President Donald Trump took a lot of flak after he ordered an airstrike Thursday that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, including from NFL quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick, who accused the U.S. of perpetrating “terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people” in hopes of “plundering of the non-white world.” But when it comes to exploiting the citizens of developing nations, perhaps Kaepernick ought to take a look in the mirror.
According to a new report from Breitbart, Kaepernick rakes in the dough as a spokesman for Nike — even as the company “has been accused of employing sweatshop labor in the same countries Kaepernick claims the U.S. has exploited,” the outlet claims.
Pot, meet kettle
Kaepernick’s hypocritical remarks came in a pair of tweets on Saturday wherein the former San Francisco 49ers star lamented that “there is nothing new” about American attacks on the Middle East.
There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism.
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) January 4, 2020
Kaepernick followed that with a tweet claiming that “America has always sanctioned and besieged Black and Brown bodies both at home and abroad. America militarism is the weapon wielded by American imperialism, to enforce its policing and plundering of the non-white world,” he added.
But Kaepernick doesn’t seem to feel the same way if he’s the one benefitting. Setting aside his professional football career, Kaepernick has embraced a lucrative deal with Nike, signing on to promote shoes, jerseys, and other apparel in recent years — even as Nike has struggled to kick allegations that it abuses its workers in developing nations.
Overworked and underpaid
The accusations first emerged in the early 1990s, according to Fast Company, and in the decades since, Nike has been largely able to quiet them with vows to improve working conditions. But as recently as 2017, new allegations started to emerge. Fast Company reports:
In Cambodia, for instance, 500 workers inside a plant that supplies products to Nike, Puma, Asics, and the VF Corporation were hospitalized after fainting out of exhaustion and hunger as a result of working 10-hour shifts, six days a week, in 98-degree heat.
Moreover, a watchdog group reported that conditions at a Nike plant in Vietnam were atrocious. According to Fast Company, the group documented “a string of alleged abuses there including wage theft, forced overtime, restrictions on the workers’ use of toilets, exposure to toxic solvents, and padlocked exit doors.”
“Workers [were] collapsing unconscious at their sewing machines due to heat and overwork,” a report from the watchdog group said, according to Fast Company.
And the employees certainly aren’t being paid to compensate for such abuses; according to Breitbart, numerous organizations have “criticized Nike because female workers make less than a dollar an hour for a 48-hour week making Nike shoes in factories in Vietnam,” despite the fact that nearly 85% of the company’s workforce in that country is female.
Indeed, while their most recognizable spokesperson slams capitalism and America’s dedication to freedom around the globe, it seems Nike is busy squeezing the life out of their employees without criticism from the former football player.
The simple fact is, Colin Kaepernick is an America-hating, radical leftist who will seize any opportunity to slam the country that provided him the chance to become famous and wealthy. If he really wants to help developing nations, he should try taking action instead of taking to Twitter.
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