Abraham Marquez was a Party for Socialism and Liberation activist. On 16 September 2016, he spoke at the Los Angeles Socialist Forum about football player Colin Kaepernick's protest against the US government by kneeling during the national anthem. He claimed that "The Star-Spangled Banner" was a racist, pro-slavery, and anti-black song, and that the US flag flew over centuries of slavery, the "extermination" of the Native Americans, over "countless war crimes", the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the same flag that was stitched on the uniform of every "cop killer", insulting both the US flag and the national anthem.