Don’t compare NFL protests with civil rights marches in the 1960s

In his identity politics commentary (“Why do whites oppose NFL protests,” Sept. 29 Review-Journal), Steve Chapman wonders about the “fury and disgust among whites” regarding the current NFL protests. He then equates the reaction to the NFL protests, Black Lives Matter and other sports team demonstrations to the reaction to Martin Luther King’s protests in the 1960s.

Certainly, many reactions to the Rev. King’s nonviolent marches were terrible and criminal. But the Rev. King never disrespected our flag, chanted false narratives such as, “Hands up, don’t shoot” or chanted for “dead cops.”

Any equivalence between the current protests and the ’60s protests only diminishes the memory of Martin Luther King Jr.

I expect in Mr. Chapman’s next column he might demand a Colin Kaepernick federal holiday.