In this column, I usually try to avoid the controversial or political subjects. After all, you get enough of that in the rest of the paper or by watching and listening to the electronic media. Plus, this column is supposed to be about sports and travel related subjects. However, sometimes politics invades the world of sports, and you just can’t ignore it.

This week, I struggled with the decision of which controversy to write about, if any. There have been so many recently that have affected sports.

While there are movements across the country to tear down Confederate statues, there are also some Native American tribes who want to take back native lands, and some who are calling for teams like the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins to change their names.

I really didn’t want to write about Colin Kaepernick, but this one, I just can’t avoid. It seems every time he opens his mouth, or his Twitter account, he says something that is just blatantly uneducated and ignorant. The latest being;

“Black [people] have been dehumanized, brutalized, criminalized [and] terrorized by America for centuries, & are expected to join your commemoration of ‘independence,’ while you enslaved our ancestors. We reject your celebration of white supremacy & look forward to liberation for all.”

A very interesting comment coming from someone who has greatly benefited by what “white” America has afforded him.

According to online biographical sources; he was born in 1987 in Milwaukee, Wisc., to Heidi Russo, 19, who is white. His birth father, who is African-American, left Russo when he found out she was pregnant. When Kaepernick was a few weeks old, Russo met with a white couple, Rick and Teresa Kaepernick, who were happy to adopted him. They had two older children: son Kyle and daughter Devon, but had lost two babies not long after birth because of heart defects.

Now, read this carefully, I DON’T CONDONE the slavery part of this nation’s history, but it really is just that; history. Thank God slavery was abolished in the 1800’s and the civil rights movement of the 1960’s erased the Jim Crowe laws. We should learn from these horrific times, and vow to never repeat them.

But, Kaepernick may need to be reminded that it was a white couple who raised him, after his father deserted his young mother, leaving her with the heartbreaking decision of trying to raise him on her own, or offer him for adoption.

It was a few wealthy white men who formed the American Football League and the National Football League, and eventually merged the two, giving Kaepernick the opportunity to sign an extremely lucrative contract to play a sport he loved. It was also a wealthy white guy who founded Nike, which signed Kaepernick to a multi-million-dollar endorsement deal, which is still paying him handsomely each year, and he hasn’t thrown a pass in the NFL since 2016.

According to overthecap.com, Kaepernick was paid over $43-million during his six-year career in the NFL. Terms of his contract with Nike have not been released, but it has been reported to be a “star” deal on par with top end NFL players, equaling millions per year.

Again, I’m not minimizing the cause for which Kaepernick feels so passionate about, I’m just questioning his lack of gratefulness.

Has there been atrocities committed against African-Americans in this country over the past two hundred years? 

Absolutely. 

Have rogue or power-tripped police officers used horrible judgment in certain situations that have caused the death of a black suspect? 

Yes.

But, for Kaepernick to lump these incidents together and call them the affect of “white supremacy” is irresponsible, if not totally ludicrous.

It would be understandable if Kaepernick wanted to blame his birth-father for deserting him and his mother, but even that opened the door for him to be raised by a loving family, who gave him the best of what growing up in California could afford him. Instead, he should examine his own heart, and thank God for blessings he has received; blessings that have come from living in the United States of America.