The announcement of Roc Nation’s partnership with the NFL last week has divided the room with everyone taking sides that essentially break down to whether you support JAY-Z or not. Over the years, JAY has developed the reputation of thinking outside the box and ten steps ahead, especially when it comes to his business deals. His partnership with the NFL has been treated no different.
During the Roc Nation x NFL partnership press conference last week, Colin Kaepernick was caught in the crossfire when JAY-Z responded to questions about the national anthem protest that he spearheaded in 2016 to raise awareness towards the issues of racial injustice and systematic oppression in the United States.
"I think that we forget that Colin's whole thing was to bring attention to social injustice," JAY-Z said. "In that case, this is a success. This is the next thing because there’s two parts of the protest." His belief that "we've moved past kneeling" has led people on his side to believe that JAY is once again getting ahead of the curve.
Former NFL player Marcellus Wiley is in JAY's camp, and expressed that much on his FS1 show Speak For Yourself Monday. The conversation took a turn when Wiley leaned incredibly hard in support of the rapper and entrepreneur by drawing into question whether Kaepernick could ever feel "the full weight" of injustice being "mixed race."
"Kaepernick comes from a situation where he never felt the full weight of these injustices," Wiley says at the 2:40 mark. "This is a mixed race guy who was raised by a white family from Wisconsin to central California. Respect — that does not disqualify you from talking for us but when you make missteps and miscalculations, oh, it comes back into play."
Wiley seems to also dismiss the involvement of Kaepernick's girlfriend Nessa Diab in the conversation of injustice because she is "not black." Nessa is of Egyptian descent.
The irony in Wiley's remarks is the sheer timing. Wiley is supporting a billionaire who has been only accumulating his wealth for more than a decade over Kaepernick who hasn't been able to get a job in the NFL because of his protest that brought attention to the issues this partnership wants to address. If we want to talk about feeling the full weight of injustice, isn't Kaep currently in that exact circumstance through his unemployment?
