Photo Credit: Colin Kaepernick/Instagram
Colin Kaepernick 6 episode limited Netflix series Colin in Black & White debuted over the weekend where he compared the NFL’s tactics to slavery. He said “what they don’t want you to understand is what’s being established is a power dynamic. Before they put you on the field, teams poke, prod and examine you searching for any defect that might affect your performance. No boundary respect. No dignity left intact.”
In one scene, the NFL prospects morphed into slaves while white slave owners cracked whips at them. “Look at this here! Come on! Who wants this?” the auctioneer shouted. And this didn’t come without criticism. Utah GOP Rep Burgess Owens tweeted, “How dare @Kaepernick7 compare the evil endured by so many of our ancestors to a bunch of millionaires who CHOSE to play game.”
Others in objection include actor and comedian Matt Walsh who tweeted, “Kaepernick spent half a decade crying that NFL teams wouldn’t give him a shot and now he’s decided that actually being an NFL player is like being a slave. This dude is the most obvious and shameless con artist in modern American history.”
Kaepernick spent half a decade crying that NFL teams wouldn’t give him a shot and now he’s decided that actually being an NFL player is like being a slave.
This dude is the most obvious and shameless con artist in modern American history.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 30, 2021
Radio host Clay Travis added, “Colin Kaepernick compares the NFL combine, which allows all players of all races a voluntary chance to become multi-millionaires, to slavery. Anyone still defending this imbecile lacks a functional brain.”
Here’s the issue. Over the last 5 years we saw people upset at peaceful protest which was Kaepernick kneeling. The former president Trump lost re-election wasting his time doing things like fighting with NFL players on Twitter instead of trying to get his agenda passed. And then when police brutality continued without chage and criminal justice reform still an issue, that’s when rioting started. It became a scenario of d*mned if you do and d*mned if you don’t.
There’s also a narrative of high paying jobs somehow being acceptable in being able to abuse people ie NFL players and therefore their issues and what they want to advocate for simply gets ignored by default. So therefore films like this and the points of view of people like Colin Kaepernick are necessary. And at the end of the day, if these people don’t like it, don’t watch it. This was always about criminal justice reform and we know that some people never have and will not have concern about this so the regular voices in objection will always continue.
