Mere Weeks After Wanting NFL to Give Him Another Chance, Kaepernick Compares Player Evaluation to Slave Auctions
After first saying he wanted to get back on the field, a new Colin Kaepernick special likens the NFL’s draft to slave auctions.
“In the mind of Colin Kaepernick, being a multi-millionaire athlete is like being a slave,” David Hookstead wrote in an Op-Ed on the Daily Caller.
A social media clip from the show illustrates why.
In his Netflix special, Colin Kaepernick suggests the NFL training camp is synonymous with literally buying slaves.
Unreal. pic.twitter.com/slLnks7RPq
— Mythinformed MKE (@MythinformedMKE) October 30, 2021
“What they don’t want you to understand is what’s being established is a power dynamic,” the former San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback says in a clip from the fawning Netflix glorification of all things Kaepernick titled “Colin in Black and White.”
“Before they put you on the field, teams poke, prod and examine you, searching for any defect that might affect your performance,” he said.
“No boundary respect. No dignity left intact,” Kaepernick said, implying the teams are wrong to fully investigate the abilities of those upon whom they will spend millions.
Actors then pass by the narrating Kaepernick before they become slaves in a field being inspected by slave owners before an auction.
Although Kaepernick, 33, has not played in the NFL since 2016, he claims he is still training and ready for the call, according to a CBS review of his comments earlier in October.
“I am still up at 5 a.m. training five, six days a week making sure I’m prepared to take a team to a Super Bowl again,” Kaepernick said in one interview with Ebony.
“That’s not something I will ever let go of, regardless of the actions of 32 teams and their partners to deny me employment. The same way I was persistent in high school is the same way I’m gonna be persistent here.”
In a separate interview, Kaepernick said he wants to make himself into a cause.
“You’re gonna have to continue to deny me and do so in a public way. And you’re gonna expose yourself by that, but it won’t be because I’m not ready or not prepared,” Kaepernick said to Vogue, CBS reported.
“But in that process, I’m also not gonna let you bury my future. I’m gonna continue to do work on the acting and producing side, continue to do the work with Know Your Rights, and make sure we are having an impact. I think that’s the beauty of us collectively — we are not one-dimensional,” he said.
Kaepernick spoke about his Netflix show and the lessons whites should learn.
“Part of what the show speaks to is how whiteness shows up … and how we engage with it … but also the pressures, the microaggressions, the racism, and what that shows up as,” he said, according to CBS.
“I hope it’s an opportunity for White people to be able to look at their actions; how they show up in society and how they are engaging with black and brown folks and look at their own privilege and perspective and be able to take away from this what actions they can take to improve the dynamics and the oppressive nature of systems and positions of power and privilege that they have,” he said.
But Hookstead came away with a different bottom line.
“Is there anyone out there who still believes that we need to take Colin Kaepernick seriously?” he wrote.
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