Colin Kaepernick admitted he wasn’t voting, but when asked to expound on that decision, said he didn’t think it mattered which candidate won the presidential election.
But he’s already made it clear he didn’t agree with Donald Trump, who criticized his national anthem protest months before the election.
Via Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com, Kaepernick said during a conference call with Arizona reporters that he didn’t follow the election results very closely Tuesday night.
“I’ve been very disconnected from the systematic oppression as a whole,” Kaepernick said. “So, for me, it’s another face that’s going to be the face of that system of oppression.
“And to me, it didn’t really matter who went in there. The system still remains intact that oppresses people of color.”
While there’s no mention of Hillary Clinton remarking on his protest (vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine said he supported Kaepernick), there were words between Donald Trump and the 49ers quarterback.
“I think it’s personally not a good thing. I think it’s a terrible thing,” Trump said in August during a radio interview on Seattle’s KIRO. “And, you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him. Let him try. It won’t happen.”
Asked for a response in September, Kaepernick unloaded on both candidates.
“That’s a very ignorant statement, that if you don’t agree with what’s going on here, that if you want justice and liberty and freedom for all, that you should leave the country,” Kaepernick said. “He always says, ‘Make America great again.’ Well, America has never been great for people of color, and that’s something that needs to be addressed. Let’s make America great for the first time. . . .
“To me, it was embarrassing to watch that these are our two candidates. Both are proven liars, and it almost seems like they’re trying to debate who is less racist, and at this point, I was talking to one of my friends who goes, ‘You have to pick the lesser of two evils, but in the end, it’s still evil.’”
Kaepernick’s certainly entitled to ignore his right to vote, nearly half of the country did. But even if he didn’t support either candidate, there were many down-ballot measures which would seemingly be of interest to someone fighting for racial equality, including California votes regarding education, health care, parole for nonviolent felons, the death penalty and many others.