Colin Kaepernick Is GQ’s Citizen of the Year, Twitter Erupts: ‘Sacrificed His Career’
Colin Kaepernick Is GQ’s Citizen of the Year, Twitter Erupts: ‘Sacrificed His Career’
When
Colin Kaepernick chose last year to kneel during the National Anthem at
NFL games, he probably didn’t expect it to land him on the cover of GQ
magazine, after the entire country — including the president — weighed
in on his protest against police brutality imposed on the black
community.
GQ’s
December Men of the Year issue was released Monday, and also features
“Bad Hombre of the Year” Stephen Colbert, “Champion of the Year” Kevin
Durant and “Wonder Woman of the Year” Gal Gadot. Kaepernick is honored
as “Citizen of the Year,” a decoration that now has his name trending on
Twitter.
Celebs from J. Cole to Ava Duvernay wrote about Kaepernick’s influence over the past year for the issue.
J. Cole said Kaepernick “sacrificed his dream” to stand up for what he believed was right.
“Suddenly
something that he’s been doing blindly for his whole life–standing for
the national anthem–now feels uncomfortable,” the rapper wrote. “Why?
Because now it feels phony! It feels like, ‘Man, how can I stand for
this thing when this country is not holding itself true to the
principles it says it stands for? I feel like we’re lying.'”
DuVernay wrote that she sees Kaepernick’s actions as “art.”
“I
believe that art is seeing the world that doesn’t exist,” the filmmaker
said. “Civil rights activists are artists. Athletes are artists. People
who imagine something that is not there. I think some folks see his
protests, his resistance, as not his work. Not intentional. Not
strategic. Not as progressive action. As if this was just a moment that
he got caught up in. This was work. This is work that he’s doing.”
To read the full feature, head over here.
The
GQ honor comes after Sports Illustrated came under fire for not
including Kaepernick in their “Sports United” cover back in September,
when the NFL/Anthem protests were in full swing, dominating the
country’s collective conversation. SI’s executive editor Stephen
Cannella said at the time that the former 49ers quarterback was left out
because they wanted the piece to focus on “new voices” that emerged in
the debate.
Granted,
not everyone is excited about Kaepernick’s new designation, and some
conservatives online are calling for a GQ boycott. But the fact that the
magazine can lean left is nothing new — special correspondent Keith
Olbermann even hosts a web series called “The Resistance.”
Yet, the reactions (at least on weathervane Twitter) have been mostly positive:
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