Many black people are obsessed with symbolism over the actual work it takes to change things so this seems like a "win" to many people. In my eyes, Kap completely played himself and was misguided. As they say, the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
He's a martyr in a fight that wasn't winnable in the manner he approached it and it's amazing to me that so many black people are okay with him being the sacrificial lamb in all of this.
It's certainly enlightening to see the lengths that white people go to maintain white supremacy and shift the narrative in their favor but this is a loss. The original message has been muddled to the point where it's gone to a completely different direction. There's no talk of how to stop police brutality or the racial injustices black people face but rather will Kaepernick be able to play football this season, boycotting the NFL until Kaepernick gets job ,which athletes are taking knees, who is staying in the locker room during the pledge of allegiance, Trump calling NFL players sons of a bytches.........literally everything but the reason he's protested in the first place.
I actually feel like I'm living in the twilight zone as Trump supporters and Kaepernick supporters boycott the NFL and try to bring it to its knees for completely different reasons.
I just watched my beloved Dallas Cowboys basically gentrify and "Christopher Columbus" the act of taking a knee. They made it about friendship and being disappointed at Trump for calling players sons of a bytches instead of the death of innocent black men at the hands of police and racial inequality. We're about 1 to 2 weeks away from people taking knees for LGBTQ rights and rights to change sex. This is a complete shyt show.
All this is admirable.....it really is and I respect Kaepernick for fighting for his beliefs and for fighting for black people but he was truly given poor advice. IMO, Kaepernick would have been better off using his money to change things while people with nothing lose "protested" and performed acts of symbolism. I believe the path to real change for black people comes from economic freedom. The same system Kaep is protesting gave him an opportunity to become a multimillionaire, take from them and come back and build our communities and it feels like he threw that away on a fight that he couldn't win, shyt at this point the fight isn't even taking place because the narrative has shifted.