This weekend, Nike released a new campaign in honor of the 30th anniversary of its “Just Do It” slogan. One of the ads featured Colin Kaepernick, the free agent quarterback who is largely recognized as the NFL player who started demonstrations during the pregame national anthem to protest racism, to advocate for criminal justice reforms and to draw attention to police shootings.
The ad has been instantly polarizing.
Though it has drawn praise from some fellow players, pro athletes and even Raiders owner Mark Davis, it has also been met with some Twitter users calling for a boycott of Nike.
Given the controversy, today is a good day to remember a tweet posted by rapper Lecrae in September 2016. He wrote, “Take a knee…people riot. Take a bullet…people quiet.”
Take a knee…people riot.
Take a bullet…people quiet.
— Lecrae (@lecrae) September 20, 2016
The simple tweet underscores the outrage many activists have expressed in the wake of police shootings of young, black men and the silence and indifference those shootings are met with in many communities.
