NIKE TAKES A KNEE WITH KAEPERNICK

Colin Kaepernick was a quarterback for the 49ers but during a game, he decided to kneel on one knee to stand up for racial injustice. This sparked a lot of buzz around the player and his career and has not played with a team since.

Eric Reid (left) and Colin Kaepernick (right) kneeling during the national anthem.

Equality is about ensuring that every single individual has equal opportunities. It is about being fair and giving chances for everybody. By not giving someone the upper hand because of their gender or race, appearance or religion, or by not putting a value on someone, it goes against everything that is "equal" in this world. Equality is a right everyone has but is the least respected among our human rights. No one should feel like they are of lesser value than another individual living on this planet. Our genders, race or anything that defines us for who we are, should not restrict us from equal opinions and should not give us a different value.

I believe that what Kaepernick did was very brave. He knew that a change had to be made, so he stood up for what he believed in. Kaepernick sacrificed his whole career, reputation, and everything he worked hard for because he knew that with his popularity, he could use it to make people aware of this problem. He wanted to create a path where we can slowly change.

A screenshot of a video of someone burning Nike's shoes.

Some people may never understand what a privilege it is to be a certain race or to live in a certain country. People who have never experienced going through horrible situations will never truly understand, that what they are doing is bad and unfair. For example, being killed in their own church, or to be treated like a toy because of their gender. We as a community can take a stand. We can take a stand to fix this problem that has been going on for years, and more years to come.

After this event, Nike decided that it would be a perfect opportunity to gain a profit, so they created an ad to go along with this issue. The responses to this have been a mix of positive and negative. For instance, users on Twitter posted videos of them burning Nike's shoe products and feel ashamed/ angered for supporting Nike.

The campaign ad for Kaepernick.

I believe that Nike's intention was to use this situation to gain profit but also to help make people more aware of this huge problem alongside Kaepernick. Kaepernick was getting a lot of hate toward his action so when Nike posted this ad, Nike shared the hate along with him. In the end, Kaepernick did what he had to do to make a change in this world for the better.