I was on board with Kaepernick until.... [View all]

[niyad]

I was on board with Kaepernick until....

By Clay Cane

NFL's Kaepernick sits in protest during national anthem


Colin Kaepernick sparked a media firestorm on August 26 when he refused to stand for the national anthem before a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers.
The San Francisco 49ers quarterback explained in an interview, "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." I immediately applauded Kaepernick for using the art of protest to spark a national dialogue. People are dying. We are in the eye of a cultural crisis in America.

. . . .

But here is where Kaepernick lost me: His remarks to the press segued into a rant of the type you hear from the conservative right. He said: "I mean, you have Hillary who's called black teens or black kids super predators. You have Donald Trump who's openly racist. I mean, we have a presidential candidate [Hillary Clinton] who's deleted emails and done things illegally and is a presidential candidate. That doesn't make sense to me, because if that was any other person, you'd be in prison."

To lump Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the same category is wrong, offensive and uninformed. Trump isn't even in the same category as former President George W. Bush or former Vice President Dick Cheney. Donald Trump isn't a Republican or even a conservative. He's a rich, famous alleged businessman who has money to burn and a disturbing case of narcissism.

Kaepernick referenced her 1996 comment "super predators." Sadly, he quoted her as falsely as Donald Trump did. She didn't specifically call black teens or black kids super predators. She was referencing gang culture, but many interpreted the term as racially coded language. I agree, and I despised the term. Nonetheless, Clinton apologized for the words she used 20 years ago that didn't receive mainstream press until she was running for President. Trump won't even directly apologize for an insulting or bigoted comment he made a week ago.

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http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/30/opinions/where-kaepernick-lost-me-cane/