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A little over two years ago, currently unemployed quarterback Colin Kaepernick did not stand while "The Star-Spangled Banner" played before a pre-season match. After the game, he was asked about this sitting business and what he said brought back a spirit to professional sports that had not been seen in any major form or way since the 1960s—Muhammad Ali refusing to fight in Vietnam in 1967, the Black Power fists in the 1968 Summer Olympics, and so on. Black professional athletes are now making millions, and in the case of Lebron James, even entering the the billionaire's club. There was nothing like that in the days of Ali. In Kaepernick's times, however, even third-rate professional black athletes can expect to join the 1 percent during an average career. Kaepernick was punished for protesting the flag (no team will hire him), and is considered to be a radical by the American right. Trump even called his mother a bitch.

Last week, Nike featured Kaepernick in a black-and-white "Just Do It" ad campaign. It stated with white letters placed near the middle of his Afro-framed face: "Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything." Some on the right were so upset about this ad, they burned their Nike sneakers. But the negative responses, which included a tweet from the president, were soon eclipsed by the 31 percent surge in Nike's sales. Many on the left cheered the ad, but others reminded us that Nike was, above all, a major US corporation. It exploited dirt-poor workers in poor countries. It was a capitalist enterprise whose products were (because of cheap labor) made for very little and (because of expensive marketing) sold for a lot. The ad could not be revolutionary. It was, at the end of the day, about money making more money—the endless growth machine that is destroying human lives and nature. Kaepernick was not outside but inside of this machine.

Who could argue with that?

But Kaepernick never said he was not a capitalist. His protest has mainly been about police brutality, the unchecked use of deadly force, and how all of this is related to the long history of racial oppression in the US. The rise of citizen surveillance made it more difficult for racist cops to hide their crimes. We saw the harassment and murder of innocent black people on YouTube and Facebook. This was the heart of Kaepernick's protest. Stop killing unarmed black people, stop racial profiling, stop the mysterious deaths in jail cells, and he will stop the protest. No one, be they on the right or left, wants to get shot or choked for no good reason by a cop. How is this fact of life socialistic or anti-capitalist? It's not, despite what Fox News says 24.7. It's about the law and protecting the basic rights of a group of citizens. This is the heart of Black Lives Matter: police accountability.


The ad is making loads of money, but this does not contradict Kaepernick's message. He is not trying to bring capitalism to an end or down to its knees. Nor has he ever been outside of the system. He has worked within it and, as far as I can tell, has no plans to leave it. His protest in his own words: "I'm not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder..." Capitalism as is has no problem with this. It can work with it. Indeed, it's now making profits from it.