Colin Kaepernick: Patriotism and the Owning Class

http://dissidentvoice.org/2017/06/colin-kaepernick-patriotism-and-the-owning-class/
Date Written:  2017-06-13
Publisher:  Dissident Voice
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20828

National Football League player Colin Kaepernick takes a stand for human rights by kneeling during the U.S. national anthem prior to football games.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt: Black lives are routinely extinguished by police in the streets without recourse, in the courts without pause, and in the prisons without hesitation. Entire generations of Black Americans have essentially been destroyed through the "school-to-prison pipeline" and a system of mass incarceration, for which author Michelle Alexander has properly deemed, The New Jim Crow.

Kaepernick recognized this and felt compelled to bring attention to it. He openly protested the national anthem, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to community agencies, and started a national youth camp program to teach children from marginalized communities about self-empowerment.