Colin Kaepernick protests anthem due to treatment of minorities

Those are the facts. What has kneeling during an anthem done besides give talking heads something to fill empty minds with? Race relations is not a new subject. It's not something that hasn't been talked about previously... the 90s had Tupac and Notorious dominating the media on each coast. What change did the talk bring? Colin could have used his following to go through the right channels after he lost his starting spot, worked with the police or those he thinks are ignorant, addressed issues within the AA community, but instead it's a marketer's wet dream where nothing gets done.

 

Not a

You are right in my opinion with most of what you said. Colin is still right about what he says, regarding there being a problem. I also think it's dumb to take offense to people kneeling. I also think the black community in the U.S. has a problem with instilling education. I also think it is SUPER dumb to make him a spokesman for Nike. I am also tired of hearing about Colin K. in general.

 

Kap getting blacklisted from the league meant he walked away from millions of dollars of guaranteed money.

White people looovvve Cassius nowadays. Will even tolerate calling him by his Islam-ist legal name.

Nike has an audience it knows well and it will play well. This is an interesting twist/evolution on selling Che' T-shirts given meta-ironic counterculture message against capitalism. Conscious capitalism? They're walking on a thin rope, but good for them for having balls and putting money on it.

Yeah, it can get old fast. Police shooting black people for **** reasons got old fast just like mentally ill white people shooting into crowds.

Just because you want it to go away doesn't mean it's not still happening.

I'm sure Mahmoud loves rockets and fully supports every cent devoted to their success.

 

Nike looking for a 1960's Ali type hero for MARKETING purposes. All this is stupid.

Whatever

 

I find it interesting that right wingers today like to attack today's protesters (Kaep, BLM, etc.) by comparing them to supposedly legitimate 1960s protest leaders like Ali and MLK. What they don't mention is that, back in the 1960s, folks like Ali and MLK inspired just as much, if not more, controversy and derision (especially from the same kind of right wingers who yell about Kaepernick now).

 

Some how I don't think this is going to go well for Nike and ultimately Kap...but whateva.

 

I think Nike will regret this just as the NFL wishes this had never started.

 

You can disagree with Kaepernick's thesis or methods all you want, but it's pretty stupid to suggest his protest did not cost him his career.

 

The NFL is in a no win situation.

Nike builds goodwill with a far larger % of their customer base.

 

The NFL did not voluntarily involve themselves in this. Nike did just that. Many of the people who are upset with the NFL may very well quit buying Nike products. I seriously doubt that many people will buy more Nike products than they already do based on this. Alienating part of your customer base is not a good business decision.

 

I'm indifferent to the Kaepernick situation but I will say that Dick's Sporting Goods has been learning this lesson lately. Time will tell if it will bounce back.

 

Exactly.

 

I like kap and dont mind his stance. I really like nike and I am a sneakerhead so i spend. Nike dominates my closet.

I dont like nike going political and will use this as an excuse to try adidas and their boost line. Maybe even cop a pair of hardens.

 

Black people in particular need to move on from 1960's issues. Police brutality was an institutional problem then.

The facts are more whites are killed by pilice nowadays. Facts are blacks commit more total murders.

This aint the sixties and it's time for blacks to look at internal problems of poor blacks to improve poor blacks lives

 

Yeah, business-wise it doesn't make sense for Nike to get involved with politics. You're basically conceding a large percentage of your conservative customer base and probably a small percentage of left leaning folks as well. People get all jacked up about stuff like this and would probably take awhile to forget that Nike supports Kap and his stance on cops and the flag. Nike is doing the exact opposite of what the NFL owners are doing...I imagine Nike is trying to do something without considering the money they'll lose with this decision (well, I'm sure they've thought about, just doesn't seem well thought out)...sort of like Kap. We'll see how that goes...

 

And what happens if/when Harden says something political or makes a political stance?

Not many things are going to be apolitical. I'm not exactly going at you because it seems like you're not taking the "NIKE BOYCOTT!" stance but it seems a silly thing to do to start swearing off things because of political views.

Nike has a history of being political.

Also, reports were that Adidas and Puma were also after Kap, which is probably the bigger reason why Nike is doing this is because Kap was simply in demand and they didn't want to risk Adidas riding a wave that could/should be theirs.

The thing is, Dick's isn't Nike. Nike is a global brand, I really think they don't care too much about the people that will swear off of them for life.

It's very hard to hurt companies like Nike, I think it would have been more harmful to them if they did it the other way around.

Nah, CH is right on this. Then people were saying the same stuff. Back then people were going at Ali and MLK for being radicals and they were not popular loved figures that the American public stood behind. People want Kap to go away because he makes them feel uncomfy but they continued to give him more and more power.

Still an institutional problem. Blacks are exonerated for crimes they didn't do far more than whites and get sentenced longer for the exact same crimes.

The facts are that blacks are shot more, there are more white people so yes, more whites are killed by police. That's not even the point. If you ask any of these activist they'd tell you that they want to bring down all police shootings. Civil Rights usually benefits all people.

Ok, it's also time for America to look at its own internal problems. Both of these things can be done at the same time.

 

I also predicted this. I warned yall on the right that you were just helping Kap out.

If you just let the man kneel and not say anything no one would care.

 

Read: see Marshawn Lynch in Seattle.

He sat on the bench a long time before Colin Kaepernick...and for a long time after, even in Oakland...nobody said two words to him. "Just Marshawn being Marshawn" was probably the thinking...

 

But the people that hate Kaep are likely not a large segment of Nike's customer base, while the people that support him are.

I can tell you it gives me respect for a company that I mostly avoid (I don't think I've personally ever owned Nike apparel). I've disliked Nike since I read an article about them using child labor that appeared in Sports Illustrated forever ago. While they've supposedly cleaned it up, they still use 3rd world labor and yet charge large sums of money for sneakers. I buy my kids Nike if that is what they want, but I try to steer them away (of course they just end up being other brands that behave the same way).

 

More harmful the other way around? That doesn't make sense. They did this voluntarily. There was no push for them to make Kap a spokesperson. It would make the most sense to just leave it alone. Leaving it alone would not piss off any of their customers. Now since they have done this there would definitely be a harder backlash if they were to back out. They are stuck now. They needlessly put themselves in this situation.