Staff Reports
Former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick has sparked controversy again, calling for the end of capitalism, despite accumulating a net worth of $40 million and owning a $5.4 million mansion. Kaepernick insists that “black liberation” is impossible under capitalism and promotes his new book, co-edited by Robin D.G. Kelley and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, two self-declared Marxists. Kelley describes himself as a “Marxist surrealist feminist,” and Taylor is a vocal Marxist who teaches African American studies at Northwestern University and serves on the board of the International Socialist Review.
Multi-Millionaire Colin Kaepernick Calls to End America’s Capitalist Economic Systemhttps://t.co/XNMjZLGkoN
— The Daily Fetched (@DailyFetched) June 20, 2023
Kaepernick praised Kelley and Taylor’s “uncompromising political analysis,” stating that “Black liberation simply isn’t possible under capitalism.” He hopes that his new book, which argues the relationship between white supremacy and capitalism, challenges readers to understand that racism is not white supremacy’s only ingredient. Kaepernick believes that a critical engagement with U.S. history threatens the white supremacist status quo and that any attempt to “whitewash” history is a step towards fascism and the concentration of power in the hands of a few white people.
Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since 2016 when he began protesting against “racist police brutality” by kneeling during the national anthem before games. He accused team owners of colluding to keep him out of the league and sued the NFL in 2017. In 2019, the NFL and lawyers for Kaepernick and Eric Reid, who also protested racial injustice and police brutality by kneeling, settled a complaint of collusion.
Kaepernick runs a publishing company and community empowerment nonprofit, The Colin Kaepernick Foundation. However, many have criticized his call to end capitalism while benefiting from it himself. It’s clear that Kaepernick is using his platform to push a Marxist agenda and to promote a socialist government controlled by elites, not the people. It’s time for Americans to see through Kaepernick’s facade and recognize that capitalism has been the driving force behind our nation’s prosperity.
