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When Steve Rogers wakes up from cryogenisation in 2012, the world isn't what he once knew. From the Avengers, he learns about the changes in society and he must admit, he is mostly happy with it. He doesn't understand everything, like why Nat hates being told to smile, or why the Spiderkid doesn't like the name and gender on his birth certificate, but he decides he doesn't need to. Nat should only smile when she feels like it, and if Peter wants to be called a he, that's enough reason for Steve to do so.
As the time passes, he sees racism showing up with the hate the Black Lives Matter movement gets. One day after a mission a bakery sends the Avengers a 'thank you' gift adressed to 'The Avengers', with all of their hero names, except for Falcon and War Machine, who aren't mentionned at all. They don't eat the cookies.
An exhausted Stephen Strange tells him he had to take another doctor's surgery because the patient refused to 'put his life in the hands of a chinese'. Steve just stares in disbelief. The other doctor was singaporean, by the way.
He helps a black teenager who just got mugged and doesn't understand why they refuse to call the police. An old lady says they were probably carrying drugs and Steve frowns. When he mentions it to Sam, his friend explains how —and why— for most people of color, 'police' doesn't mean security and trust but danger and fear. Steve thinks about World War II, and how jewish europeans must have felt the same back then.
Then he sees the #notallmen and asks what it is. Nat tells him about it, about how it started. Hope talks about the every day sexism she faces at work. Pepper explains the fear of walking at night or just go outside alone and how she started to notice the looks before she even finished middle school. Scott says he needs to hear the voice of his ten years old daughter and Steve feels sick.
A man shows up asking for Dr Cho and she begs them to pretend she's not here. Steve asks her why and she talks about her ex and the years of abuse he put her through. Bruce turns green and the Hulk almost kills the guy. Steve knows he should stop him, but for a few minutes, he doesn't want to try.
On a morning run, a random guy asks him how he manages to work with a 'slut so desperate for attention'. He doesn't understand. When he opens twitter, #scarlettwitchislying is trending with insults everywhere. The day before, Wanda used the #metoo. He deletes his account.
Someone on TV says homosexuality will be punished by God. Thor says it's dumb and that the gods couldn't care less, they do it all the time. Steve thinks God shouldn't punish love anyway.
Peter says he's going to Pride and asks Nat and Tony to come too (as they're both out), 'in case the homophobes go too violent and numerous for Spider-Man to handle alone'. They accept immediately. Bucky decides to tag along and come out at the same time. Days after, Steve sees an awful drawing of the four heroes on Instagram, with the caption 'I hope they die'. Almost all the comments agree. Steve pukes.
Then comes the debate on abortion. People on TV call it a crime. Bruce called it healthcare and Pepper thanked him. Wanda says just because she wants kids doesn't mean all women have to want them too. Hill talks about how her abortion saved her life.
On TV, a journalist asks Tony for his opinion. Because, you know, he is a cisgender man with no uterus and therefore is totally concerned. He says his opinion is to let people who can get pregnant decide whatever the fuck they want to do with their bodies. Another journalist talks about Natasha and how she can't have kids because of the Red Room's mutilation. Tony precises 'biological'. The journalist says that, well, anyway it's awful that she can't be pregnant. Tony says no, what's really awful is that she doesn't have the choice, because other people decided to take the control of her own body away from her. Steve turns off the TV. Natasha doesn't look well. He asks if she wants to talk about it and she tells him everything : how she wanted kids, how the mutilation hurt, how people made her feel like a monster for being sterile. How she used to hate herself for being jealous of Clint, how Peter made her feel like a mother, made her feel whole again. How she hates it when now, people use her story to argue that women who can be pregnant SHOULD have children. For the first time, Steve sees Natasha Romanoff cry. He wants to punish the world for every single one of her tears.
Then all the transphobia. Clint takes in one of his daughter's friends for a while, after she was thrown out of her home for saying the truth : that she was a girl. And Steve just can't get it, how could someone be so horrible to their own child ?
'Protect trans kids', Peter says, 'like I was protected. But in this broken world, I am the exception and not the rule.' The teenager comes home injured one day. He wasn't on patrol. Steve looses it. Enough is enough.
As time has passed, he has made his hero suit look less and less like the american flag without even noticing it. He impulsively takes his old star-spangled uniform and burns it in the middle of Central Park. Someone films. Says 'The National Hero's costume was just set on fire by Captain America himself...' and Steve cringes. 'Don't call me that '.
Journalists come for answers so he gives them.
'I can't wear it anymore.', he says, so they ask, 'The costume or the name ?'. 'Both', he answers, and he doesn't even bother smiling.
'I used to be proud of my country.' He explains one day. 'Now I'm ashamed of it. I've come to hate this flag.' And people want to know, 'What happened ?'. But it's simple really, Steve thinks. 'I listened to those you wouldn't let speak. Look around ! Don't you see what we've made of this country ? The United States of America were supposed to be the land of Freedom. It's a land of hate and oppression. I refuse to be a symbol for that.'
'What are you gonna do ?' Someone asks. 'It's an endless fight.' But Steve doesn't care. He can do this all day.
'I've arrested people who deserved help and protected people who deserved prison, just because I was told to', he says, because it's the truth. 'And the more I think about it, the less I see how it makes me a hero, but makes Bucky Barnes a monster, when I had free will and he didn't.'
And Steve reminds everyone : 'I'm a white, christian man, a hundred years old, heterosexual and cisgender. I see the discrimination. I see the injustice. If I can understand it's wrong, what's your excuse ?'
The internet goes wild with hateful rage and euphoric applause, loud threats and quiet thank yous. Faceless names call him 'woke' like it's an insult and Steve wonders. Why are they so proud to be asleep ?
'Don't call me Captain America' he says again, because that's not who he is. He is just Steve Rogers, the skinny, always sick boy from Brooklyn, who only stops fighting when the wrongs are rightened. His friends are proud of him. He knows Peggy and his 'Ma would be, too.