy with both schools:
The principal admits this makes his job easier:
And yet, clearly something must be done:
I’m with all of you that Kaepernick is an ignoramus and that Nike is stupid for allowing him to dictate what shoes they should make. It’s ridiculous that both Kaepernick and Nike have forgotten that as a paid spokesman, it’s his job to promote Nike’s products, not publicly denounce them. It’s just nuts.
But this allegation that Nikes are made by slaves in China, has that been proven? Are those employees literally owned by Nike? Are the forbidden from quitting their jobs and seeking other employment? Can Nike sell them off to other companies? Or are we just calling an undesirable job with low pay slavery? I am under the impression that working a factory job in China is a lot harder than working in a factory in a wealthier country, but that millions of Chinese people find it preferable to scraping out a living on a small, low-tech farm.
As of 2017 only 19% of Nike shoes were made in China, vs 44% in Vietnam. While I couldn’t find any details for Nike, the Department of Labor reports in 2018 that both countries use forced labor in making footwear. https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/ListofGoods.pdf
Note that “forced labor” has a broader definition than what one might think of as “slave labor”.
This interactive map shows you Nike’s worldwide manufacturing locations. All, or virtually all, of its manufacturing is done by suppliers. The map also contains a lot of data from Nike as well as information on specific factories.
Nike’s products are made by about 1.1 million workers. 42% in Vietnam, 19% in Indonesia, and 13% in China. There are 5,742 American workers (o.5%) making Nike products.
As a general observation my guess is that Nike’s production in China is decreasing and I don’t think their product is being made by slaves. For a decade China has not been considered a low cost manufacturing location and much production, even by Chinese companies, has moved to Southeast Asia and other countries. Chinese manufacturing is moving up the value chain.
I think Nike’s interest in China is much more as a market than as a supplier. Which explains why they so quickly moved to placate the government regarding Hong Kong.
The WSJ has an article that opines that Nike’s pulling the shoes makes good business because their core demographic is the youth market.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-it-comes-to-colin-kaepernick-the-flag-and-nike-its-just-business-11562161561?emailToken=a36110bfcc5fda12a386548879b2402a374IxBMFKdfsLpwWij07Pv6JD4VrpnBAIA1bb0bhpQtDR5gRTYUpgWm1N3/Hp8kUPWLdEZ+UgoGwQrmdqyxS7d0SBA5GzrkOJvc0rup6RE0npQNkgg33oiGtSMa20i70wdi3JPryGg7Q6xxaRs3Ibw%3D%3D&reflink=article_copyURL_share
I am sure that’s true. Sad thing is that youth often equals ignorance. And rather than use displays of such ignorance as teaching moments, Nike has decided to cave. In light of their action, there’s considerable irony to the statement that (emphasis added):
The Betsy Ross shoes expressed a view, originally thought to be a patriotic one. Colin Kippersnack (an individual who opinion wasn’t even sought by Nike in the matter) thought the shoes glorified an icon of slavery.
Eureka! A controversy!! Let’s “express” some “views.” Let’s have a conversation!*
Sorry, no.
*They keep on using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means. As in: “So I respect the decision Nike made and more importantly grateful for the conversation that this is producing.”–Robert Francis O’Rourke.
Forced labor could be what term is used when in order to get a job, some poor woman in India has to pay her wages for 6 months to some job recruiting firm.
Or to those people who are religious prisoners inside China, where people who were part of Faulog Gong or who were Muslims can spend long periods of time in prison simply for having a religious faith.
Religious prisoners work in grueling conditions inside Chinese prisons – for little or no pay
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-internment-camps-forced-labor-us-sportswear-traced-to-factory/
Barbed wire and hundreds of cameras ring a massive compound of more than 30 dormitories, schools, warehouses and workshops in China’s far west. Dozens of armed officers and a growling Doberman stand guard outside.
Behind locked gates, men and women are sewing sportswear that can end up on U.S. college campuses and sports teams.
This is one of a growing number of internment camps in the Xinjiang region, where by some estimates 1 million Muslims are detained, forced to give up their language and their religion and subject to political indoctrination. Now, the Chinese government is also forcing some detainees to work in manufacturing and food industries. Some of them are within the internment camps; others are privately-owned, state-subsidized factories where detainees are sent once they are released.
####
End of Part One
Part Two: @alfrench
@randyweivoda
https://www.fastcompany.com/90279693/did-a-slave-make-your-sneakers-the-answer-is-probably
Why clothing and shoe factories use slave labor
Across the world, an estimated 24.9 million people are victims of forced labor. The lion’s share of them–16 million people–are exploited by companies for a profit, rather than by private individuals, such as in the case of sex trafficking. And according to KnowTheChain’s report, one of the largest sectors that relies on forced labor is the $3 trillion apparel and footwear industry. An estimated 60 million to 75 million people are employed in this global sector. And while most of us realize that these workers are paid very little, the reality is that some are not paid at all.
Full article at link above.
Thank you for the link. I’d call the practice described as more like indentured servitude than slavery. Someone makes an agreement with an employment agency and doesn’t get their paycheck until the debt to the employment agency is paid off. Some of these employment agencies may be vastly overcharging their clientele, but the employee entered an agreement and is fulfilling that obligation. If I agree to get something and will work for free until what I owe is paid off, that’s just not the same as being enslaved, just as being “forced” to pay money for something I bought is not the same as being robbed.
What the Chinese government is doing to religious minorities is absolutely a human rights abuse, I’ll go along with you on that.
I agree regarding the religious minorities. As to Nike specifically, they rate in the upper tier (that’s good) in the Fast Company evaluation linked above and having looked at (and linked to) their supplier map, they do a good job on transparency. Each individual supplier along with location in China is identified. China’s forced labor tends to be utilized in the interior western provinces which are much harder for Westerner to access and find out what is really happening. Looking at the Nike map, 90% of its suppliers are along the coast, and the reminder are in the central provinces. It doesn’t guarantee their suppliers aren’t using slave labor but it decreases the likelihood.