U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe praised Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protests in 2016 during the national anthem before NFL games, saying his message then is especially relevant in 2020.
“Colin Kaepernick never shied away,” Rapinoe said Sunday during the ESPYs, an annual sports award show. “He knew that discomfort was essential to liberation and that fighting the oppression against black people is bigger than sports.”
Rapinoe said conversations started by athletes and other public figures might be “uncomfortable,” but they are necessary to the success of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“In speaking up, will we make mistakes? Yes. That cannot stop us from trying and not just for a few days or for a few posts,” she said.
Rapinoe, a standout player and co-captain of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, was the first white athlete to participate in kneeling protests before the team’s matches.
President Trump has been critical of Kaepernick, Rapinoe, and kneeling protests in general.
“We will never kneel to our national anthem or our great American flag. We will stand proud, and we will stand tall,” Trump said during a rally on Saturday in Tulsa.
Kaepernick’s protest, he said, was to raise awareness regarding police brutality and systemic racism in America.
Rapinoe was an outspoken critic of Trump during the team’s 2019 World Cup run, saying she would not visit the White House if invited. She has also been a champion of the gender rights movement’s quest for equal pay.
“The more I’ve been able to learn about gay rights and equal pay and gender equity and racial inequality, the more that it all intersects,” Rapinoe said in 2017. “We need to talk about a larger conversation in this country about equality in general and respect — especially with the recent election and subsequent narrative that’s coming from the White House right now.”
[Read more: Brett Favre: Kaepernick’s kneeling ‘similar’ to Pat Tillman enlisting and dying for country]
