Former NFL quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick is donating $100,000 in race-specific coronavirus relief funds to combat “hundreds of years of structural racism.”
The man whose activism sparked the NFL’s national anthem protests in 2016 says “black and brown communities are being disproportionately devastated by COVID-19” due to racism.
The Know Your Rights campaign funded by Mr. Kaepernick posted a video on Thursday blaming “health inequities” caused by “policies that devalue groups of people.”
Johns Hopkins University has tallied over 2 million positive coronavirus cases — along with 150,000 deaths.
The virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, has infected over 670,000 Americans; nearly 44,000 U.S. patients have died as of Friday.
“I’m donating $100,000 to the Know Your Rights Camp COVID-19 Relief Fund,” Mr. Kaepernick tweeted Thursday. “Join us in our mission to help address the disproportionate affect the pandemic is having on our communities🖤✊🏾Use the hashtag #WeGotUs & tag @yourrightscamp after you donate so they can show you some love.”
The athlete’s Know Your Rights website urged visitors to donate because “America’s newest infection seems to be mating with America’s original infection, reproducing not life, but death.”
I’m donating $100,000 to the Know Your Rights Camp COVID-19 Relief Fund. Join us in our mission to help address the disproportionate affect the pandemic is having on our communities🖤✊🏾Use the hashtag #WeGotUs & tag @yourrightscamp after you donate so they can show you some love pic.twitter.com/yzcTlvw7mR
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) April 16, 2020
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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