Colin Kaepernick Providing COVID-19 Relief for Communities of Color

Last week, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick announced he was donating a sizable amount to a COVID-19 relief fund that supports black and brown communities affected by the pandemic.

Kaepernick, a prominent activist, gave $100,000 to the Know Your Rights Camp COVID-19 Relief Fund.

“Black and brown communities are being disproportionally devastated by COVID-19 because of hundreds of years of structural racism,” Kaepernick said in a video posted to his Twitter account. “That’s why we’ve established the ‘Know Your Rights’ Camp COVID-19 Relief Fund to help address these issues.”

#COVID19 doesn't discriminate but our society does. @yourrightscamp is working to provide relief to the black and brown communities disproportionately hurt by this pandemic pic.twitter.com/QCOQ7Cx1hZ

— Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) April 16, 2020

Your donations at work – stimulating the local economy by partnering with @blendastoria to purchase and deliver 300 meals to our essential heroes today to Mercy Medical Center on behalf of @kaepernick7 and the KYRC COVID-19 Relief Fund ♥️Thank you for all that you do! #wegotus pic.twitter.com/mgLOEsBlLd

— Know Your Rights Camp (@yourrightscamp) April 17, 2020

Kaepernick’s former teammate Eric Reid also donated $100,000 to the fund, bringing the total amount of donations to nearly $300,000.

A statement on the fund’s website notes that communities of color are more likely to be infected and die from COVID-19 and less likely to be tested and treated for the virus.

“Time and again, a state or county releases racial data,” according to Ibram X. Kendi, the founder of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center. “Time and again, those numbers reveal a sizable racial disparity. Time and again, black Americans are overrepresented among the infected and dead. America’s newest infection seems to be mating with America’s original infection, reproducing not life, but death.”

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