Most recently named GQ’s Citizen of the Year, Colin Kaepernick, took a strong stance against a topic that has been scrutinized by Americans, especially the students of Niles North.
Unfortunately, a very talented NFL quarterback in Colin Kaepernick, is now unemployed by the league due to his firm stance against systemic injustice and police brutality. After multiple incidents of notable police brutality cases Kaepernick decided to take a strong stance by kneeling down during the pre-game national anthem. This decision of peacefully protesting sparked an enormous controversy in almost every sports and political news channel, with a lot of people weighing in on it including our president.
Kaepernick says in the magazine that he chooses to be silent through this whole process even with the demeaning comments made by President Trump, showing wisdom in his silence by having the world react to a peaceful gesture of disagreement towards our government.
When asking Niles North students about their thoughts on Kaepernick’s actions, most of them said that he was amazing for putting his job on the line to stand up for black people. In the school’s fall pep assembly, a small amount of students tried to go on with the social justice movement by kneeling down during our national anthem.
His actions have been put in a category along with other major activist athletes that have chosen to take a stance against social injustice, athletes in the likes of Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson. Risking something that he loves most for a cause that also brings a lot of hurt to him and millions of more Americans to become a social icon of equality, following in the steps of past civil-rights actitivsts.