Colin Kaepernick has completed the promise he made in September 2016 to donate $1 million to organizations working in oppressed communities. The move comes amid criticism of the #TakeAKnee protests during the 2017 NFL season that was initiated by Kaepernick’s kneeling in 2016 during the National Anthem.
But it turns out there’s more to Kaepernick’s protest than just kneeling. In the past year, the former 49ers quarterback donated a total of $1 million in different amounts to several charities across the country.
Kaepernick also supported “10 for 10,” a campaign partnering celebrities and other athletes, where he asked his partners to donate $10,000 to a charity of their choice, and matched their donation with an additional $10,000. The final $20,000 went to H.O.M.E. (Helping Oppressed Mothers Endure) in Lithonia, GA, an organization that helps single mothers, chosen by Usher.
“This was an opportunity to do something major and you did it,” Usher said in a video released on Kaepernick’s Twitter Wednesday. “You have raised a million dollars; I’m happy to be part of the completion of that million dollars.”
When Kaepernick began his protest, he said at a press conference that he wanted to”be able to affect change and I think there are a lot of other people who do as well,” and said he would donate the million dollars and the proceeds of his jersey sales from the 2016 season.
He refused to stand during the Anthem because he could not “show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” In December, he was honored by the ACLU for his protests. In his acceptance speech, he called for the end of systemic oppression.
“We all have an obligation, no matter the risk, regardless of reward,” he said.
Kevin Durant, Jesse Williams, Steph Curry, Snoop Dogg, Serena Williams, T.I., Jhene Aiko and Chris Brown, Nick Cannon and Joey Badass, Meek Mill and Usher contributed to the campaign.
Kaepernick hasn’t played for the NFL since he became a free agent in March 2017. In October, he filed a grievance with the NFL accusing the league of collusion.
Sports and Politics Don't Mix? History Says Otherwise (Photos)
With President Donald Trump's grousing over recent protests in the NFL, the debate over whether athletes should express their political views through the platform of sports has heated up once again. But contrary to what some might believe, the phenomenon of athletes protesting didn't begin with Colin Kaepernick. Read on as TheWrap delves into the long-term relationship between sports and politics.
At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos -- who'd taken the gold and bronze medalists in the 200-meter dash -- took to the winners podium and raised their fists above their heads in a silent protest against discrimination against African-Americans in the United States. "If I win I am an American, not a black American. But if I did something bad then they would say 'a Negro.' We are black and we are proud of being black," Smith said of the protest.
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali famously refused to serve in the U.S. military during the Vietnam war, noting, “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?" In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded Ali the Presidential Medal of Freedom, calling him "a fierce fighter and a man of peace."
Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States led a boycott of the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. The boycott would grow to 65 nations who refused to participate in the games.
Four years later, the USSR would return the favor, boycotting the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. "Chauvinistic sentiments and anti-Soviet hysteria are being whipped up in this country," the Soviet government said of the boycott, which 13 other communist countries would also join.
At the beginning of the 1995-1996 NBA season, Denver Nuggets point guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf decided that he wouldn't salute the American flag during the playing of the national anthem prior to games. The decision went unnoticed for some time; when NBA commissioner David Stern handed down a one-game suspension to the player. The NBA later reached a compromise, mandating that Abdul-Rauf stand for the anthem, but allowing him to close his eyes and face downward.
In 2014, following the death of Eric Garner after a confrontation with police in New York, Cleveland Cavaliers stars LeBron James and Kyrie Irving wore shirts emblazoned with the phrase "I Can't Breathe" -- Garner's reported last words -- while warming up for a game against the Brooklyn Nets. Nets players Jarrett Jack, Alan Anderson, Deron Williams and Kevin Garnett also donned the shirts.
In 2016, then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick opted not to stand during the national anthem, saying, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color ... To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
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From Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick, a timeline of protesting athletes
With President Donald Trump's grousing over recent protests in the NFL, the debate over whether athletes should express their political views through the platform of sports has heated up once again. But contrary to what some might believe, the phenomenon of athletes protesting didn't begin with Colin Kaepernick. Read on as TheWrap delves into the long-term relationship between sports and politics.
