*Adam Carolla has turned Colin Kaepernick’s Afro into his latest target, claiming the former NFL quarterback intentionally changed his appearance to look Blacker.
Carolla criticized Kaepernick during the Sept. 21 episode of his podcast, according to Yahoo Entertainment. He compared Kaepernick’s current hairstyle with photos from his younger years and called him a “race hustler.”
“You don’t present as Black! The reason you have a 26 foot Afro now is you’re trying to present as Black,” Carolla said, according to Mediaite. “You don’t present as Black! It drives me nuts.”
Carolla continued by commenting on Kaepernick’s appearance in earlier photos. “He looked like a Syrian cab driver. He does not look like a Black guy,” he said.
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The podcaster said he would have guessed several other ethnic backgrounds before identifying Kaepernick as Black. “It’d take me a long time to get to Black,” Carolla said.
Carolla then broadened his argument to include former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris. He accused all three biracial public figures of emphasizing their Black heritage while minimizing other parts of their backgrounds.
Kaepernick grew up with white adoptive parents in Turlock, California. His experiences with race and identity have become part of his newly released memoir, “The Perilous Fight.” Carolla invoked that upbringing while questioning Kaepernick’s racial presentation. He offered his own interpretation of Kaepernick’s identity but provided no evidence that the hairstyle represents an attempt to appear Blacker.
The remarks arrive as Kaepernick revisits the protest that transformed his public life. He began kneeling during the national anthem in 2016 to protest racial injustice and police brutality. His memoir arrived Sept. 15 and quickly reached a major publishing milestone. EURweb previously reported that “The Perilous Fight” debuted atop The New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction bestseller list.
The book examines Kaepernick’s childhood, football career, racial identity and activism. It also revisits the events surrounding his anthem protest.
Carolla’s comments came as Kaepernick continued promoting the memoir and reflecting publicly on the decade since his protest began.
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