NFL training camps are in full swing, and Colin Kaepernick still doesn’t have a job. According to Jadakiss, Kaepernick “should have thought about the repercussions of not standing for the flag.”
Speaking in an SI.com interview, Jadakiss told the host his feelings on Kaepernick’s veritable blackball are “50/50,” but he’s “100% with” the former 49ers Quarterback, which is a confusing stance. Though Jadakiss says he hopes Kaepernick gets on a team and “you’re supposed to fight for your rights,” he also noted that “the NFL is a private-owned business” and “you either play by the rules, or you get what you get.”
Technically yes, that’s true, but those “rules” are at the heart of the issue. If Jadakiss truly understood the intent of Kaepernick’s fight, he’d realize that the white supremacy-sustaining NFL owners and racist fans inflicting the fascist “repercussions” he spoke of are the only people who deserve criticism. He also completely ignored the potential collusion lawsuit Kaepernick could eventually have against owners.
Jadakiss has the platform to advocate for Kaepernick, and air the NFL owners out like they dissed him on a Clue tape, but instead he chose to take a “that’s how it is” approach and it’s disappointing. Kaepernick is sacrificing his career to raise awareness about a dire epidemic, and people like Kiss, Ray Lewis and Michael Vick are sounding like company men still too comfortable within the establishment to stand with him.
As long as there is such a glut of athletes and entertainers for whom capitalism takes precedence over justice, it will be hard to get people willing to condemn the system they want to thrive in. This is what makes Kaepernick’s stand, in the prime of his career, so commendable.
When The Lox were going through it with Puff Daddy over their publishing in 2005, Jadakiss repeatedly said that their mistreatment “was worth dying, and worth killing” over and over on Hot 97. While those words were reckless hyperbolic, they exhibited how deeply he felt about being done wrong. Why couldn’t he bring that level of passion to the table here, during a struggle that affects him and his family just the same?
