The silencing of Kaepernick is bigger than Kaepernick.

I understand that a lot of people are looking at Keapernick's former fortunate position as an NFL quarterback, and feel he had it made, and should have kept his mouth shut. Only the top 1% of people get to earn the amount of money Kaepernick has earned during his short illustrious career as an NFL quarterback. That's a position of a lifetime earning for most people. Some people don't even get to earn a quarter of what Kaepernick has earned during his short career. Okay, now that we have that out of the way, we can now look at what he has risked and lost for the betterment of black people. At the age of 29, Kaepernick is just beginning his career as a quarterback. Even the worst quarterbacks in football history have gone on to play in their late 30's. Kaepernick has only signed one big contract after taking his team to the super bowl. Essentially, he was positioned to earn at least 2 more long term contracts, which could have easily placed his salary over 200 million dollars in the next 10 years. If you don't believe 200 million dollars is a lot of money for a man who was adopted by white people, led pretty much a privileged life, and could have chosen to turn a blind eye to the injustice against back people, but took a risk on us instead, then we shouldn't even be engaged in any type of exchanges about social injustice.

If every black leader took a selfish disposition to only worry about themselves and their immediate family, black folks would still be in shackles today. Dr. King could've easily led a prosperous life as a preacher, but he chose to forgo all of it by making the personal sacrifice to fight on behalf of black people. It takes a very selfless person to turn their life on options that most people are willing to denigrate themselves for, in order to attain the American dream. That's just one side of the equation.

There's always more than one side to every complicated situation. We have a myriad of black people who swallow their pride and lose their dignity on a daily basis for survival sake. The white bosses don't necessarily have to humiliate with action, their intent with words can sometime force the marginalized into silence. Once a person's voice is taken from them, they've pretty much assumed the position of subhuman. Jerry Jones was the first owner to threaten his players, if they didn't stand for the National Anthem, and fall in line with their own subjugation. Don't be fooled with white billionaires who are willing to pay millions of dollars for football players with checkered past. It doesn't mean they aren't racist. Jerry Jones has put his racism on center stage, and James Harrison who plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers, echoed those sentiments to his teammates before his master even had a chance to say a word. The battle against white supremacy will not easily be won, because we have too many white supremacists in black skin. These lost souls are the reason why white supremacy thrives. The list will get longer by the weeks, because people like George Foreman who's been hit too many times on his head, feels he has a valid opinion on Kaepernick that supports the white supremacist system in place that allowed him to be exploited with a grill that bears his name that only nets him less than 1% of the annual revenues. People like Michael Jordan who stayed silent on social issues during his career are only netting about 1% of the revenues that white supremacy has built on his name. Nike generates billions of dollars from the Jordan brand every year, but Jordan gets a check for about 90 million dollars, which is less than 1% of Nike's annual sales for his brand. It's difficult to get these people to see their own exploitation, much less somebody else's.

While we should all band together to fight for Kaepernick, this fight is actually bigger than Kaepernick. We are standing for all those black people that are silenced every day, because they have financial responsibilities to their families. The mortgage/rent, utilities, food. clothing etc must be paid, and in order to do that, some black people must relinquish their voice, which is why the courageous ones must always have our support, and we must do everything in our power to push back this white transgression toward a marginalized group. Money tends to have a "rosy glasses" affect on the less fortunate. A Ray Lewis can pay so very little attention to his own son's situation who's under investigation for sexual aggravation against 2 women, because his voice against Kaepernick gives credence to white supremacy. We must learn!