During an epic rant on FS1, former NFL player Marcellus Wiley laced into Colin Kaepernick and his girlfriend Nessa Diab, for turning the NFL protest movement into a “validation” of their blackness. The FS1 host pointed out that Kaepernick is of “mixed race,” and Diab is “not black.”
Wiley praised rapper Jay-Z, who decided to work with the NFL on social justice initiatives, leading to criticism from anthem-kneelers (for social injustice) Eric Reid, Kenny Stills and Kaepernick for selling out.
“Please add my name to this list of sell-outs, that goes like this – Jay-Z, Big Boi, Travis Scott, Malcolm Jenkins. Put my name on that list if you want to, because this [anthem protest movement] has turned into a validation, an accredit, for Colin Kaepernick and Nessa’s blackness,” Wiley said on the FS1 Show, Speak for Yourself.
Jay-Z and the NFL announced a partnership last week focused on social justice initiatives and music for big NFL events. Rapper’s Scott and Big Boi were criticized for performing at the the Super Bowl, and Jenkins, the head of the NFL Player’s Coalition, took some heat for making a deal with the NFL, that included close to $100 million in league donations to inner city causes.
Wiley doesn’t feel Kaepernick’s upbringing qualifies him to speak about the suffering of inner city blacks.
“Kaepernick comes from a situation where he has never felt the full weight of these injustices,” Wiley said. “This is a mixed-race guy who was raised by a white family from Wisconsin to Central California. Respect, that does not disqualify you for talking for us, but when you make missteps and miscalculations, it comes back into play.”
And Wiley thinks Nessa, a TV and radio host, is part of the reason Kaepernick became radicalized.
“I knew Kaepernick [when he a successful QB with the 49ers) – he was never talking about this,” Wiley said. “He meets Nessa in 2015 and in 2016 he gets benched, flip-flop. Not mad, that still doesn’t disqualify you. But Nessa comes into play now and we all know Nessa. Respect to her and her ethnicity, but it’s not black. OK. So now we have two leaders who don’t even feel the weight of the consequences.”
Wiley, who grew up in three different historically black neighborhoods, feels Kaepernick and Nessa (Egyptian-American), don’t truly know what the black struggle is all about.
“Ain’t no cosmetics here, bro. When I’m in Compton, when I’m in South Central and Harlem. That is my childhood to manhood – 0-22 years old. Those three places. I know what it feels like. When you are talking to Jay-Z who has been through Marcy Projects (Bedford-Stuyvesant), Brooklyn and all his successes. He has seen this. We both said, “Go Kaepernick, Go” and let the cause blindly support the man. But the character has now come into question. And now Eric Reid has taken it and given him cover, Kenny Stills another guy – respect guys – another mixed race individual who has not felt the full weight of this (suffering).”
Wiley gives credit to Jay-Z for taking the baton from the Kaepernick movement that he feels isn’t getting much done.
“You can keep kneeling, I’m going to take this baton from you as you’re kneeling and I’m going to translate this into the two things that are most important in this whole conversation, which is the money and the power, that can give the resources to those who are underprivileged, under-served and voiceless,” Wiley said about Jay-Z.
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