San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick’s decision to not stand during the national anthem to protest police brutality and the oppression of people of color has ignited a heated debate, with people on opposite ends when it comes to support. One person who does not agree is former San Diego Charger Rodney Harrison, who claims Kaepernick is not black and does not understand the plight of black men.
“I tell you this, I’m a black man. And Colin Kaepernick — he’s not black,” Harrison said during an iHeartRadio interview. “He can not understand what I face and what other young black men and black people face, or people of color face, on a (daily) basis. When you walk in a grocery store, and you might have $2,000 or $3,000 in your pocket and you go up in to a Foot Locker and they’re looking at you like you about to steal something.”
Kaepernick was adopted by a white family when he was a child, but his birth mother was white and his birth father was black. If having a white parent makes you not black, one can’t help but wonder what race Harrison thinks President Barack Obama is.
“You know, I don’t think he faces those type of things that we face on a daily basis,” he continued. “I’m not saying he has to be black, but I’m saying his heart is in the right place, but even with what he’s doing, he still doesn’t understand the injustices as a black man, or people of color; that’s what I’m saying,” Harrison said.
