Since the commencement of Colin Kaepernick’s silent protest against police brutality and social injustices, the community, as a collective, has vowed to protect the activist at all costs – by any means necessary.
On Thursday, Hot 97 host Ebro Darden revealed he took one for the team, in his refusal to connect Kanye West with Kaep for a meeting with Donald Trump.
According to Ebro, ‘Ye called the radio host to link him up with the quarterback-turned-activist, so that the two could visit the White House on Oct. 11.
The day before, West took to Twitter to double down on his desire to get Kaepernick and Trump in the same room. “Reaching out to Colin Kaepernick. I would like you to speak with the president to tell him your experience directly,” West tweeted. “Let’s have a dialogue not a diatribe.”
But, when the rapper propositioned Ebro to help make it happen, Ebro declined without running it by Kaep.
“Yeah nah, we not doing that,” he said he told West, despite his team’s clarification that they wanted Kaepernick, not him. “No, it’s a we,” Ebro explained. “When it comes to Colin Kaepernick, it’s a we. There are people standing with Colin Kaepernick around him, rallying around him.”
As West tried to explain his point, Ebro asked, “What would be in it for Colin Kaepernick for going to go up to the White House?”
“I was like, ‘The only thing that needs to happen first, Donald Trump should come out and apologize to Colin Kaepernick for trying to come for his job, he said. ”Then maybe he should probably come out and admit that in policing there is a cultural issue and black and brown men have been dying. And then he should probably apologize for coming after Nike for standing next to Colin Kaepernick,” he said he told him before West offered communications with his dad.
Ebro then declined, and called the entire ordeal as a potential “photo opp.”
