Dear Editor,

I ain’t going to be naive and say sportsmen and women should stick to sports and leave politics and social injustice alone.

When I turn on my television to watch a sport; it’s a chance for me to enjoy myself by getting off stress. I don’t want to turn on my television or go to the National Stadium to watch the Reggae Boyz kneeling when our national anthem is being played in protest against police brutality.

Even the great Muhammad Ali, who chose not to go to war, was an off-the-field issue not an on-the-field issue. They should take racism out of the National Football League issue.

I always hear that when ‘Mericka’ sneezes we catch a cold. All I can say is I hope this doesn’t catch on and the Reggae Boyz or others try that with us football fans, because we will boo or walk out.

On Tuesday, September 26 at 10:08 pm, I saw a surprise retweet from one of our ‘cultural icons’, Fae Ellington: “Please @realDonaldTrump! What do you mean EVEN #UsainBolt? There you go again, belittling. Don’t mix up Usain or Jamaica in your mess.”

This is the cultural warrior I stood with against Ishawna dissing our national print — the bandana. Now, because of her bias, she can’t see the big picture here, instead she focuses on “even”. Even Ishawna knows what Trump meant. Am I dissing Ishawna by using ‘even’? I hope she doesn’t think so. I’m just using her as an example in this case as a stranger with regard to US culture; just like Usain who is a stranger to the US culture.

One thing with the majority of us Jamaicans is that we respect our flag, anthem and culture. We also show respect to our country’s culture too.

Bolt, don’t let people like Fae Ellington draw you out to diss Trump for no reason.

Teddylee Gray

Ocho Rios, St Ann

teddylee.gray@gmail.com