The evidence is everywhere and overwhelming. The United States is tolerant and diverse by world standards. Yet, one easily gets the impression American athletes view their country as a place of intolerance and shame. If that is what they think, and we must hope they do not, these young people are sadly mistaken.

The modern spectacle of kneeling, sitting, and turning from the American flag during the national anthem began with then-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016. It grew increasingly fashionable as athletes followed his lead at Little League, high school, college and professional sporting events.

The trend is so important to athletes that the Colorado Springs-based U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee issued new guidelines that allow and regulate Olympics demonstrations previously prohibited by each organization.

U.S. track and field star Gwen Berry turned from the American flag as the national anthem played at the Olympic Trials. Track athlete Noah Lyles wore a black glove and raised a fist at the trials.

The U.S. Women's Soccer Team took a social-justice knee for 10 seconds before the first match at the Olympics in Tokyo.

It is important for Olympics viewers to understand, from wherever they watch the games, that American athletes protest for civil rights because they are American. Being American in 2021 should mean reviling racism and other manifestations of irrational hatred and intolerance this country fought against for most of two centuries.

In witnessing these protests, understand they do not mean the United States has problems unique to the rest of the world. In the realm of social justice, the United States is better than the rest of the world and one should hope our athletes understand this when they peacefully protest our failures.

It is easy to find rampant slavery, even state-sponsored slavery, in China, other major countries, and throughout much of Africa and the Middle East. The communist Chinese government hogties minorities, mostly punishing Muslims for their religious identities, and transports them like livestock to factories that produce athletic shoes and other low-priced goods for consumers around the globe.

Communist Chinese officials and other tyrants carve up minorities and sell their organs to wealthy medical tourists. Islamic theocracies torture and kill members of the LGBTQ community. Rogue governments openly force abortions and sterilizations on minority women deemed unworthy to reproduce.

Most countries, including neighboring Mexico, have much stricter immigration laws than those of the United States. We want the best and brightest here, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, creed or sexual orientation.

When athletes rightly demand the United States do more for social justice, we should hope they only want to make the most tolerant country more tolerant. They should see their country as the beacon of civil rights and diversity, striving only to make it shine brighter.

Young American athletes cannot possibly look down on their country if armed with the facts about where it came from, where it went, where it is going, and the extraordinarily unique level of diversity and tolerance that makes this society the envy of the world.

Though the facts speak for themselves, without the need for a study, a group of scientists recently proved what seems obvious to people woke to geopolitics: Americans are among the most tolerant people in the world.

Scientists and researchers in Sweden surveyed people in 80 countries in 2020 to determine which populations are the most and least tolerant. They asked participants who they would not want as a neighbor. They based rankings on the percentage of each country's participants who said they would not want to live next door to someone of another race.

As detailed in the World Values Survey, scientists find the United States, Canada, most of South America, Europe, and Australia the most racially tolerant with only 4.9% saying they would object to living next to someone of a different race.

Residents of Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa were the least tolerant, with more than 40% saying they would object to someone of another race.

Chinese and Russian respondents fell in the middle of the tolerance ranking, with up to 20% objecting to someone of another race.

Up to 15% of Mexicans would object to someone of another race, as would up to 10% of Japanese respondents.

Black lives matter. Social justice matters. Diversity matters. Tolerance matters. They matter most right here in the USA, where athletes use the spotlight to demand we do better at ensuring freedom and justice for all who call this country home.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

Photo credit: Free-Photos at Pixabay