Colin Kaepernick protested celebrating the Fourth of July in a Twitter post and Instagram message that shows him traveling to Ghana and visiting a former slave ship post.
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who has yet to sign with another team, questioned on Twitter why African-Americans should celebrate Independence Day since they were brought to America as slaves.
He posted video and then a longer message on Instagram about his experience.
"What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?" - Frederick Douglass. In a quest to find my personal independence, I had to find out where my ancestors came from. I set out tracing my African ancestral roots, and it lead me to Ghana. Upon finding out this information, I wanted to visit the sites responsible for myself (and many other Black folks in the African Diaspora) for being forced into the hells of the middle passage. I wanted to see a fraction of what they saw before reaching the point of no return. I spent time with the/my Ghanaian people, from visiting the local hospital in Keta and the village of Atito, to eating banku in the homes of local friends, and paying my respects to Kwame Nkrumah's Memorial Park. I felt their love, and truly I hope that they felt mine in return.
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"In a quest to find my personal independence, I had to find out where my ancestors came from," Kaepernick, who was born biracial and raised by his white foster parents in California, wrote on Instagram. "I set out tracing my African ancestral roots, and it lead me to Ghana. Upon finding out this information, I wanted to visit the sites responsible for myself (and many other Black folks in the African Diaspora) for being forced into the hells of the middle passage.
"I wanted to see a fraction of what they saw before reaching the point of no return. I spent time with the/my Ghanaian people, from visiting the local hospital in Keta and the village of Atito, to eating banku in the homes of local friends, and paying my respects to Kwame Nkrumah's Memorial Park. I felt their love, and truly I hope that they felt mine in return," he continued.
Kaepernick created a stir last football season by kneeling during the national anthem because of the country's treatment of minorities, noted ESPN.
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick said last August during the preseason, noted ESPN. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
While Kaepernick has said he is done with the national anthem protest, he remains a free agent.
"But NFL teams don't appear willing to take on what could be a distraction despite Kaepernick's talent that most believe exceeds that of other quarterbacks like Austin Davis, Ryan Fitzpatrick and E.J. Manuel, who signed as free agents this offseason," Omnisport's Rob Clements wrote for the Sporting News.
"Clearly those signings have not caused Kaepernick to tone down his political activism, but isn't he simply exercising the very freedoms other Americans were celebrating in the form of beer, hot dogs and fireworks?" Clements continued.
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