Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick on Saturday slammed the “American terrorist attacks”, additionally pointing out that the action was nothing new. Kaepernick’s comments come on the wake of Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani’s assassination in a US drone strike that targeted him near Baghdad International Airport on Friday.
“There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism,' the former footballer tweeted on Saturday.
Kaepernick criticized Trump administration policies against “black and brown people” inside and outside territories of the United States and the use of militarism against “the non-white world”.
“America has always sanctioned and besieged black and brown bodies both at home and abroad. American militarism is the weapon wielded by American imperialism, to enforce its policing and plundering of the non-white world,” the ex-NFL player tweeted.
Although the former star quarterback did not explicitly mention the killing of Soleimani, his suggestion of “terrorist attacks” come one day after the US missile attack that killed the Iranian general.
Kaepernick catapulted from being a sports star to becoming a cultural icon after starting the practice of 'taking the knee' during the performance of the US national anthem at the start of football games, as a protest to endemic racism in the country. The popularity of the movement he founded resulted in widespread attention to the issue, as well as seeing him blackballed by the NFL.