*Former NFL player and current NBC analyst Rodney Harrison has apologized on Twitter after calling out Colin Kaepernick as “not black.”
In an interview Tuesday with iHeartRadio about Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem until America addresses racial inequality, Harrison suggested that the San Francisco 49ers quarterback can’t possibly understand racism because he isn’t black.
“I tell you this, I’m a black man. And Colin Kaepernick — he’s not black,” Harrison said. “He cannot understand what I face and what other young black men and black people face, or people of color face, on an every single [day] basis. When you walk in a grocery store, and you might have $2,000 or $3,000 in your pocket and you go up in to a Foot Locker and they’re looking at you like you about to steal something.
“You know, I don’t think he faces those type of things that we face on a daily basis.”
Kaepernick, the biological child of a white mother and black father, was adopted and raised by white parents.
Harrison took to Twitter later Tuesday to apologize for the remarks, saying he “never even knew [Kaepernick] was mixed.”
I never intended to offend anyone , I was trying to speak about my experiences as a African American.
— Rodney Harrison (@Rodney_Harrison) August 30, 2016
I apologize to anyone that I offended , wasn’t meant to be hurtful to anyone. God bless
— Rodney Harrison (@Rodney_Harrison) August 30, 2016
Last point I want people to know. I never even knew he was mixed.
— Rodney Harrison (@Rodney_Harrison) August 30, 2016
I should not have called Colin Kaepernick’s race into question during this morning’s radio interview. It was a mistake and I apologize.
— Rodney Harrison (@Rodney_Harrison) August 30, 2016
Harrison said earlier Tuesday that he thinks Kaepernick’s “heart is in the right place, I just think he’s going about it the wrong way.” He added that sitting during the national anthem isn’t going to cause a change, and it will upset people who “served before his time” to “give him the freedoms, the liberties and the opportunities that he has to be able to make the money he has, the ability to speak and have a voice.”
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