OPINION | This article contains the author's opinion.
Failed NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is the main figure in a new special on Netflix in which he equates being an NFL player to slavery.
Social media immediately erupted with unmerciful ridicule following the comparison.
After pointing at NFL coaches in the film, Kaepernick looks at the camera and says, “What they don’t want you to understand is what’s being established is a power dynamic.”
“Before they put you on the field, teams poke, prod, and examine you,” Kaepernick says.
“Searching for any defect that might affect your performance. No boundary respected, no dignity left intact,” he adds.
The NFL players in the film, who are all black, then leave the field and walk back in time to a slave auction.
The film depicts a cotton field background of the scene.
White slaveowners are shown examining the slaves that are chained while a clip of a football coach looks at the wingspan of a football player.
The film turns back to the slave auction.
A slave owner then shakes hands with a current-day football coach.
Watch the clip:
In his Netflix special, Colin Kaepernick suggests the NFL training camp is synonymous with literally buying slaves.
Unreal. pic.twitter.com/slLnks7RPq
— Mythinformed MKE (@MythinformedMKE) October 30, 2021
Super Bowl-winning NFL player turned Congressman Burgess Owens responded, “How dare @Kaepernick7 compare the evil endured by so many of our ancestors to a bunch of millionaires who CHOSE to play game.”
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh said, “Kaepernick spent half a decade crying that NFL teams wouldn’t give him a shot and now he’s decided that actually being an NFL player is like being a slave.”
“This dude is the most obvious and shameless con artist in modern American history.”
Podcast host Lauren Chen replied, “No, Colin Kaepernick. Being a millionaire athlete is not like being a slave.”
Former NFL player Jake Bequette said, “This clip is pathetic. We chose to play the game that we loved and we were paid well to do it. Shame on @netflix, @Nike, and the @NFL for embracing @Kaepernick7’s antics and his disgraceful message.”
Jonah Goldberg said, “These fools are minimizing the evils of slavery. Paying millionaires to play a game they love is not exactly the same thing as chattel slavery. And if I were to suggest it was I’d be called a racist — and rightly so.”
“Colin in Black and White” is a six-part docudrama series on Netflix.
He claims to recount Kaepernick’s formative years navigating race, class, and culture.