Tuesday, November 8, 2016 was the final day to vote. It was also the day we found out who was going to be the new leader of this country.
Unfortunately, the odds were in favor of Donald Trump. What I really found odd was when star athlete Colin Kaepernick expressed that he didn’t vote. In case you don’t remember, Colin Kaepernick is the 49ers quarterback who caused a stir in the NFL when he decided to kneel for the National Anthem rather than stand and put his hand over his heart. He received praise and criticism for his decision, while his jersey sales increased, and became the top-selling jersey on the NFL’s official shop website.
Although there were many angry NFL fans that posted videos of them burning Kaepernick jersey’s (that they paid for out of their pocket), some while playing the National Anthem in the background.
Kaepernick is now receiving more backlash on his decision to not vote. Kaepernick never bothered to hide his contempt for the two presidential candidates from the very start stating, “To me, it was embarrassing to watch; that these are our two candidates,” Kaepernick explained in an October interview with CSN Bay Area. “Both are proven liars and it almost seems like they’re trying to debate who’s less racist…. You have to pick the lesser of two evils, but in the end, it’s still evil.”
Although I applaud Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during the anthem and use his platform to talk about important issues, I also have to disagree with his decision to sit out during the voting period. To be honest, I didn’t like either of the presidential candidates either, and I completely agree with him when he said it’s a matter of picking which one was less evil. However, not voting would’ve voided my right to complain about Trump being president because I didn’t contribute to stopping him. Stephen A. Smith called Kaepernick “A flaming hypocrite” and said, “he betrayed his own cause”, and I’ll have to agree with that too.
When Kaepernick kneeled during the anthem, he started a movement and a lot of people across the United States were following his league. There were even reports of 10 and 11 year old kids kneeling during the pledge of allegiance at school because they were inspired by Kaepernick’s actions. Someone who has that big of an influence should’ve not became so reckless and not voted because what message are you sending to those same kids who looked up to you?
Many people marched and fought for you to have the right to vote but you didn’t because both of the candidates are “proven liars”. Its politics! Politics is just a competition to see who can lie the best, and has been since the beginning of time. Kneeling to bring attention to something important is a start, but its not going to make change alone. He tried explaining his actions by saying “it really didn’t matter who became president, the system still remains intact that oppresses people of color.”
However, it does because now that Trump is president, there will still be no gun control, meaning there will still be more cases of white people shooting blacks and getting away with it, and he now has the power to fulfill his threats on importing illegal immigrants. Kaepernick showed us all that he can talk the talk but he didn’t show us that he could walk the walk all the way to the voting booth.
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Kaepernick “Can’t Stand” to Vote
November 15, 2016
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