Via Vox:
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick fired back at Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Tuesday, calling her criticism that his protest is “dumb and disrespectful” both “disappointing” and an all too predictable means of undermining black activists’ efforts.
“It is disappointing to hear a Supreme Court justice call a protest against injustices and oppression ‘stupid, dumb’ in reference to players doing that,” Kaepernick told the San Jose Mercury News earlier this week.
He continued, “I was reading an article and it refers to white critique of black protests and how they try to de-legitimize it by calling it ‘idiotic, dumb, stupid,’ things of that nature, so they can sidestep the real issue. As I was reading that I saw more and more truth how this has been approached by people in power, and white people in power in particular.”
Ginsburg recently sat down for a Yahoo News interview with Katie Couric. When asked about the Kaepernick-inspired protests sweeping the nation, Ginsburg noted that though the players are within their rights to protest, but said she ultimately thinks “it’s really dumb of them” She went so far as saying taking a knee during the national anthem was equivalent to flag burning: “I think it’s a terrible thing to do.”