Black SOULutions

On Yesterday Mike Vick former NFL Quarterback and convicted felon was on a show called Speak For Yourself and weighed in on why Colin Kaepernick is not employed by an NFL team yet.

Vick speaking on Kaepernick’s on field play is one thing (even though he had a better 2016 season than almost half the Quarterbacks) but speaking about his image, and how he does not need to represent himself in that way is another. I want to pose these questions to people who agree with Vick, What is wrong with Kaepernick’s image? What is wrong with his hair? Why must he have a clean cut? Why does he need to reinvent himself? 

Before I dive into answering those questions let’s take a look back at what the New York Giants co-owner said about fans view on Kaepernick.

All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about that issue, If any of your players ever do that, we are never coming to another Giants game. It wasn’t one or two letters. It was a lot. It’s an emotional, emotional issue for a lot of people, more so than any other issue I’ve run into.

Walk In My Shoes for Once 

NFL fans are extremely upset with Colin Kaepernick, and let’s take a look at why. Kap does not appeal to the majority of football fans, according to an American Renaissance article “Seventy-seven percent of the fans are white, 15 percent are black, and 8 percent are Hispanic. Moreover, it is an older audience, with 37 percent of NFL fans over 55.”

The majority of the NFL audience will not understand Kaepernick’s National Anthem protest against the killings of unarmed black men and women, it’s foreign to them. The Washington Post stated. 

“there are nearly 160 million more white people in America than there are black people. White people make up roughly 62 percent of the U.S. population but only about 49 percent of those who are killed by police officers. African Americans, however, account for 24 percent of those fatally shot and killed by the police despite being just 13 percent of the U.S. population. As The Post noted in a new analysis published last week, that means black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers. U.S. police officers have shot and killed the exact same number of unarmed white people as they have unarmed black people: 50 each. But because the white population is approximately five times larger than the black population, that means unarmed black Americans were five times as likely as unarmed white Americans to be shot and killed by a police officer.”

This Is a Distraction ?

Haircut or not NFL fans are not having it and NFL owners have taken notice, and they are not willing to lose their bottom line over this. Vicks advice for Kaepernick was to change his image, Vick the man who was in prison for murdering Dogs, thinks Kaepernick needs to rebrand himself to show the NFL he is serious about football. Kaepernick who never murdered anyone, never beat a woman, never got caught with any drugs needs an image change. This is the Kap they want to change.

• Has donated over 700,000 dollars to organizations
• Stood outside Queens, NY parole office handing out suits
• Donated to meals on wheels which helps feeds over 50,000 veterans
• Helped kids get a DNA ancestry kit
• Kaepernick helped raise over $1 million dollars to help provide direct aid to people of Somalia who are suffering from a historic drought that has destroyed crops and livestock
• Has Know Your Right Camp which  is a free campaign for youth fully funded by Colin Kaepernick to raise awareness on higher education, self empowerment, and instruction to properly interact with law enforcement in various scenarios.
• Donated shoes, clothes and hats to Bay Area organizations that help the homeless.

This is the image Mike Vick wants Kaepernick to change, this is the person that Brandon Browner (former NFL player) suggested should reinvent himself. Usually when a player does these things it’s because they’ve done something  bad to ruin their public image but Kap did nothing wrong.

It seems like Kaepernick’s donating is looked at as a distraction, he’s already said he will not kneel for the National Anthem anymore, he feels his point got across and believes he’s started a national dialogue.

TOO PRO BLACK ?

His afro is looked at as a distraction, why? because it gives off the impression that Kap is too pro black. Vick, Browner and Jason Whitlock believes that in order to make amends with the NFL, he needs to be less pro black. This is America in 2017, where black folks who are not fully educated on race relations is pleading for Kap to be a sellout to make white people feel comfortable. Those who agree with Vick need to understand those people will never forgive Kap for protesting the National Anthem. In their minds appeasing to white people to maybe get a job in the NFL again is more important than the unjust killings of unarmed black men and women by law enforcement.

Black people who are in a sunken place need to stop defending white supremacist narrative, It does us more harm than good and it helps racist believe blacks are the ones that need fixing.