Rodney Harrison Is Appropriating White Culture By Determining Who Should Be Discriminated Against
Rodney Harrison, a former Chargers and Patriots safety that is now a studio analyst on “Sunday Night Football,” did not focus his comments on the substance of Kaepernick’s comments nor on his decision to do take a seat. Instead, Harrison took issue with Kaepernick’s depiction of himself as a black man.
“I tell you this, I’m a black man. And Colin Kaepernick — he’s not black,” Harrison said on iHeartRadio (h/t Sporting News). “He cannot understand what I face and what other young black men and black people face, or people of color face, on a every single (day) basis. When you walk in a grocery store, and you might have $2,000 or $3,000 in your pocket and you go up in to a Foot Locker and they’re looking at you like you about to steal something. You know, I don’t think he faces those type of things that we face on a daily basis.”
Harrison later stated, “I’m not saying he has to be black, but I’m saying, his heart is in the right place, but even with what he’s doing, he still doesn’t understand the injustices as a black man, or people of color, that’s what I’m saying.” (SOURCE: CBS Sports)
I say this with the greatest amount of repsect possible and sorry if this offends, but Rodney Harrison frankly isnt white enough to determine whether or not Colin Kapernick is black enough to be discriminated against. The decision as to which minorities to be biased against is a old white tradition that dates back to long before anyone reading this was ever around, its a important cultural process involving careful evaluation and deliberation that Harrison apparently thinks he can just unilateraly adopt that over the course of a weekend. Its frankly cultural appropriation and disrespectful for him to think that he can just decide on a whim which ethnicities of Americans white people should and should not disenfranchise.
Harrison telling white america who to be racist against is like Robin Thicke stealing a song from Marvin Gaye, or Ed Sheeran stealing a song from Marvin Gaye, or Curt Schilling plagerizing Wesley Snipes bank account- and I will not stand by the wayside and let it happen.
PS
Also, when you consider Harrisons style of play, its more then a bit ironic for him to object to someone protesting a flag on a football field.