After receiving so much praise about being a black athlete who decided to take a knee instead of pledging his allegiance, Colin Kaepernick shamelessly admits that he did not find his way to the polls.
When asked by a reporter if he had early voted Kaepernick replied, “no.”
The reporter then asked if he planned on voting, where Kaepernick still replied, “no”.
Problematic and disappointing.
Like many of us, I am just as shocked, confused and full of eye rolls. Here you have an influential athlete who is constantly making the news with his waves of silent protests across the NFL and he has done one of the most inconsiderate things in an effort to “stay woke”. Aside from him not exercising his right to vote, we have encountered a bigger problem.
I do not fully believe he knows the influence that he has on young black males wanting to be where he is one day. Sure, it is perfectly fine to take a knee instead of pledging your allegiance to a country you feel does not love you or your people, however Mr. Kaepernick, how do you expect to correct the problem of race relations and civic injustices when you cannot even go to the polls to allow your vote to count?
Physical activism is not the only way to make that difference people. When you do not go out to these polls to vote, especially in citywide elections, you are now apart of the problem and have ultimately given up the right that you are fighting so hard for. Kaepernick is a prime example of how activism and stubbornness cohesively live together when you do not understand that voting is also a form of activism.
What I fail to understand is that how someone of this much influence decided not to vote and said so in a nonchalant manner. Colin, our children, cousins, and younger brothers are looking to you, you had no excuse not to vote. To many of these boys he is their Clark Kent who has traded in his signature “s curl” and red cape for an afro and a 49ers jersey, but now what? What do we tell these children who have been told to vote when they turn 18, but see that Colin did not?
Kaepernick’s excuse is not only selfish but a little confusing at the same time considering that he wants to change the system so bad.
“To me, it didn’t really matter who went in there,” Kaepernick said. “The system still remains intact that oppresses people of color.”
If that is the truth you stand by, then why not go out and vote? It is understandable the neither candidate was favorable in the eyes of most Americans, however you still have a duty to fulfil, especially when you are fighting for a cause such as Black Lives Matter. If we go back 50 years, we are back at the Civil Rights Movement where many black people were killed, beaten and mentally traumatized just to receive the benefits that we have now.
Yes, we have benefits. The access to free speech as black people, the right to take a knee as a black NFL player, the freedom to walk outside and go to the polls as black people…the list goes on. I understand that we are not living in equality, however we have come a long way since then and can only progress more if we put our selfish tendencies to the side.
This whole wave of “I’m not voting” is literally one of the most hypocritical acts that I have heard from my generation thus far. It is not activism, it is selfish. We argue and get upset about the bodies being taken in the street but we won’t even go to the polls to exercise the right that Emmett Till, Kendrick Johnson, Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice never got to use.
Colin, what you did to say that you were fighting back for the “injustices of people of color” was not it at all. Your platform is way too big and too broad to not aid in the situation. Sure, picking the lesser of two evils is pretty much annoying, but not voting at all and landing a candidate in office who has no experience at all is now a bigger issue for us to fix.
We stood behind you in your protests, we were glad to see someone take a peaceful stance on such ugly situations (making so much progress) and now, we are disappointed.
All you had to do was put your pride aside and vote Colin.