NBC football analyst Rodney Harrison was on a local sports radio show in Houston this morning, and he offered a truly bewildering take on the Colin Kaepernick situation.
When asked about Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the National Anthem, Harrison had this to say:
I tell you this, I’m a black man. And Colin Kaepernick, he’s not black. He cannot understand what I face and what other young black men and black people face, or people of color face, on a every single (day) basis. When you walk in a grocery store, and you might have $2,000 or $3,000 in your pocket and you go up in to a Foot Locker and they’re looking at you like you about to steal something.
The host then asked Harrison to elaborate on his claim that Kaepernick is not black and is therefore not qualified to stage such a protest. Harrison answered:
I’m not saying that he has to be black. I said his heart is in the right place, but even with what he’s doing, he still doesn’t understand that we face as a black man or people of color, that’s what I’m saying.
So one of two things is going on here. Either Rodney Harrison has a very strange method for defining who is and isn’t black, or he literally does not realize that Colin Kaepernick is a black man. I’ve listened to the interview multiple times now—I urge you to listen for yourself right here—and I honestly cannot tell if Harrison is extremely dumb or just extremely confused.
Update (1:30 p.m.): Harrison has apologized, although it is still unclear if he understands that Colin Kaepernick is black:
Update (1:44 p.m.): And here we have it, poor Rodney had no idea: