Colin Kaepernick's MLK Day Tweet:

[kpete]

Link to tweet

[jpak]

1. K&R

[Laurian]

2. This MLK quote perfectly reflects Kaepernick's stance.

[Dr. Strange]

30. Do you think MLK would have voted for Hillary?

[klook]

35. Do you think MLK would have voted for Trump?

[Dr. Strange]

36. No. I think MLK would have voted for Hillary.

But Kaepernick didn't see a difference between Trump and Hillary. In fact, I think the "white moderate" in that quote is a subtle callout of Hillary on the part of Kaepernick.

[heaven05]

3. I wish

I wish "people of good will" really were...because if they were equality and all inclusiveness would be a given...not STILL striven for.

[pangaia]

16. Well said

[Eliot Rosewater]

27. Hell, we cant even get SOME so called progressives on board how do we expect to get cons?

We see arguments HERE and elsewhere ALL the time from progressives that economic issues should take precedent over all others.

[democrank]

4. Recommended

Rise up or take a knee....do something!

[GaryCnf]

5. Dare I say

that many of the people who should be taking this to heart think this does not apply to them

EVEN AS they limit their support of Kaepernick to defending his right to free speech.

[Loki Liesmith]

9. What other support do I owe Kaepernick?

I don’t care if he has a job or not, so I’m not going to lobby a team to hire him.

[GaryCnf]

12. What other support do you owe him?

Well, yes, if you care about racism, you should care about whether he has a job because the ONLY reason he does not is RACISM.

But there is an area even more fundamental where he deserves your support and that is in the merits of his message. To deny that cops intentionally target young black males as a matter of policy is to deny that racism is an institutional feature of society in this country and to deny that is to deny exactly what Dr. King fought for.

[mythology]

14. Given other players knelt during the anthem

And those players have jobs, I don't think you can blame racism for Kaepernick not having a job. He's not a particularly good quarterback, with a limited and different skill set than most NFL quarterbacks. He's at best a backup, but he's a backup that would require most teams to radically change their offense. There are only a handful of teams who fit his skills.

[GaryCnf]

15. Can I suggest that other players wo have knelt

can also be distinguished from Kaepernick because they have either made no statement about the merits of his protests (leaving open the possibility that they are standing in solidarity with Kaepernick and his right to free speech -- which actually isn't even implicated here from a constitutional perspective, but that's another story -- as opposed to with his message) or the statements they have made do not call the American system into question, merely the actions of "bad apple" cops/departments etc. That makes those players much more palatable to white folks.

The debate about his skill set is a diversion.

[lunatica]

21. Right. Any debate other than why he knelt is a diversion.

Anything that is used to obfuscate the central message is meant to confuse the message.

His message was not connected to whether he has or can get a job.

And does he have to have been beaten violently himself to have the right to kneel in protest?

[left-of-center2012]

18. "He's not a particularly good quarterback ..."

If he was, teams would hire him
Winning and profits rule.

[roscoeroscoe]

26. Um, no

This is Trump time; Trump actually made Kaeperkick's collusion case easier by bragging that he convinced owners not to hire him.

A couple teams were looking to bring him in but owners seem to have overruled the GMs.

[left-of-center2012]

28. Aha !

The conspiracy theory.

[Loki Liesmith]

31. I dont care if a mediocre quarterback has a job or not

More power to Kap if he wants to work with BLM BUT I already support them. Personally, he means nothing to me and I wouldn’t care if he disappeared tomorrow.

[SCVDem]

6. Just like gun violence.

Too soon?!

[Iggo]

17. Always.

Not now.

[Solomon]

7. K&R

.

[Paladin]

8. K&R.

[oberliner]

10. People forget that most white people did not like MLK when he was alive

[mountain grammy]

13. That's true.

Heard it from my own family.. what do "they" want? my aunt said one Thanksgiving.. Well, for starters, the right to vote. My good ole mom always had an answer.

[Stellar]

19. 'They' placed MLK in the same mode with Malcom X...

At that point in time MLK was a softer 'non violent' person where as Malcolm X was the 'by any means necessary'... but Malcolm did change his stance before he died when he saw that there were kind White folk in Mecca. That changed his outlook.

[oberliner]

20. But now MLK is almost universally praised by white people

Whereas Malcom X - not so much.

[Stellar]

34. That's true.

Back then, I was a kid trying to make heads or tells out of the whole thing. It scared me to death. But today I think Malcolm X is the bomb.

[lunatica]

23. It was one of the most violent times in our history

Maybe it's only because it was televised and we could see the horrendous treatment of peaceful demonstrators that it stands out as one of the most violent times for me. I watched it on my television, just like I watched the Vietnam war. Now that I think of it our human rights history has been a long history of extreme violence.

[dlk]

11. Sadly, There Was Tremendous Resistance to Making MLK's Birthday a Holiday

Too often what plays as "moderate" is merely racism and bigotry "lite."

[SFnomad]

24. I lived in Arizona when Governor Evan Mecham rescinded an EO creating a state MLK holiday

Governor Bruce Babbitt (D) created a paid state MLK holiday the last year he was in office. One of the first things newly elected Governor Evan Mecham (R) did was rescind the holiday, under the guise that Babbitt's EO was illegal.

After I left Arizona, they had another election to create a paid state MLK holiday that went down to defeat (which was the second time, I believe). Then the NFL pulled an upcoming Super Bowl from Arizona. They had a third vote on the holiday and it finally passed. The NFL awarded Arizona Super Bowl XXX after that.

[rogue emissary]

22. Hilarious a guy using King's words but not listening to King's words.

http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/importance-voting#

It is my belief that one of the most significant steps that members of a minority community may take is that short walk to the voting booth. It is the responsibility of every good citizen to register and vote. I strongly urge you to vote in the coming election. Vote for the party and candidate of your choice, but by all means vote.

-Martin Luther King Jr. President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Which room should we go to?

[DinahMoeHum]

29. As for me. . .

[Gothmog]

33. Agreed

[Initech]

37. [phone]!!!!

[Gothmog]

32. Great meme