The NFL is renewing its “anti-racism” campaign launched as a result of former player Colin Kaepernick’s anti-American national anthem protests, which began in 2016.
For a seventh consecutive year, the NFL will place its so-called “anti-racism” messages on fields at stadiums across the country as well as on player helmets, Front Office Sports reported.
The helmet decal in particular goes back to 2020 and was added to the league’s anti-racism messaging after convicted criminal and drug addict George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis.
For 2027, the campaign will feature on-field messaging, helmet decals, performances of the so-called “Black National Anthem,” and a renewed contract with rapper Jay-Z and Roc Nation for various performances and entertainment programs.
The virtue signaling began after Kaepernick started taking a knee and refusing to stand at attention during the U.S. national anthem. He often pumped a militant black power fist during the anthem, as well. Fans and apologists claimed that Kaepernick was taking a principled stand against “police brutality” and “racism,” but while he would later also claim that was what he was doing, he did not initially avow such noble goals.
When he first began his protests in 2016, former NFL player Colin Kaepernick said quite directly that he could not stand for the American flag. His protest was a direct attack on the flag and the country, and he said so in his own words in August of 2016.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder,” Kaepernick said.
Kaepernick gave other clues about the nature of his protests in 2016, as well. For instance, he wore a shirt praising Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, a mass murderer, and self-professed enemy of America. Kaepernick also showed that he was not just protesting the few police that misbehave when he wore socks that portrayed all police officers as pigs.
Also, in 2016, Kaepernick said that the U.S. was never great, noting that he was standing up against the whole country in general, not just in support of “social justice,” with his anthem protests.
The former NFL player also made his protest about the flag when he forced Nike to ditch its Betsy Ross flag shoes in 2019. Nike announced that it intended to release a patriotic gym shoe with a Betsy Ross Flag theme until Kaepernick ginned up the anti-American left to attack Nike for the proposal. In one of his broadsides against Nike, Kaepernick even claimed that the U.S. Betsy Ross flag was a “symbol of slavery.”
Unsurprisingly, Nike immediately caved in and dumped the plans for the patriotic shoe.
Since then, he has also accused the NFL itself of treating players like “slaves.” He made the accusation as part of his Colin in Black and White series in which he accused the NFL of treating black players as if they were on slave auction blocks.
It should also be remembered that Kaepernick is still no longer playing pro football because he turned down every opportunity he was offered to come back to the NFL.
Kaepernick turned down an off from the San Francisco 49ers to stay on the team in 2017 because he wanted more money. He turned down several opportunities after that, too, not to mention his act of making a circus out of the NFL’s workout offer in 2019.
Kaepernick has not played pro football since the end of the 2016 season, and his staunch fans claim it is because the NFL is “racist” and that Kaepernick was “blackballed” for his principled stance against police brutality and racism. And the NFL quickly moved to glom onto his “anti-racism” ideas to soften the criticism it was taking for blocking Kaeperniick from returning to pro football.
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