* Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, issued the following statement in response to Donald Trump’s comments today that NFL owners are “afraid of their players.”
Color Of Change is currently collecting signatures to an open letter from San Francisco 49er Eric Reid in support of Colin Kaepernick.
Color Of Change is also calling on all NFL staff and players to #TakeTheKnee, and for the NFL to designate November as an official month for racial justice activism
Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of Color Of Change:
“Trump’s comments that NFL owners are ‘afraid of their players’ is a blatant dog whistle. It gets to the heart of why Trump has been so consumed by #TakeTheKnee–he cannot stand the rejection of white control of Black bodies. His rhetoric evokes the same mentality of police officers who shoot unarmed Black people, playing up false stories of danger and threats to legitimize their fatal actions. This language is dangerous and shameful, and must be roundly condemned by NFL owners. Until they condemn it and take affirmative steps—like joining with their players in criminal justice reform and racial justice efforts—then they are complicit in Trump’s white supremacy.”
If you missed it, here’s what Trump said earlier …
In an exclusive interview with “Fox & Friends,” President Trump said that NFL owners are “afraid” to act against their players protesting the national anthem at games across the country.
“The NFL is in a box and they have to do something about it,” Trump told Fox News’ Pete Hegseth, in the interview aired Thursday morning.
“I think they’re afraid of their players, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said.
Trump reiterated that the NFL has a wide range of rules, suggesting the league should apply new rules to those who would protest the anthem by kneeling.
“They have rules for everything—you can’t dance in the end zone, you can’t wear pink socks relative to breast cancer—they have rules for everything,” the president told Hegseth, a “Fox & Friends” weekend co-host and Fox News political analyst.
He added: “Why aren’t they honoring this country by enforcing a rule that’s been in existence for a long time?”
But he said, “I have so many friends that are owners, and they are in a box.”
Trump’s comments come after days of back-and-forth criticism with the NFL and its players for “disrespecting our country.”
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