Colin Kaepernick has been making headlines after he began sitting then kneeling during the national anthem in protest against the oppression, racism, and police brutality against black people and other minorities. The San Francisco 49ers quarterback has also been working in the community on those same issues, so when he answered that he was not voting in the presidential election, many people felt he wasn’t being proactive about his platform. Kaepernick explained why he didn’t vote or even pay much attention to the election at all.
Kaepernick said he didn’t believe any of the candidates, including President-elect Donald Trump, who in the past criticized the quarterback’s decision to kneel during the national anthem, would change a system that he said “oppresses people of color.”
Kaepernick, who did not vote Tuesday, said during a conference call Wednesday with media in Arizona that he “really didn’t pay too close of attention” to the election, which was decided close to midnight on the West Coast.
“I’ve been very disconnected from the systematic oppression as a whole,” Kaepernick said. “So, for me, it’s another face that’s going to be the face of that system of oppression.
“And to me, it didn’t really matter who went in there. The system still remains intact that oppresses people of color.”
After the first debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Kaepernick had this to say about the candidates:
“To me, it was embarrassing to watch that these are our two candidates,” Kaepernick said. “Both are proven liars, and it almost seems like they’re trying to debate who is less racist, and at this point, I was talking to one of my friends who goes, ‘You have to pick the lesser of two evils, but in the end, it’s still evil.'”
He is not alone. Trump and Clinton are two of the most disliked candidates in history. Nearly half of eligible voters ((231,556,622 people, 46.6%) did not head to the polls this year.
source: ESPN
