In case you missed it over the weekend, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick -- who was benched for mediocre play in 2016, then saw his career screech to a halt after going (1-10) as a starter the following season -- published the following two tweets, back-to-back. This juxtaposition is absolutely real, although it could easily be mistaken for satire:
Black ppl have been dehumanized, brutalized, criminalized + terrorized by America for centuries, & are expected to join your commemoration of “independence”, while you enslaved our ancestors. We reject your celebration of white supremacy & look forward to liberation for all. ??? pic.twitter.com/YCD2SYlgv4
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 4, 2020
I am excited for this partnership with Disney across all of its platforms to elevate Black and Brown directors, creators, storytellers & producers. I look forward to sharing culturally impactful and inspiring projects. https://t.co/MXidGoWXNZ
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 6, 2020
He rejected July 4 as a "celebration of white supremacy" in this supposedly rotten country, then turned around the very next day and unveiled his lucrative new contract with one of the most iconic American corporations on the planet. Details, via ESPN:
His deal with The Walt Disney Co. will extend across all Disney platforms, including Walt Disney Television, ESPN, Hulu, Pixar and The Undefeated. "During this unprecedented time, The Walt Disney Company remains committed to creating diverse and inclusive content that resonates and matters," said Bob Iger, Disney's executive chairman. "Colin's experience gives him a unique perspective on the intersection of sports, culture and race, which will undoubtedly create compelling stories that will educate, enlighten and entertain, and we look forward to working with him on this important collaboration." The docuseries chronicling Kaepernick's journey and his last five years is the first project in development.
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This "important collaboration" includes a failed ESPN personality and hyper-woke, race-obsessed "journalist" as a featured producer. You'll also recall that athletic shoe and sportswear behemoth Nike (which engages in virtue-signaling preening at home, while kowtowing to racist, abusive communists abroad) has also shoveled piles of cash at Kaepernick. They inked him to a rich sponsorship deal, built a "courage"-themed marketing blitz around him, and have gone so far as to give him effective veto power over their products (he personally intervened to nix America-themed shoes that offended his anti-American sensibilities). Being the face of racial grievance and performative wokeness has its advantages these, and one of those advantages entails many zeroes on your checks, which are best understood as corporate protection payments. The mob is running rampant, literally and figuratively, and major companies are desperate to keep them at bay. Part of their strategy for doing so involves showering money upon Kaepernick. The NFL is similarly groveling.
It's all developed into an extremely lucrative racket for the ex-player, whose political "awakening" coincided with his performance-based professional shortcomings. Prior to his failure on the field, Kaepernick tweeted innocuous Independence Day greetings to fans. Now that he's got a new gig, it's all about "white supremacy" and slavery. And big corporations are lining up to pay out indulgences. At least we can finally bury the lie that this has always represented a principled, focused stand against police brutality, as opposed to a broad indictment of America itself. Many of us acknowledge our nation's past sins and current flaws, while also supporting police reform. But that's not what this is about. Fervently anti-Trump conservative Quin Hillyer (who recently wrote in praise of the president's Mount Rushmore speech, which has provoked dishonest and unhinged responses in American newsrooms) notes how the record is clear:
“We reject your celebration of white supremacy and look forward to liberation for all,” tweeted Kaepernick about the Fourth of July, because, he said, “black people have been dehumanized, brutalized, criminalized and terrorized by America for centuries and are expected to join your commemoration of independence, while you enslaved our ancestors.” This precisely echoes the original reason he gave for beginning his protests at NFL games in 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,” he said then. This was not a protest against police violence and racism that just happened to occur during the anthem; it was specifically targeted at the anthem and flag so as to blame the country as such for the ills Kaepernick was protesting. The message was not that the nation per se had a flawed past and that vestiges remained in some people’s hearts and minds in a way that even well-intentioned laws and institutions had not yet eradicated. No, the message was that the institutions themselves were deliberately racist and oppressive and that the nation itself was unworthy of pride. So, yes, all of this “kneeling during the anthem” stuff was and is about “disrespecting the flag of the United States of America.”
At least that was how it was manifested by Kaepernick, who his now reaping the financial benefits of his anti-patriotism, enriched by companies and organizations that evidently have little-to-no problem with depicting police officers as pigs or blowing kisses at murderous Communist dictators. I'll leave you with a Fourth of July tweet from someone who is profoundly thankful for the freedoms and opportunities afforded to her in this country -- which has given so much to blinkered ingrates like Kaepernick, today's poster child for American self-loathing:
I arrived in the USA as 4-year-old immigrant Muslim girl from India. America gave me freedoms I could have never lived in any Muslim country, to run with my dog ?? Lily, my hair free in the wind, my mind free, my voice free. #HappyFourthOfJuly ???? pic.twitter.com/4KGLlLAzWP
— Asra Q. Nomani (@AsraNomani) July 4, 2020
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