I agree it’s ridiculous to frame this in terms of “white people”. It is all about green people, i.e., the dollar. This is all about private employees working for private corporations so it is completely up to the corporations to decide what their employees can do or cannot do if they want to keep their jobs (although there is a union here that adds to this equation in the case of NFL). They almost always base what they decide on financial considerations, which is how corporations operate. There is no freedom of speech involved, although the corporations are certainly taking into account the paying public’s perception of freedom of speech versus public concerns about “patriotism” as they decide what to do or not do. The NFL as well as Nike seem to lean more toward the freedom of speech angle than toward the patriotism angle, but what I am saying here is that this is based on marketing and not on conviction.
And, unlike if this related to public schools for example, the government HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. And that includes the President.