The problem with black culture today: African American history museum to honor Colin Kaepernick, but refuses to honor Clarence Thomas

African American history museum to honor Colin Kaepernick, but refuses to honor Clarence Thomas

Chris Enloe  Aug 20, 2017 2:24 pm

The Smithsonian African American History Museum is about to honor Colin Kaepernick. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) 

NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick will make it into Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture before longtime Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas.

Museum curators made the announcement on Saturday.

Just a part

Damion Thomas, the museum’s sports curator, told USA Today in an email that Kaepernick items will be featured in an exhibit on the Black Lives Matter movement, which Kaepernick has become a face of after he began protesting the national anthem last year at NFL games.

“The Colin Kaepernick collection is in line with the museum’s larger collecting efforts to document the varied areas of society that have been impacted by the Black Lives Matter movement,” Thomas said.

Items the museum plans to display include game-worn cleats and a game-worn jersey, which Kaepernick wore during his tenure as a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.

Unemployed QB, but not the SCOUTS judge?

The move is puzzling because Kaepernick is a 29-year-old unsigned quarterback. He left the 49ers earlier this year after he opted out of his contract.

Thomas, however, has a storied testimony that details his life of growing up in segregated Savanah, Georgia, to graduating from Yale Law School and eventually becoming a Supreme Court Justice in 1991 at the appointment of George H.W. Bush. At the time, Thomas was only the second black person to be confirmed to the high court.

Undoubtedly, Thomas is one of this nation’s black heroes. Sadly, though, it appears his conservative political views have made him a pariah. The museum has been criticized several times for its lack of material on Thomas since it opened last year.

“There are many compelling personal stories about African Americans who have become successful in various fields, and obviously, Associate Justice Thomas is one of them,” a museum spokesman said last year. “However, we cannot tell every story in our inaugural exhibitions.

This led to a group of GOP legislators to demand the museum include Thomas in their exhibits.