Colin Kaepernick has reportedly been on the receiving end of multiple death threats "via a couple different avenues," including social media, in response to his National Anthem protest.
According to ESPN, Kaepernick seems mostly unfazed by the menacing remarks and issued the following statement about how those that are sending him death threats are actually proving his point.
"To me, if something like that were to happen, you've proved my point and it will be loud and clear for everyone why it happened and that would move this movement forward at a greater speed than what it is even now," Kaepernick said. "Granted, I don't want that to happen, but that's the realization of what could happen, and I knew there were other things that came along with this when I first stood up and spoke about it. That's not something I haven't thought about."
Kaepernick made those comments while speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon in a 15-minute conversation that started out light but then shifted to the tragic police killing of Terence Crutcher.
"I think it will be very, very telling what happens with the officer that killed him, what happens with [her] because everybody's eyes will be on [her]," Kaepernick said. "For me, I think one of the things that I've noticed throughout this is there's a lot of racism in this country disguised as patriotism. People want to take everything back to the flag, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about racial discrimination, inequalities and injustices that are happening across the nation."
Before the season started Kaepernick vowed to donate $1 million to charities that support racial equality- something that he also addressed during his most recent press conference. He intends to donate $100,000 per week for 10 weeks to select organizations and charities that he chooses to align with. His team is currently working on a website that will track all of the funds and give others a chance to donate as well.
"We'll be able to track it so everyone can see exactly what organizations the money is going to and also making sure that we get an itemized list from the organizations of what they're spending the money on to make sure not only that I'm transparent with what I'm doing but these organizations are transparent with where the money is going as well," Kaepernick said.
Additionally, he still has plans to donate proceeds from his jersey sales back into the communities.
[Via]