It’s Super Bowl Sunday. Should Black Players Protest?

02.03.19
(From left to right: Muhammad Ali in Chicago in 1974, Colin Kaepernick in 2012, and Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos in 1968. (Photos, left to right: John White/U.S. National Archives, Mike Morbeck/Flickr and Angelo Cozzi/Wikimedia Commons))

As Black History Month kicks off, YR Media’s Aaliyah Filos offers her take on all the controversy surrounding the Super Bowl, which is in part about whether Maroon 5 should have said yes to the halftime show, given what’s happened to Colin Kaepernick.

Kaepernick, the former 49ers quarterback, hasn’t played since the 2016 season, when he protested police brutality by taking a knee during the national anthem.

Aaliyah Filos looks back at the history of black athlete activism, from Muhammad Ali refusing to be drafted in the Vietnam War, to NBA player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf not standing for the national anthem.

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