Jesse Jackson sees no difference between being a slave and being a multi-millionaire African-American NFL player.
While discussing the NFL’s ongoing national anthem controversy on Fox Sports 1’s “Undisputed,” the civil rights activist said: “To go from picking cotton balls to picking footballs and basketballs without freedom is not very much progress.”
Of course, there are several fundamental differences between being a slave in the pre-Civil War South and pursuing a career as a football player. Aside from the fact that NFL players enjoy voluntary employment – “freedom” Jackson claims doesn’t exist – the average NFL player rakes in a $1.9 million per year, putting them well into the upper echelon of America’s one percent.
Jackson, however, took his oppression narrative even further. He claimed that the NFL was allowing owners to fire national anthem protesters without paying out the remainder of their contract- which hasn’t happened – is “workplace harassment” and “illegal.”
Of course, Jackson stood by the national anthem protests.
“This is not about the flag,” he said. “We honor the flag, but the flag must represent all of us, and oftentimes, it does not.”