Black Disabled Lives Matter, Too — and Colin Kaepernick Knows It
It takes a real change agent to stand up for all Black people’s rights, not just Black men
All around the world, people are chanting, “Black lives matter!”
Fast-food companies now tweet a phrase once seen as a dirty term that would incite anger in even the most “polite” racists. Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., renamed Lafayette Square Black Lives Matter Plaza, conveniently located mere footsteps away from the White House, which currently houses Donald Trump.
As more corporations and businesses throw support behind BLM, we have to determine who is legitimately committed to racial justice and who is in this for a quick payday. Is the real Colin Kaepernick in the former or the latter? In my opinion, he is a real activist interested in leveraging his power to fight for the powerless.
I’m one of the disabled activists who attended Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp (KYRC), a nonprofit that works to reduce deadly police brutality. His organization is one of the few that addresses the primary victims of police brutality — people with disabilities. According to the Ruderman Foundation, a shocking 50% of people killed by police are disabled. Though the Black Lives Matter nonprofit organization makes…
