You may think he is an idiot. But firing up his base is a deliberative and successful strategy… Plus Colin is pathetic, especially since he was abandoned by his black parents and raised by white folks…Talk about white privledge…he enjoyed all the benefits
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As I said, anybody getting into white/black is calling racism into the debate.
Strategy? You mean the paid actors in every rally that are told to show “some enthusiasm” or they get kicked out?
Colin is just doing what his girlfriend says…He never was political before he met her…In fact his football career was already on the skids…Without Trump he would have drifted into anonymous status…Trump made his Nike career…Colin should send Trump a comisssion
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Funny, how you brought this up… we ALL wouldn’t be here with our fine Pres if everyone did vote. By exercising his right to not vote, Mr. Kneeler doesn’t have a say then, just like all those people who didn’t vote. How does Mr. Kneeler plan to Effect change then, if not, via the voting in of leaders aligned with your ideology? Wishful thinking? Praying? Colin happened to luckily tap on something that will unfortunately keep him famous and provide him with some income stream. He couldn’t do it on the gridiron because he was either too lazy or simply not gifted enough.
Colin hasn’t played successfully since 2013…In 14 and 15 he played poorly and was benched…He is a has been 5 years out…Nobody will hire him because he is poor player…He created this controversy to help get publicity…Looks like it paid off with Nike…But don’t kid yourself…He is no saint and certainly no longer a football player…He is worth $20m…Nike deal will get him even more…He chose to throw away hi $126m deal with the 49ers…His choice to be a free agent…Bad call…
Kaepernick’s deal with Nike has surely proved a smoother ride than the one he signed with the 49ers in 2014. Fresh from leading the franchise to two consecutive NFC championship games and Super Bowl XLVII, the quarterback penned a seven-year deal worth $126 million.
Despite initial reports the deal included a guaranteed $61 million, according to Business Insider, Kaepernick only received approximately $39.4 million, roughly 31 percent of the amount that was initially touted.
The deal did include a $12.3 million signing bonus but it also gave the 49ers the chance to cut the quarterback without owing him any money after the first year of the contract. It then emerged than the $61 million in guaranteed money was only guaranteed in the event of the quarterback suffering a career-ending injury.
During the 2016 season, Kaepernick restructured his deal with the 49ers and eventually opted out of his contract in March 2017, in a bid to explore his free agency options after fearing the 49ers were going to cut him.
However, he has been without a team ever since and last week it was confirmed his lawsuit against the NFL will go to a trial.
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Hey Colin,
These two could use some of your great leadership and advice (legal help too)…
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There’s a shocking lack of parenting these days thanks to single parent families. No one will blame that, since it’d polarize voters against anyone mentioning it. Instead, they’ll blame others for why their children turned out the way they did. Labeling people as victims gets them to vote for you.
Dudes, I remind you about “just do it”. He did it, suffered the consequences, he lost lots of $ millions in the process because he had a conscience about “POLICE BRUTALITY”, not white oppression, nothing else.
Learn to understand his position, it is not about white/black.
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NOT MY WORDS, THIS IS THE OPINION OF:
From pastor John Pavlovitz:
"Colin Kaepernick was right about us, white America.
He was right to kneel because when he did, he fully exposed us.
He exposed us as we became viscerally disgusted, not by the reckless disregard of black lives, but by the earnest and open declaration of black grief at their premature passing.
He exposed us when we felt it was our right to tell another human being how to express their personal freedoms, during an anthem supposedly devoted to celebrating those personal freedoms.
He exposed us when we treasured flags and songs over flesh and blood; when we repeatedly ignored dissenting facts in order to hold on to our easy and lazy outrage.
He exposed us when we chose to listen to the words of a divisive white President over athletes of color, as to their motives and intentions.
He exposed us as we had the stratospheric nerve to lecture him about the right way for him to protest as a citizen of this country.
He exposed us when we chastised him for the manner in which he expressed his freedom, because it was a little too “free” for us.
He exposed us as we saw all of these things, and still remained silent.
And he’s exposing us now, those of us who are burning shoes and cutting up socks and boycotting Nike—because a strong man of color who will not be shamed into silence or allow us to make the rules, still makes our blood boil—which is the most telling and tragic truth of all.
Privilege is a terrible disease, because it is invisible to those most fully afflicted with it. When most deeply in the throes of the heart sickness, they cannot see themselves, or the reality of the moment. They do not require data to be disgusted or truth to craft the narrative of their suffering.
They simply feel fear, even when it is unfounded; oppression, even when there is none; offensive, even when they have no cause.
If you’re seething right now, this is a symptom.
If still you’re doubling down on some imagined defense of “America” while simultaneously seeking to deny people of color America’s most elemental liberties—you’re proving Colin Kaepernick right.
If you’re still refusing to believe the player’s voices over the one in your head or in a President’s tweets or in an angry country singer’s rants—you’re showing why Kaepernick was correct to protest from the very beginning.
You’re confirming the very reason his knee first hit the turf two-year ago: because too many white people want to go through life undisturbed by any reality of their advantages.
They will do anything not to be inconvenienced by the ugly realities of a system that they are the greatest beneficiaries of.
They will be profoundly pissed off when a person of color intrudes on their entertainment with a dose of sobering truth about life and death.
They will follow the most convoluted, nonsensical thought lines, if this allows them to quiet marginalized people and to evade culpability for their own prejudices toward those marginalized people.
It isn’t surprising that the folks so violently shaken by Colin Kaepernick, profess to defend a freedom they don’t like him exercising.
They’re the same ones saying that they love both America—and a draft-dodging, Russian-beholden, POW-belittling President.
They’re the same people who say they want to rewind and reclaim America’s “greatness”, while ignoring how much suffering and injustice that supposed greatness created for so many.
They’re the same people who claim allegiance to both Jesus and to Donald Trump.
Cognitive dissonance doesn’t register when you’re white and terrified of losing your dominance.
By kneeling, Colin Kaepernick let us do the work for him.
He didn’t need to belabor the point, he just let us show ourselves.
He allowed white America’s responses to reveal who we are.
He saw something ugly in us that we didn’t and still don’t want to see.
And he was right.
I don’t feel like part of that white pastors’ “us”, but I’m glad he’s had his moment of white conversion and has seen the light.
Living in the Bay Area, I don’t see things as white dominance. It’s White/Asian dominance. And whites are going to have to keep up with the Asians to stay dominant. I don’t at all see blacks dominating things here. Good luck, I do wish them the level playing field to try, though.
I guess my only response is, ask all these folks who are defending The Kneeler whether it is their position and belief too that one should refrain from even trying to effect change by not actively participating by voting, a cornerstone of our democracy that many people, black or white, fought for.
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I’ve missed the “not voting” part of the discussion–not sure where that came from. (I’m also still unpacking and have been skimming threads. Sorry)
You can’t change politics by not voting. You also can’t really change it by voting because you are one peon in the midst of a million. You can change politics by running, and you can change it by donating enough money to sway people via advertising. But if you’re going to do that, definitely throw your vote in with your money.
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The biggest issue is people are demanding equal outcomes. Equal opportunity and equal outcome aren’t the same thing. The quest for equal outcomes has actually started to penalize certain groups. Just look at the lawsuit against Harvard for rejecting Asian students.
It’s the same thing with criminal justice reform. People want prison demographics to match US demographics. They are pursuing polices to achieve it regardless of which groups commit crimes more frequently. The people that match crime report demographics to prison demographics say there’s no discrimination. There can’t even be a discussion about why rates of committing crime vary by group. It immediately turns into accusations of racism and demands for equal outcomes.
There’s a ton of data that suggest single parenthood leads to much higher chances of bad outcomes for kids:
No one will talk about it, or how in certain demographics the number of single parent families has significantly increases. It’s all about labeling those people victims and blaming others.
It wasn’t always that way. The rates used to be very close by race.
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Got it thanks. Well, that’s pretty ironic and funny. Truth is, of course, that with the money he has, he just doesn’t care.
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PS: I still think he and the other NFL players are free to take the knee.
And people are free to blast his voting record and call him a hypocrite.
Welcome to America, land of free speech.
Now, time to buy stock in tennis shoes… That is also American… making a buck off the news.
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Ok, since you are thinking about rejoining the work force, please keep in mind that Colin is kneeling on company time, not on personal time. Yes, it is not a written rule that one must stand for the national anthem but we all know about company norms/traditions and such to know that if you go against the grain at work you just might get fired.
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not sure there is free speech. i got lambasted for using certain words and phrases.
People can use their free speech to criticize you. Free speech only means the government can’t make laws to punish you for it.
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