The Absurdist Spectacle of the Nike Boycotts
Monday afternoon, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick a tightly cropped grayscale photo of his face, emblazoned with a simple message: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Below Kaepernick’s lips, the Nike logo accompanied the company’s pithy slogan: “Just do it.” For Kaepernick, the “something” meriting a Sisyphean sacrifice has been addressing systemic racial injustice (most notably, police brutality), a platform he’s dedicated himself to advancing since he first began kneeling during the playing of the national anthem . In the time since, the have become a much larger movement, but the athlete behind them remains a much reviled figure even as he pledged—and then donated—. The free agent was not offered a.
