Showing how “woke” companies like Nike stay ahead of the white privilege curve, 32-year-old former San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick inked himself through his attorney Mark Geragos a new multimillion dollar deal to be part of Nike’s “Just Do It” ad campaign. Kaepernick became famous not for winning the Super Bowl but for taking a knee during the National Anthem in the 2016 season, taking a stand well before 74-year-old Donald Trump became the media’s new “Simon Legree,” the fictional slave master in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1851 abolitionist novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Kaepernick responded to a string of racially-tinged killings starting with 16-year-old Trayvon Martin’s Feb. 26, 2012 in Sanford, Fl., 27-year-old Erick Garner July 17, 2014 in New York City, 18-year-old Michael Brown Aug. 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Mo., and Alton Sterling July 5, 2016 in Baton Rouge, La.
Kaepernick first kneeled Sept. 1, 2016, protesting police brutality and racial injustice, causing a firestorm of controversy, now part of regular protests seen in most professional sports. Colin’s protesting began during the time of former President Barack Obama, who saw his share of racial unrest, rioting and anarchy. If you watched the Aug. 17-20 Democrat National Convention, you’d think that racial unrest started with 74-year-old President Donald Trump. While Kaepernick started a trend to protest racial injustice for African Americans, he certainly doesn’t apply the same standards to Nike who’s been known in China to use the enslaved Turkish-speaking, Muslim Uyghur population to manufacture his Nike’s Air Force 1 and True to 7 athletic shoes. Nike decided what better way to camouflage its use of Uyghur slaves than to give Nike its biggest possible profit margins ever.
China’s Communist government has been rounding up Uyghurs in concentration camps for brainwashing, forced labor or even murder, whatever works best. Locking up over a million Uyghurs, sterilizing over 100,000 Uyghur women and selling thousands of young Uyghurs to serve as slaves in contractors to companies like Nike. Chinese factory owners purchase young Uyghurs in batches of 100 to serve the profit-machines of the world’s most lucrative companies. Kaepernick took a knee to protest racial injustice in the United States but takes millions from Nike, turning a blind eye to concentration camps, mass incarcerations, brainwashing, forced labor and mass murder. Kaepernick has no problems taking Nike’s blood-cash for its sneakers, the dirty secret companies like Nike keep while claiming to advance the cause of racial justice in the United States. Nike hides behind its social justice smokescreen in the U.S.
Reporting about labor abuses in China, an Australian Strategic Policy Institute March 2020 report confirms “Uyghur’s for sale,” supplying slave labor to 83-global companies manufacturing clothing, cell phones and automobiles, including such brands as Apple Inc., General Motors [GM], Gap, and Nike, to name a few. China;s Quingdao manufacturing utilizes some 600 Uyghu slaves to cobble together Nike’s best-selling sneakers, making obscene profits on the backs of Uyghur slaves. Where’s Colin when it comes to running to the bank with Nike cash? Nike has been vocal about backing reparations for descendents of African American slaves but has no problem enslaving Turkish-speaking Uyghur’s to make highly sellable sports shoes. Nike now claims that Oingdao as of July 21 it’s been reassured that they’re no longer using Uyghur slaves to make its sneakers.
Kaepernick’s multimillion dollar contract signed in 2018, extending his 2016 deal, earns him millions for the purpose of proving Nike is a “woke” company, blowing all the politically correct smoke to buffalo U.S. and global consumers. Nike has no problem earning billions in China to manfacture products using Uyghur slaves to make high-end athletic shoes. Forty-year-old U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (D-Mo.) tweeted this week, demanding the Nike and the NBA guarantee that its products are “slave free,” no longer using Uyghurs to make its products. Nike pledged “$100 million over the next 10 years to nonprofit groups committed to ending racial injustice, police brutality and improved education, not admitting to exploiting Uyghurs to work in factories making popular U.S. items. Wearing anti-racists slogans is common today in U.S. sports, while they wear Uyghur stitched athletic shoes.
Kaepernick and other vociferous black athletes first to condemn horrific treatment of African Americans during pre-Civil War days turn a blind eye to slavery as long as it lines their pockets with companies like Nike. Blaming America first for the sins of British ancestors that brought West African slaves to the New World, today’s anti-racist activists like Kapepernick need to take responsibility for the companies they represent. Taking cash from Nike fattens Kaepernick’s wallet but it undermines his anti-racist message when Nike shows no compunction about exploiting Uyghur slaves for its own profits. Nike donating $100 million for racial justice does nothing if they continue to exploit slave labor markets in China and elsewhere to pay the exorbitant salaries to high-profile ex-athletes like Kaepernick for the sole purpose of giving them political cover in the United States.
