ABSTRACT
This chapter classifies the former National Football League (NFL) quarterback and kneeler for the national anthem, Colin Kaepernick, as one who is protesting with a prophetic voice. It examines that Kaepernick’s protest and the political critique behind it has a prophetic quality that puts him at the end of a long line of Black activists, as categorized by Cornel West. These activists challenged white supremacy by attending to the manifestations of a neoliberal capitalistic ideology that sustains such supremacy. New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote a piece at the height of the Kaepernick protest during the 2016 NFL season that expresses concern over the effect of a public figure kneeling for the national anthem before a game. The only analog to Kaepernick that Brooks mentions is the African American writer Ta-Nehisi Coates who, along with Kaepernick, is contributing to the increasing lack of patriotism that Brooks sees in the United States.
