11:29PM EST November 30. 2012 - So, it's not enough for Colin Kaepernick to come off the bench under immense pressure, lead the San Francisco 49ers to back-to-back victories and take the starting job amid a hurricane of controversy.
Now, Kaepernick's accused of not looking the part.
Child, please.
Kaepernick is deemed as an undesirable face of an NFL franchise because his arms are decorated with tattoos of Bible verses?
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For that, he is compared to a convict? How cruel. And what a shame.
Consciously or not, David Whitley, in a recent opinion piece for Sporting News, needlessly fed into old, stale thinking that can be the foundation of racial profiling.
Whitley's editor defended the column Friday by insisting it's a generational, not a racial, issue. But the original piece included the line, "I hope it's not a white thing," and a mention of Dutch boy quarterbacks that pushed the envelope further.
Why disrespect Kaepernick, lump him in a group with criminals, with such superficial negativity? Just accept him -- as is.
This is America, 2012. We have a black President with a Muslim name, Barack Obama, who is bi-racial like Kaepernick. The Niners quarterback is of African-American and European descent and was raised by white parents who adopted him as an infant.
This is a multicultural society with many world views and means of expressions.
Deal with it. Times have changed.
Thankfully, the tattoos didn't stop 25-year-old Kaepernick from getting an NFL job. Here's hoping he never feels a need to wear long sleeves under his 49ers jersey to cover the tattoos.
"The level of acceptance now is so different than it used to be in the league," an NFL general manager told USA TODAY Sports. The executive spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
As recently as 25 years ago, the general manager said, it was typical for scouts and team decision-makers to maintain such a narrow, myopic view of the world that they would automatically scratch a prospective player from consideration for silly reasons such as tattoos, body piercing or even an aversion to particular music.
The players with such marks were viewed as non-conformists. Old-school types would see the tattoos and conclude there was some gang affiliation. That was then.
Now you have NFL players openly speaking out on political issues that would have been taboo a generation ago, such as gay rights.
I'm expecting this fresh, sociological buzz (following the debate about how 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh could demote Alex Smith following his recovery from a concussion) will roll off the second-year pro's shoulders without a hitch. He is a product of a more liberal generation than those who might wistfully refer to the 1950s as the good old days, while ignoring the existence of Jim Crow laws in the South that mandated segregated schools, restaurants and buses.
Yet mentioning Kaepernick, who has never been arrested, in the same breath with convicts -- even from Whitley, who adopted two African-American daughters -- tells me that even now Kaepernick can be subjected to a black tax.
If you don't see the racism in linking Kaepernick's tattoos to San Quentin, it doesn't mean you're racist. Maybe just naïve, insensitive or oblivious.
Just don't say that's impossible in 2012. When Obama was re-elected, social media sites lit up with venomous, racially tinged posts. College kids at the University of Mississippi even took to the streets, spewing hate.
Then consider how men of color (African Americans and Hispanics) are still incarcerated at an alarmingly disproportionate rate than that of white men. And other measures, such as the percentage of traffic stops, criminal referrals in school systems and terms of sentences, tilt in favor of white privilege.
If it's difficult for you to connect the dots, consider this: According to the website for the Center for American Progress, people of color represent 30% of the U.S. population but 60% of those imprisoned.
That's why it was so unfair to reference San Quentin, inferring that Kaepernick would be more acceptable if he looked more like, well, Ryan Leaf -- the draft-day bust now serving time.
Sure, there are liberties that allow someone to dislike tattoos and express that opinion. But intolerance of another person who doesn't fit the so-called "All-American image" -- typically portrayed in mainstream mediums as skewing white and blonde -- is yet another indication of how far this society has to grow.
Luckily, Harbaugh is judging the kid on the possibilities of Ws -- especially a string of them that can capture a Super Bowl crown.
Source : http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2012/11/30/49ers-colin-kaepernick-tattoos-sporting-news/1738681/