I pray that when my infant son is old enough to attend college, there are courses devoted to the historical lineage inside Colin Kaepernick’s Afro. In the history of Afros, Kaepernick’s falls somewhere between Angela Davis and all of the men from the grossly underrated family soul group the Sylvers.
On Tuesday, Kaepernick and his revolutionary hair—which has always been the greatest fuck-you to the man—went to Rikers Island jail in New York City for a surprise visit with inmates.
The former quarterback, who would be a current quarterback if it weren’t for the obvious whiteballing by the NFL, spoke to detainees inside the George Motchan Detention Center, according to an exclusive New York Daily News report.
White people who don’t believe in equality and justice for all have been annoyed by Kaepernick’s unapologetic blackness and have called his protest against the killings of unarmed black men, women and children by police un-American.
How dare the black man with the righteous Afro speak to black and brown men disproportionately incarcerated in a prison that’s so corrupt that there’s a push to shut the prison down permanently?
One thing I’ve learned is that you never tell cops what they can and can’t be annoyed about, no matter how ridiculous, and you know it didn’t help that a free black man acted free in public. Somehow the police union interpreted Kaepernick’s speaking to prisoners as a direct act of violence.
“This will only encourage inmates to continue to attack correction officers at a time when we need more protection,” Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, told the Daily News.
And what do they base this on? Cop socks. That’s right—Kaepernick once wore socks during a 2016 practice with his former team, the San Francisco 49ers, that depicted cops as pigs.
“Once again, correction officers find themselves caught in Mayor de Blasio’s political con game,” Husamudeen said. “This is yet another brazen display of the hypocrisy of this mayor who pretends to support us in public, yet does everything possible to jeopardize our security in private.”
I guess the union didn’t speak with Peter Thorne, the Correction Department spokesperson, who called Kaepernick’s visit inspiring.
“Colin Kaepernick visited Rikers today to share a message of hope and inspiration,” Thorne told the Daily News.
As the NFL keeps trying to act as if it doesn’t have a vendetta against Kaepernick—the Philadelphia Eagles, who once signed a convicted dog murderer to become their quarterback, are the latest team to bypass Kaepernick’s talents after starter Carson Wentz was ruled out for the season—Kaepernick continues his fight to spread his message of love and hope as far and wide as his Afro.
“The world should see the hell that is Rikers Island,” Glenn Martin, founder of JustLeadershipUSA, a group advocating for the closure of Rikers, told the Daily News. “Colin’s profile has helped shed light where it is needed. The fact that correction officers are more focused on his socks while people are getting their brains bashed in is despicable.”
He added, “Colin understands that the systemic racism he’s fighting nationally is epitomized on Rikers.”
Read more at the New York Daily News.