Colin Kaepernick admits that he was disappointed to learn that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg finds his and other NFL players' protest against over-policing of African-American men, women and children to be "dumb and disrespectful."
During an interview with Katie Couric, RBG noted that she wouldn't have someone who protested by burning a flag thrown in jail, but she finds players who kneel or raise a fist during the playing of the national anthem to be akin to flag burning.
"It is disappointing to hear a Supreme Court justice call a protest against injustices and oppression ‘stupid, dumb’ in reference to players doing that," Kaepernick said during a locker-room interview, Sports Illustrated reports.
"I was reading an article and it refers to white critique of black protests and how they try to delegitimize it by calling it ‘idiotic, dumb, stupid,’ things of that nature, so they can sidestep the real issue," he said. "As I was reading that, I saw more and more truth how this has been approached by people in power and white people in power in particular."
Kaepernick, who will make his first start of the season this Sunday, added that people were "getting too caught up in the flag" and noted that, "at the end of the day, the flag is just a piece of cloth, and I am not going to value a piece of cloth over people’s lives."
Read more at Sports Illustrated.