Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick saw his football career end after he sparked in protests during the national anthem aimed at bringing attention to police misconduct against minorities. Kaepernick has reacted to the latest example of police brutality against an African-American, coming from the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“When civility leads to death, revolting is the only logical reaction,” Kaepernick wrote on social media. “The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears, because your violence has brought this resistance. We have the right to fight back! Rest in Power George Floyd.”
The murder of George Floyd (and, yes, he was murdered) by police has sparked unrest in Minneapolis and other cities. It’s the latest example of the thing that Kaepernick and others protested.
Most of the others who followed Kaepernick’s lead remain employed by NFL teams. Kaepernick does not, possibly because he’s the one who made other players aware of their right to use the platform provided by the NFL to bring attention to societal issues, in a manner that was problematic for the NFL because the gesture angered a specific segment of the fan base that the NFL did not want to anger.
With plenty of NFL players reacting to the murder of George Floyd, it will be interesting to see whether the protests during the national anthem return to 2016 levels, and in turn whether it becomes an issue in the upcoming national election.
