He’s gone and done it again. Colin Kaepernick was greeted with boos instead of cheers on Sunday when he took to the field at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida and it wasn’t because he was playing against the Miami Dolphins.
It looks like the San Francisco 49ers quarterback has a lot to say about American politics, as Miami’s community of Cuban exiles were horrified by the quarterback’s support of what they consider to have been a Communist oppressor.
Kaepernick turned up for an interview with Miami reporters wearing a T-shirt depicting a meeting between recently deceased Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro and the late black rights activist Malcolm X.
The quarterback defended his choice to wear the T-shirt, praising Fidel Castro for investing in Cuba’s education system and free universal health care, as opposed to America’s choice of investing in the prison system.
At a later press conference, Kaepernick was asked to clarify and defend his choice of attire. The quarterback did not apologise for his decision to wear the T-shirt. He was also questioned on why he did not vote during during the recent election, which is something he received a lot of criticism for earlier this year. The quarterback calmly responded: “I’m against systematic oppression and voting is a part of that system”.
These aren’t the only instance in which the quarterback has been booed and judged. He found himself at the center of media attention earlier this year when he refused to stand up to sing the national anthem during a game.
While Fidel Castro’s death on Friday evening has led to mass mourning in Cuba, Cuban-populated American states, such as Florida, have been celebrating what they claim to be the death of a dictator and the start of a new era.
