Friday, March 29, 2024

Kaepernick’s Protest Sure Could Use the Support of White Athletes: USA Today

colin kaepernick & tom brady
Colin Kaepernick & Tom Brady

*Now that more and more are grudgingly realizing that Colin Kaepernick is actually on to something with his boycott of the national anthem, it’s also being realized that the growing protests of NFL athletes is missing out on something that would really help the situation: white athletes, writes Josh Peter from  USA Today Sports:

Long before Colin Kaepernick took a knee, Tom Brady took a pledge.

In part, the pledge reads, “I will speak up whenever I know discrimination is happening and I will stand up for victims.”

But Brady, who took the pledge last year while participating in a Public Service Announcement targeting racism, has offered no public comment on Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem.

Through his silence, the New England Patriots quarterback has underscored a facet of Kaepernick’s ongoing protest that is gaining attention: the limited support of white athletes.

Three women — soccer player Megan Rapinoe and basketball players Jeanette Pohlen and Maggie Lewis — are the only white professional athletes who have knelt during the national anthem as an act of solidarity with Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback.

“The struggle for equality continues and athletes across the lines of race have a shared burden to challenge that system,” Rev. Jesse Jackson told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s not the burden of blacks and Latinos alone to bear.”

Michael Bennett, a defensive end for the Seattle Seahawks, was even more direct on the subject.

“You need a white guy to join the fight,” , told The Seattle Times on Thursday. “The white guy is super important to the fight.

Bennett, who is African American, added:

“For people to really see social injustices, there must be someone from the other side of the race who recognizes the problem, because a lot of times if just one race says there’s a problem, nobody is realistic about it.”

Very interesting. Read the rest of this USA Today Sports report at MSN News.

 

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