Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick said that U.S. troops were plundering the “non white world” even as he rakes in millions from shoes made in Nike factories full of cheap labor all across the developing world.
On Saturday, Kaepernick jumped to Twitter to attack America after a U.S. airstrike eliminated one of Iran’s major terrorist figures, IRGC General Qasem Soleimani.
Kaepernick accused America of “imperialism,” of using terror against “black and brown bodies,” and he also said our troops are responsible for “plundering the non-white world.”
There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism.
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) January 4, 2020
America has always sanctioned and besieged Black and Brown bodies both at home and abroad. America militarism is the weapon wielded by American imperialism, to enforce its policing and plundering of the non white world.
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) January 4, 2020
But even as Kaepernick points an accusing finger at the U.S.A. for exploiting “black and brown” people, one could say he is just as guilty since he rakes in millions as a pitchman for sportswear giant Nike. The shoemaker has been accused of employing sweatshop labor in the same countries Kaepernick claims the U.S. has exploited.
Nike has had major issues with accusations of labor exploitation. The “woke” shoemaker was plagued with allegations that it used sweatshop labor all through the 1980s and 1990s until 1998 when Nike founder Phil Knight pledged to purge the company’s supply chain of sweatshop labor.
In the ensuing decade, Nike earned accolades for its efforts to end sweatshop labor. But despite the renewed reputation as an honest manufacturer, Nike recently ran afoul of human rights and labor activists once again.
In one case, the company was accused of abusive and unsafe working conditions in a factory in Hansa, Vietnam. The accusations sparked protests in Boston, Washington D.C., Bangalore, and San Pedro Sula in Honduras.
Also, in March of 2017, the International Labor Rights Forum insisted that Nike had “turned its back” on labor agreements effectively preventing independent monitors from reviewing conditions in many of its overseas factories.
Other organizations accused Nike of failing to improve its record of abusive labor practices against women in many of these factories. The groups have criticized Nike because female workers make less than a dollar an hour for a 48-hour week making Nike shoes in factories in Vietnam. By some accounts, Nike’s Vietnamese workforce is up to 85 percent female.
So, a pertinent question for Mr. Kaepernick may be just who might be the one exploiting “black and brown bodies” for profit?
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