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      colin kaepernick

      Lashawn Thompson

      Kaepernick to Fund Independent Autopsy for Atlanta Inmate Found Dead in Insect-Infested Cell

      "We want to thank Colin Kaepernick for helping this family get to the truth and soon," said civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, who is representing relatives of Lashawn Thompson.

      Brett Wilkins
      Apr 21, 2023

      Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump on Thursday said that former NFL quarterback and racial justice activist Colin Kaepernick will pay for an independent autopsy for Lashawn Thompson, a mentally ill man who died last September in a filthy, insect-infested cell in an overcrowded Atlanta jail.

      Crump spoke at a rally and news conference outside the Fulton County Jail, where Thompson, who was arrested last June for alleged misdemeanor simple battery, was held for three months before his death.

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      colin kaepernick
      Civil rights activists  led by Dr. Martin Luther King sing as they march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.

      How Dare They Show Up All Black and Excellent: Lift Every Voice

      Abby Zimet
      Feb 14, 2023

      Boasting the usual hype, glitz, plugs and some football, Sunday also showcased what was arguably "the Blackest, most woke Super Bowl ever": Black History Month, two first-ever black quarterbacks, black performers, and sweet white Jesus a soaring Black National Anthem?! MAGA-land heads exploded: Satan, racism, divisiveness, leaving "NOTHING for the White People of our land!" "Hateful gargoyle" MTG: The white singer was good but "we could have gone without the wokeness." America: "You mean the blackness."

      Given a relative universe and the ugly paradoxes of the NFL - two of three players are black in a gilded, long-segregated league where owners are so right-wing they blackballed Colin Kaepernick for putting his knee on the ground to protest cops daily killing innocent black people - it's understandable Americans hungry for a hopeful glimpse of progress could declare of this weekend's game, "This wasn’t the Super Bowl. This was Wakanda." Well, not quite. There was also Elon Musk sitting with Rupert Murdoch and a deluge of mostly mediocre $7-million-ads - Walter and Jesse, really? - including two unholy ones for Jesus ("He gets us") from supporters of a nationwide ban on abortion medication. AOC: "Something tells me Jesus would *not* spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign." But in this year's improbable "mirror for us all," a gaudy intermingling of capitalism, jingoism, sport and spectacle, there were signs corporate America is grudgingly realizing there are more people of conscience who support diversity and equity than MAGA hateful gargoyles, and there's money in it. Thus, two starting black quarterbacks, an end-zone that read, "End Racism," a traditional flyover by the first all-women pilot team, and a bounty of Black musical talent, from Babyface to Rihanna and her fabulous dancers.

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      Anthony Miller #17 of the Chicago Bears kneels in the end zone before the game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on September 13, 2020 in Detroit, Michigan

      Taking the Next Knee

      Is this athletic revolt for real and is it a danger to Donald Trump?

      Robert Lipsyte
      Sep 17, 2020

      Last year, when LeBron James described some of President Trump's public statements as "laughable and scary," Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham ordered the basketball superstar to "shut up and dribble."

      LeBron responded thoughtfully by saying that her comment "resonated with me, but I think it resonated with a lot of people to be able to feel like they can be more."

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