Colin Kaepernick donates $100,000 to coronavirus relief fund aimed at helping people of color
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is getting involved in the fight against COVID-19.
Kaepernick donated $100,000 to the Know Your Rights Camp COVID-19 Relief Fund on Thursday morning, he announced on Twitter. The goal of the fund, he said, is to help “address the disproportionate affect the pandemic is having on” communities of color.
I’m donating $100,000 to the Know Your Rights Camp COVID-19 Relief Fund. Join us in our mission to help address the disproportionate affect the pandemic is having on our communities🖤✊🏾Use the hashtag #WeGotUs & tag @yourrightscamp after you donate so they can show you some love pic.twitter.com/yzcTlvw7mR
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) April 16, 2020
“Black and brown communities are being disproportionately devastated by COVID-19 because of hundreds of years of structural racism,” Kaepernick said in a Twitter video. “That’s why we’ve established the Know Your Rights Camp COVID-19 Fund to help address these issues.”
Structural racism makes Black & Brown ppl more likely to die from #COVID19. @kaepernick7 launched the Know Your Rights Camp COVID-19 Relief Fund to directly impact the disproportionate effect #coronavirus is having on our communities. #WeGotUs 🖤✊🏾 Donate: https://t.co/drZYeE3a3O pic.twitter.com/vZwsu38nro
— Know Your Rights Camp (@yourrightscamp) April 16, 2020
There were more than 662,400 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States as of Thursday afternoon, according to The New York Times, and more than 30,000 deaths attributed to the virus. According to the Washington post, African Americans are dying at a “disproportionately high rate” from the virus.
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In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, for example, African Americans accounted for about 70 percent of coronavirus-related deaths as of April 7 despite making up just 36 percent of the population in the county that holds Wisconsin’s largest city. Louisiana had similar numbers as a whole, too. About 70 percent of people who had died due to the virus were black despite making up about 32 percent of the state’s population, per the Washington Post.
Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since the 2016 season, when he started kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice in the United States. He’s been working as a civil rights activist ever since. The 32-year-old participated in a workout for teams in November in an attempt to get back into the league, but it didn’t go as planned. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said shortly after that workout that “we’ve moved on,” making it look as if Kaepernick’s quest to play football again isn’t happening anytime soon.
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