Colin Kaepernick has been at the forefront of a prominent social justice movement since August. He’s been very outspoken about injustices toward minorities in America and started a protest to demonstrate it.
But when it came to making his voice heard at the polls, Kaepernick fell silent.
The San Francisco 49ers quarterback has taken serious heat for declining to vote in the 2016 presidential election. On Wednesday, after Republican nominee Donald Trump secured the presidency, Kaepernick received what might be his harshest rebuke yet from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
"For him not to vote…as far as I'm concerned, everything he said meant absolutely nothing!"
– @stephenasmith on Colin Kaepernick pic.twitter.com/gShvVfVoAt
— First Take (@FirstTake) November 9, 2016
“He comes across as a flaming hypocrite,” an incensed Smith said on ESPN’s “First Take.” “After all this noise that you made, even though you didn’t intended to do so, by offending our military service men and women, and pointing out about how you wanted to bring attention to racial injustices and beyond in this country, to turn around and not even take your behind to the polls to vote for a particular candidate, it is shameful! Absolutely shameful!”
Kaepernick has criticized both Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the past, which could be why he elected not to vote. But if he doesn’t take the effort to exercise his civic duty, Smith doesn’t want to hear from him at all.
As far as I’m concerned, @Kaepernick7 is absolutely irrelevant. pic.twitter.com/VvuYQwGrMc
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) November 9, 2016
People don’t always agree with Smith and his bluster, but it’s hard to argue with his criticism of the double standard Kaepernick appears to have set.
Thumbnail photo via Kelley L Cox/USA TODAY Sports Images
H/t to Coed.com
