Jess Jackson is a very unhappy man. In fact, the only time I believe he is truly happy is when he is telling the rest of us how oppressed he and black Americans truly are.

The Reverend Jackson weighed in on the controversy over protesting the national anthem and made a startling statement. “To go from picking cotton balls to picking footballs and basketballs without freedom is not very much progress,” Jackson said.

What sort of “freedom” are these multi-millionaire athletes denied? When 99% of men in America would trade places with pro athletes in a heartbeat, it makes one wonder what Jackson’s definition of “freedom” is.

Breitbart reported: “Jackson said the NFL not guaranteeing full contracts and allowing owners to cut National Anthem protesters without having to pay out the full contract, unlike in MLB and the NBA, is “workplace harassment” and ‘illegal.'”

No NFL owners have said they will “cut” anthem protesters. As for non-guaranteed money for NFL players, in a league where the average length of service for some position players is three years due to injury, it makes sense that owners should be able to protect themselves.

Jackson also has an issue with the anthem itself. “The song itself has a great meaning to us, the national anthem, but it’s written by a slave owner, Francis Scott Key,” he said. “Another thing, the third verse, ‘No refuge could save the hireling and slave, From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave.’ That’s in the same song. It was never about the flag. That’s Trump’s issue. The issue was about racial disparity and the issue had to do with Rodney King beaten to death, Trayvon Martin killed and the killer walked free, Diallo killed in New York and the police walk free. So he knelt before the flag. He didn’t desecrate the flag, he didn’t try to burn the flag, he didn’t put up a Confederate flag which is an anti-American flag. My father had to sit behind the Nazi prisoner of war in the military bases with the flag flying. The flag — and this is not about the flag, but the flag must represent all of us and oftentimes it does not.”

Rodney King lived. He was not “beaten to death.” Trayvon Martin attacked and tried to kill a much smaller man who was acquitted by a jury. Same is true for the officers who shot Amadou Diallo. They were tried and acquitted of murder.

Jackson has always had a problem with the truth. He also has an ignorant conception of freedom.