It never gets old watching big corporations with more power and influence than some governments rush to appease a mob of whining, unhinged lunatics.
Nike is one of many large companies lately to rush to the altar of Black Lives Matter and bend the knee in supplication to the new religion of wokeness. Forgive my church metaphors (I am a clergyman after all), but Nike has gone out of its way to show devotion, including donating $40 million to “social justice organizations” and posting a video on social media dramatically altering its famous “Just Do It” slogan to “Don’t Do It” — as in don’t ignore racism. This is all done to appease the foot soldiers of a group openly run by Marxists that is burning our cities to the ground, lest Nike gets “canceled,” as so many have since the madness began.
This is par for the course for Nike. After all, just two years ago, it signed a deal to make Colin Kaepernick a brand ambassador. Kaepernick, aside from starting the despicable trend of dishonoring our flag, is also a zealot and apologist for the Castro regime in Cuba.
Now, one could forgive all that if Nike actually believed oppression was bad. But it doesn’t.
If it did, maybe it’d be more concerned by what’s happening now in China. Not only did America not invent slavery and oppression, but it turns out it’s happening and being perfected in China through the systemic persecution of the Uighur community.
In case you hadn’t heard, the communist Chinese government has detained over a million Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim ethnic group, in what have been pleasantly described as “reeducation camps.” Because they predominantly follow Islam and speak a different language, the premiers in Beijing apparently thought it would be a great idea to lock up the Uighurs in concentration camps. And according to research conducted by Congress and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, thousands of imprisoned Uighurs have been forced into slavery in factories that make products for popular brands including — you guessed it — Nike.
So, where’s the outrage? Why isn’t Nike bending over backward to make amends with the Uighur community? Uighurs are actually dealing with real oppression. But you won’t see any “Don’t Do It” videos on social media to support the Uighurs, even though they’re being persecuted and rounded up for being an ethnic and religious minority.
Why isn’t Nike immediately cutting all ties with China, given that its products are being made with slave labor enforced by the communist government? Where are the boycotts? Where’s the cancellation?
As the son of a black man who was raised in Jim Crow Mississippi, this despicable double standard sickens me beyond what words can describe.
The hypocrites who run Nike must feel so, so good about themselves. I can imagine them all congratulating each over cocktails for flagellating themselves before the Jacobin Black Lives Matter mob in sackcloth and avoiding the proverbial guillotine. Nike has no problem selling out to an organization that wants to fundamentally restructure society and impose Marxism, but don’t ask it to grapple with the communist system that is enslaving the Uighur people in China — slavery off of which Nike is profiting.
Nike can crusade against “oppression,” but it will have a sour taste as long as it continues to profit from Uighur suffering. Until Nike acknowledges real oppression, no African American should bother purchasing its tainted goods.
Bishop Aubrey Shines is the founder of Glory to Glory Ministries and the chairman of the Conservative Clergy of Color.
Read original article: Washington Examiner