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By Rickey Hampton, Editor and Founder of The African-American Athlete
Let’s please stop saying Colin Kaepernick is being blackballed by the National Football League, because he is not. Ain’t nobody black got a damn thing to do with the fact that Kaepernick, one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL, and a damn sight better than Jay Cutler who just signed with Miami, is not signed with a team.
A more accurate term to describe Kap’s situation is to say he is being ‘White-Balled.’ After all, it is the NFL’s white dominated ownership that is obviously colluding to make this happen.
If the NFL had predominantly black ownership, several teams would have signed Kaepernick by now. Black owners would understand perfectly why Kaepernick chose to kneel last year.
The Black owners would know the history of black people in the America. They would know of the broken promises, brutality, discrimination, and injustice Black America has endured.
They would understand that many of those same practices of discrimination, racism, and injustice that were in place 50 years ago, are alive and well today. Not only that, many of the black owners would be able to speak on a personal level because they will have likely experienced the realities of being black in America.
That is because when you are a black American people see that you are black first. The fact you are wealthy, educated, and successful, is realized long after your race, or not at all. The fact is some people will only see you as a nigger, regardless of your station in life.
Just ask former President Barack Obama. When he was in office, and the most powerful man in the world, he was just another nigger, and a Muslim-terrorist, in the eyes of millions. Many of those millions went on to elect the fool who currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The white owners in the NFL simply can’t understand that. They haven’t dealt with the challenges black America has faced. They probably look at Kaepernick and wonder what is his problem. They probably saying “He is a millionaire athlete, playing in the NFL. What could be so wrong?”
So, nah, please don’t say Colin Kaepernick is being blackballed. That brother is being ‘whiteballed’. This is the white ownership of the National Football League pushing back on Colin Kaepernick, and saying you can’t expose the hypocrisy of this country and get away with it.
And now that you know the correct term, and how they feel about Kap, and the issues facing Black America, are you still going to do business with the NFL? I will continue to write about the achievements of the NFL’s black athletes, as well as the issues of the day. However, I cannot in good conscious spend my money on the NFL.
