Chapter Text
Sam Wilson didn't realize at first how his actions as a person would effect his persona as Captain America. Well, he had thought about it in the same way you think about how one meal might effect your diet. His actions and the press they might garner were a nebulous thing floating around, void of substance and therefore consequences. He responded to the injustices he saw around him just like Steve did, but there were marked differences that the media had a field day with.
Sam Wilson was loud against the gentrification of poor minority neighborhoods. Sam Wilson actively supported all Black Lives Matter functions. Sam Wilson publicly spoke against police brutality and profiling. But all anyone that was used to Steve saw was Captain America doing things that they felt didn't represent everyone. He avoided any questions comparing the two of them to each other for months. He refused to do that to Steve. The mantle would look different for each person and right now it was his. His deflection of these questions didn't go unnoticed to the media or his team. After a particularly grueling press conference with himself, The Winter Soldier, and Captain Marvel, Bucky pulled him to the side.
"Stevie wouldn't want you to protect him."
I'm not trying to..."
"No, Sam, listen. He was our friend, and he was amazing, but he wasn't perfect. He focused his entire life on fighting the injustices the effected the entire world, but when it came to his own community he didn't know where to start. He was so out of place that he always felt like he was playing catch up. But you know. You were raised here. You know a fear that, though we knew existed, we never experienced for ourselves. Stop holding your tongue for Steve. Go answer that last question."
Sam tracked down the reporter that had last tried to compare their stances. When they asked again for Sam to explain why his actions seemed more politically and racially motivated than Steve's, he was ready.
"In the 1940's, America needed to know the story of a poor, frail man that was marked as 'failure to thrive' and cast off by those around him. They needed Captain America to look like them, and to be an underdog that came out swinging. They needed Steven Grant Rogers.
"There are issues now that were issues then, but we can speak about them now. America looks different, and needs a different perspective from the person that holds the shield. I'm not trying to use my position to guilt anyone, but there are messed up things in our communities that I won't ignore just because it makes a group of middle class white people uncomfortable. Be mad, be uncomfortable, and be the change."