Colin Kaepernick is GQ's 'citizen of the year'

published 13 November 2017

GQ has named former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick "citizen of the year" in honor of his decision to kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial oppression in America. The football player began his silent protest in 2016, but it came to new attention this year thanks to criticism from President Trump.

"In my 90th year of life, to see people like Colin Kaepernick having gotten the message and carrying the cause forward is the greatest reward I could ask for," said singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte in one of several statements about Kaepernick that GQ solicited from notable people. "Colin is a remarkable young man," Belafonte continued. "The fact that he spoke out on police brutality against young black men — I thought it was absolutely admirable." Read the rest of those statements here.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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