Colin Kaepernick, Leader of the NFL Players’ National Anthem Protest Against Police Murders, Receives Multiple Awards

December 4, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From a reader

Colin Kaepernick (Kap) has been named the recipient of GQ magazine’s Citizen of the Year Award, Sports Illustrated’s Muhammad Ali Legacy Award, and Southern California ACLU’s Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award.

Kaepernick, who played for the San Francisco 49ers, started the NFL players’ protest against police murders and racial injustice when he refused to stand for the national anthem during the first game of the 2016 season. Kaepernick is an all-pro quarterback who led the 49ers to the 2013 Super Bowl. He is currently being blackballed by the NFL owners from being signed to play for a team.

After starting the protest, Kap told the press, “This stand wasn’t for me. This is because I’m seeing things happen to people that don’t have a voice, people that don’t have a platform to talk and have their voices heard, and effect change. So I’m in the position where I can do that and I’m going to do that for people that can’t.”

After Philando Castile was murdered by a pig in Minnesota, Kap tweeted, “!” In response to Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America great again,” Kaepernick said, “Well America has never been great for people of color and that’s something that needs to be addressed.” And Kap called Trump “openly racist.”

Trump has viciously gone after Kaepernick. Trump called on the NFL owners to not sign Kaepernick. He told Sean Hannity on Fox that the NFL should have suspended Kaepernick. In a speech at one of his fascist rallies in Alabama, Trump told the crowd about Kaepernick, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he’s fired. He’s fired.”

GQ stated, “[Kapernick has] “been vilified by millions and locked out of the NFL—all because he took a knee to protest police brutality. But Colin Kaepernick’s determined stand puts him in rare company in sports history: Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson—athletes who risked everything to make a difference.”

Sports Illustrated said that Kaepernick was receiving the award “for his steadfastness in the fight for social justice, for his adherence to his beliefs no matter the cost” and, like the award’s namesake Muhammad Ali, embodying “the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy.”

At the ACLU award event, Kaepernick received a standing ovation from the audience that included Jane Fonda, Viola Davis, and Judd Apatow. He told them, “We must confront systemic oppression as a doctor would a disease. You identify it; you call it out; you treat it; and you defeat it.”

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