When a co-worker’s “free speech” feels like hate speech…

49ers’ Nick Bosa wore a hat on national TV Sunday night with four words that said more to his teammates and fans than he probably ever will.

As an artist who works in sports, this got me thinking: why do most of our favorite artists (Taylor, Beyonce, Eminem) tend to endorse certain types of political candidates while some of your favorite athletes (Favre, LT, Bosa) tend to go for the other?

I’m an artist; we’re sensitive and empathetic to the plight of others, especially those who are not like us because those people are our friends. To be honest, we ARE the “others.”

But think about athletes—people who wear uniforms. They’re used to thinking and behaving uniformly, and don’t care as much about people not wearing the same jersey. Why vote for something to help “another team?”

Of course, NOT ALL athletes. I’m just thinking out loud here…

While the “artist-type” is concerned that someone might DIE if they don’t get the right healthcare, or our friends might be discriminated against, or the earth (literally anything about the earth)—things bigger than us.

The “uniform type” is irrationally concerned that a “man” might play a woman’s sport (someone they don’t understand). Or keeping people off a “field” they themselves stole. Or that their bacon might be a little pricey.

It’s no coincidence why major cities with lots of "others" tend to be more liberal while places where people are more “uniform” tend to be less tolerable and empathetic to “others.”

Kaepernick—an athlete who, not surprisingly, now works in the arts—took a knee to bring attention to something bigger than himself.

Bosa hated this—I’m sure because, like the rest of his type, he’s too close-minded to understand or at least empathize with WHY.

Yet, Sunday he wore his “confederate flag” hat on national TV. However, when asked about it, he cowered and didn’t want to explain.

But honestly, did he really need to? We ALL know what kind of person wears that hat. You don’t have to say a word.

But Bosa didn’t want to talk more about the hat because what would inevitably have come out is a similar “anti everybody not in my uniform” rhetoric as his master. That’s why the hat-wearers like their master so much—he says the vile, disgusting things his worshippers can’t.

Imagine Bosa being honest about wanting to take us back to a time when most of his own teammates didn’t have the same basic rights as him. Or the women working for the team couldn’t. Or immigrants had to be the janitor!

I wish people like Bosa could spend more time with people who don’t wear his uniform. Life is too nuanced to be so... short-sighted. It’s so much bigger than the little place you grew up where everybody read the same book growing up and strived to be the same thing.

I hope we can get to a place where the Bosas of the world can stop allowing their “anti” attitude toward others to guide them. They’re missing out on some really dope people.

What would you do if a co-worker made it clear through fashion how they felt about you?