Puffin/Nation 2017 Awardee Colin Kaepernick Honored by Amnesty International

April 24, 2018

Colin Kaepernick, the former N.F.L. quarterback whose kneeling protest of racial injustice spurred a sports movement but may have cost him his job, was awarded Amnesty International’s Ambassador for Conscience Award on Saturday.

“Radicalized oppression and dehumanization is woven into the very fabric of our nation– the effects of which can be seen in the lawful lynching of black and brown people by the police, and the mass incarceration of black and brown lives in the prison industrial complex,” Kaepernick said at a ceremony in Amsterdam, where the award was presented by the organization’s secretary general, Shalil Shetty.

“How can you stand for the national anthem of a nation that preaches and propagates ‘freedom and justice for all’ that is so unjust to so many of the people living there?” Kaeperick said.

New York Times, April 22, 2018 more here