Key Takeaways
- Royce White called himself “the real Colin Kaepernick,” arguing that Kaepernick’s protest was initially “prophetic” but ultimately failed to address the most important issues.
- White said Kaepernick’s partnerships with Nike and Disney absorbed his activism into the same corporate sports and media system he once challenged.
- The former NBA player challenged Kaepernick to a debate and cited his own 2012 fight for mental health accommodations as an earlier example of athlete activism.
Royce White has an explanation for how Colin Kaepernick went from “prophetic” to “corny” in his eyes: Kaepernick didn't finish the job.
And according to White, he was the one who did.
“I am the real Colin Kaepernick,” the former NBA first-round pick told Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson in a follow-up interview, escalating a feud that began when White recently tore into the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and his activism.
White's latest comments came after a contrast in his public record. In his previous interview with Robinson, White dismissed Kaepernick as “corny” and criticized everything from his Black Panther-inspired imagery to the direction his activism took after his 2016 national anthem protest.
There was just one problem: White had once been one of the people praising him.
During the George Floyd protests in 2020, White called Kaepernick's stance “prophetic” and said the former quarterback had “laid the groundwork” for powerful protest symbolism. White also helped lead a massive demonstration in Minneapolis where protesters took a knee.
Confronted with those comments, White didn't deny them. Instead, he doubled down on both versions.
“When Complex says that my stance on Colin Kaepernick was that his moment was prophetic, it was in many ways,” White said. “But just like King David, you can be anointed for something, selected and chosen by God to bring a message or do a mission, and still stumble after the fact.”
White said Kaepernick was “prophetic” in recognizing that professional sports could distract from larger issues and credited his protest with bringing the sports and cultural worlds “to a screeching halt.”
“The question is, what are the more important issues?” White said. “That's where he failed in dramatic fashion.”
White also directly addressed his own participation in the 2020 protests.
“When I complimented Colin Kaepernick back in 2020 after George Floyd died, I organized a protest and used Colin Kaepernick as an icon because I believed he was prophetic,” he said.
Six years later, White believes Kaepernick's subsequent corporate partnerships undermined what his original protest represented. Kaepernick signed a first-look deal with Disney in 2020 that included an ESPN documentary series about his life and activism, while his relationship with Nike produced one of the company's most prominent campaigns.
White argued those relationships turned Kaepernick's protest into part of the same sports and media machinery he had challenged.
Now he wants to settle the disagreement face to face.
“I'd love to sit down with Colin Kaepernick as a fellow Black man and athlete who sacrificed something in terms of athletics and sports to talk about a broader social issue,” White said. “Let me and Colin Kaepernick have the debate. I challenge Colin Kaepernick to a debate.”
White even placed himself ahead of Kaepernick on the athlete-activist timeline, pointing to his 2012 battle with the Houston Rockets over mental health accommodations, four years before Kaepernick first knelt during the national anthem in 2016.
