Republicans force Black leaders to go against honoring Colin Kaepernick for Black History Month
Colin Kaepernick, a man who has sacrificed his NFL career to raise awareness about police brutality, was apparently too controversial to be recognized in a Black History Month resolution celebrating Black leaders in Wisconsin.
—Celebs boycott Super Bowl to show support for Colin Kaepernick with #ImWithKap campaign—
The GOP made it clear that they did not want to give Kaepernick any props for his activism and erased mention of the former NFL quarterback’s name from a Black History Month list that would honor influential black leaders, the NY Daily News reports.
In fact, after the Wisconsin Legislature’s Black caucus proposed a resolution honoring a number of black leaders, which included Kaepernick, the GOP created their own resolution and omitted Kap’s name from the list.
The white Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke said Tuesday that Kaepernick’s name was flagged “for obvious reasons” and said he was a controversial figure.
The list included other notable Wisconsin natives but was clearly a disrespectful knock to Kaepernick, who is from the state. The quarterback went to play for the San Francisco 49ers before he was blackballed for his on-field kneeling protests against police brutality and social injustice.
Even though Wisconsin Republicans nixed Kaepernick from their list when they tried to bring the revised resolution to the floor it was short the two-thirds majority because the Democrats voted against it.
Rep. David Crowley, chairman of the Legislature’s Black caucus, walked out of the chamber in protest and said Black people should be able to choose the leaders they want to honor. He said Kaepernick is “making history.”
In another slick move, Republicans added the black caucus’ resolution to the agenda, and amended it to remove Kaepernick’s name on a 61-34 party-line vote. Sadly that put Democrats between a rock and a hard place after having to decide whether to reject their own resolution or adopt it without Kaepernick’s name.
All the Republicans are white.
Crowley said deleting Kaepernick’s name is a “textbook example of white privilege.”
