Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter, Bernice A. King, is coming to Colin Kaepernick's defense after the former NFL player appeared on a controversial New Yorker cover illustration (below) alongside her dad and Seattle Seahawks lineman, Michael Bennett.
In the Mark Ulriksen–created piece, Kaepernick and Bennett are seen taking a knee and linking arms with MLK, who is also on his knees and praying. Some, including Fox News associate Kathy Barnette, don't think the athletes should be put on the same footing as Martin Luther King Jr. However, MLK's daughter thinks differently.
In the New Yorker piece, Ulriksen also explained his thoughts on Kaepernick and Bennett, who's also supported and participated in Kaepernick's demonstration protest. "I’m glad that Colin Kaepernick and Michael Bennett are making it [sports] political," he said. "I’m sure that if King were around today, he’d be disappointed at the slow pace of progress: two steps forward, 20 steps back. Or 10 yards back, as the metaphor may be."
This isn't the first time King's daughter has voiced her support for Kaepernick. When the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback started his protest of the national anthem by taking a knee, King went to Twitter to compare his actions to a black-and-white photo of protestors during the Civil Rights era. In the tweet, she voiced that not much has changed in the decades that span between the two photos.
