this episode really hits in how fucked up it was that steve just handed sam the shield like that and walked away. it’s obvious that bucky (and by extension, steve) can’t understand why it isn’t as easy as picking up the shield and instantly becoming cap for sam. isaiah bradley is living proof of what can happen to a black superhero. the govt readily let sam “give up” the shield bc they were already planning on snatching it (despite it being his choice to retire the shield if he thought it was right, which he did).....I don’t want to imagine what they’d done if sam wanted to keep it. if steve rogers ending wasn’t what it was, and he hadn’t just dropped the shield at sam’s feet and left, idk if it would have gone down like that. obviously steve wouldn’t have “💪🏼😎 stopped racism 😃👍🏼”, but if captain america himself had publicly handed the shield to sam, and stood by him and supported sam the way sam had always supported steve......been sam’s right hand man for once...........well.
