Colin Kaepernick’s SELL OUT Comments About Jay-Z Has Divided the Internet: Karen Hunter Reacts

0:00 I remember when uh Jay-Z and Beyonce uh were bailing out uh Ferguson protesters. Uh I remember when they were in Florida helping Trayvon Martin family. Um I'm not I just don't think that he should be thrown away just because of Colin Kaepernick, you know, because I don't remember Colin speaking out on Trayvon Martin. Um he only stood up for black injustices when he was no longer a starter. Um so I just don't I'm not seeing the correlation of throwing Jay-Z away for Colin Kaepernick of all people. Okay. I mean, I I'm not personally throwing him away for Colin Kaepernick. I'm I'm not even throwing him away. As I said, you know, his music is still viable and I don't expect people to throw the music away, but I think he should not be raised up as a person. And when I asked Colin about uh a couple of

0:46 his positions, including the Hillary Clinton thing, he said, "I've grown." And when you know, the fact that we could have a conversation with Colin Kaepernick where he was like, "Yeah, I was wrong about that. I have grown. I was wrong about that. I now know better." Jay-Z seems to be going in the opposite direction. And when you come into there's a a a collective fight that we're having against tyranny and oppression and you come in and you become the tool to stomp it out. I think that's a problem. Don't you, Tavis? We're ready. We're prepared. Do not give into fear. We are fearless. This is not the time to be afraid. This is a time to stand up and fight back and to resist any temptation for them to

1:31 divide us. We're in this together. The rule OF LAW IS ON OUR SIDE. We will not give in, not give up. WE WILL NOT CAPITULATE. WE WILL NOT BOW. WE WILL NOT BEND. We will survive. I don't know how you feel, Drew, but you know, I interviewed Colin Kaepernick last week, and it was uh he's a really nice guy. Let me just say that. Beyond all of the things, just, you know, when you when you run into an energy that's just like, this, you know, we talked to a lot of people. A lot of people got some stuff with them. >> Just regular just like just did a thing because it was the thing to do. And then he matter of factly, you know, I read a

2:17 quote that I saw he said. He I said, "Did you say I said that to his face?" I said, "Oh, he didn't say it even like that." It was just very matter of fact. Yeah. I said it to his face. >> Um and what he said to Jay-Z was that you are aligned with people who hate who are working against us. Basically, you're aligned with the racist. >> Yeah. >> And that should have been enough for, you know, for anybody no matter what's on the table. What is so hard with people who already in our minds have enough? Yeah. >> for them to walk away from something that could be hurtful for the for the masses. >> Yeah. I think it's I think it's still that same thing that it that innate thing that for people who have been on a winning streak, they don't know how to stop, right? And I think it can take you down a bunch of different pathways,

3:03 right? Like it can take you towards a pathway of, oh, I'm going to still release this, you know, this album in this in this retailer no matter what, right? or I'm gonna I'm gonna take the invitation to go sit with um with Jared Kushner at this event as opposed to saying I'm absolutely not gonna do that or whatever the thing is, whatever the the next, you know, wrong to capture is. Or you could be like, and listen, people have people can say what they want to say about about Oprah. Nobody's perfect, but or you could be like someone like that who's saying that I'm going to at 72, I'm going to try my best to everything that I have learned and everything that I feel like has been good in the world. I'm going to try to

3:48 figure out how to how to, you know, hand it off in a format that is beneficial to the next generation of people who I feel like need to hear it, right? And so there are two pathways you can go with that. I think that you still people who win want to win to the day they die. But our perspective in living on this planet longer and longer and longer and experiencing more and experiencing more should give you a level of wisdom about what that what winning actually looks like. And I and I think that there's some there's some real disappointments >> in the people who say >> I just want I just want another win for me >> as opposed to what my winning could do for everybody who comes with me, after

4:36 me, around me, the people who will never be able to sit in the spaces that I sit, who never be able to make the decisions for their life that I get to make for mine. I could at least help them or advocate for them or just not go to the thing or just not make that extra 10 million. >> I'm just gonna give this 10 million back to the universe and just do the right thing. >> Let's talk about the 10 million for a second because um >> you don't get 10 million without people. >> Yeah. >> It's not like you you had it's not like you invented electricity. >> [clears throat] >> Yeah. >> You know what I'm saying? It's not like you cured cancer. >> Yeah. >> You and even the people Henry out of Lax >> I was going to say your genes could be

5:22 used to cure it and you still don't get 10 million. >> Still don't get money. Right. You have money because people have placed value on what the exchange of your energy, your art or what have you. You're only successful or famous because people have made a decision. people, the masses have made a decision to come to your concerts to buy your music, to buy, you know, to go see your movies or what have you. >> I think what's wild to me as somebody that has, you know, done books with people, you know, and and you get to see celebrity up close and different ways, it's really weird to me how people catch vapors and I call it catching the vapors. Like you would think it's you. Yes, you're talented. But it's only because there are a lot of talented people that nobody has ever heard from.

6:07 Which is why if I see somebody that's special, I'm gonna talk about them. I'm going to bring them on because I know it's it's marketing. >> Drew, you know, it's somebody's put money behind this person so that we know. I don't know Ed Sheeran. I don't know why he's I can't name you a single Ed Shearing song. He's not nice to look at. There's nothing about Mr. To me. His voice not great. I don't know why he's out there able to command this. But, you know, maybe we now know, you know, it's because he's willing to do whatever he needs to do for the people and they so they prop up stuff. I don't know. I don't know. And we can have that conversation. I do know if Big E and Tupac were alive, we probably wouldn't be talking about Jay-Z. Y'all can add me if you want to. Go ahead and add me. It's Karen Hunter. [laughter] I've been around long enough. But I also think that there is to me a very delusional

6:55 and often destructive way in which people think it's all about it's me. >> I'm the genius behind all of this. >> So like if if you and I are cuz I'm highly competitive, but I'm competitive with myself and if we're racing in a foot race, that's one thing. I want to beat you. Yeah. >> If you're racing in a foot race, but I'm not going to trip you to to beat you. You know, I'm going to train my ass off to beat you in a foot race. Right. And and it's not about anybody else. It's me and you in in that in that competition. But this other competition where you're making money, it's not because you may have gotten $120 something million dollar contract. It's not because you're the best at what you do per se. You may think it is. It's because the pe I'm just saying >> when we stop thinking about the people that we serve because that's really the the the assignment, there's a problem.

7:42 And we the people must teach people how to treat us. >> I don't think we do a good enough job doing that. >> Yeah. I I definitely don't think that we do a good enough job. Listen, I have a ton of friends, no judgment to to them cuz I know they listen to the Karen Hunter show, too. I have a ton of friends who did the concert in New York and who went to Paris. And there's a and there's a moment where I would have done both. Point blank period. I've been to more Jay-Z concerts than Beyonce concerts. And Jay-Z don't don't really have has not been on tour the way Beyonce has been on tour. Like I've been to places in New York to see Jay-Z that weren't that weren't packed, right? Like he ain't he didn't always go to Madison Square Garden, right? And so um for me, once you move differently, I

8:30 know my little, you know, $800 ticket ain't going to make or ain't going to break Jay-Z, but my values about me just saying, "Damn, I want to hear Jay hit them songs again." And now he got his haircut. that he going to look like he did when I first heard him. You know what I mean? Like, but I just couldn't do it. And that's not to say nobody else should should do what I what I did and didn't go where I do. But I it didn't feel the same. >> Right. Right. >> And and and listen, there are a lot of things that people say, "Well, you don't know what Jay-Z's what his long game is or what the motivation is." I just know how it looks and it feels to me >> and I'm disappointed. So, I definitely I mean, look, I I can't I can't say that

9:18 even if people didn't show up that he would necessarily listen because it doesn't sound like he's listening when people are are pushing back now either. >> That's true. That's true. And he doesn't have to listen. >> And he doesn't have to. >> We just have to make different decisions on that disappointment thing. Um Trump's son got married, which I didn't talk about because I don't care. >> Yeah. But then they showed a picture of the people at the wedding and I'm scanning the picture and there's a black man and I looked in. I said, "Oh no, that ain't Robert Smith II. That's Robert Smith III in that picture. That's Robert Smith the third. Is that Robert Smith III?" And it's similar to, you know, why is Jay-Z and Beyonce sitting next to Jared Kushner and Ivon Ivanka Trump? What? Why

10:03 are they, you know, because alignment at this point because we're at a particular point in time in history. >> Yeah. >> Speaks volumes to me. This is not just about business. >> Mhm. >> We are not talking about business. We're not even talking about politics. We're literally talking about [laughter] >> the sanctity of humanity at this point where salvation of humanity. And these people could be your friends. But the optics though, >> you should have caught a cold, sir, or something. Why are you there? And the fact that nobody else is really talking about it says something, too. Because I don't know, you know, we we like to big up Robert Smith the third. But but for what reason? Because he's rich. Like, we got to examine all of the things that

10:48 people's pedestals that we put up there for what? >> Yeah. I think particularly Karen when the pedestal is when the the staircase to the pedestal that we put people on >> are stacks of dollar bills right because there are a lot of ways to get wealthy in this in this in this world in this life and not all of them are righteous right not all of them there's some that like hey I you know I made this hot comb I made a whole I done sold a whole lot of hot combs I got a b I invented this thing this came from my brain but I I think we do have to now begin to examine that pedestal that we put people on when that the staircase to that pedestal is

11:34 stacks of dollar bills. Like wealth is not in and of itself enough. And a couple of high-profile donations do not necessarily absolve you from a responsibility to do better, be better, and you know, facilitate better, and to even be a voice in the world because you have the opportunity to say, "I don't give a f. You can tax me. You can tariff me. I got enough money to last five lifetimes. I can I can be a easily be a voice of the people in this particular wilderness in which we're in. Some people may say, "Look, I did my I I got mine. Everybody else got to get theirs." But I think we need to think twice if those people are on pedestals, >> baby. Uh, all right. So, let's uh let's

12:22 go to the phones. I asked Tavis to call back. So, he's he did that. I I appreciate I like I like that we could just say, "Hey, call on back." >> I know, right? >> All right. [laughter] Tavis in North Carolina, you're on the car show with Drew McCascco. Hi. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes, sir. >> Yes. >> Uh um no, my point was, you know, I remember when uh Jay-Z and Beyonce uh were bailing out uh Ferguson protesters. Uh I remember when they were in Florida helping Trayvon Martin family. Um, I'm not I just don't think that he should be thrown away just because of Colin Kaepernick, you know, because I don't remember Colin speaking out on Trayvon Martin. Um, he only stood up for black injustices when he was no longer a starter. Um, so I just don't I'm not

13:09 seeing the correlation of throwing Jay-Z away for Colin Kaepernick of all people. >> Okay. I mean, I I'm not personally throwing him away for Colin Kaepernick. I'm I'm not even throwing him away. As I said, you know, his music is still viable and I don't expect people to throw the music away, but I think he should not be raised up as a person. And when I asked Colin about uh a couple of his positions, including the Hillary Clinton thing, he said, "I've grown." And when you know better, the fact that we could have a conversation with Colin Kaepernick where he was like, "Yeah, I was wrong about that. I have grown. I was wrong about that. I now know better." Jay-Z seems to be going in the opposite direction. And it when you come into there's a a a a collective fight that we're having against tyranny and oppression and you come in and you

13:54 become the tool to stomp it out. I think that's a problem. Don't you, Tavis? >> I I do. But Miss Karen, what I have a real problem with is us as people villainizing each other. Just like the Chris Brown situation, the man can't move on from a mistake years ago. We villain. >> The mistake wasn't years ago. Tavis. Tavis. Tavis, it wasn't a mistake years ago. Nobody's talking about Rihanna. We're talking about last month. Okay. Chris Brown just got a what was it? 19 million. It was a lot of millions of dollars. A lot of zeros in that lawsuit that he's got to pay out of this tour. He's got to be on tour until he's 99 to pay this um you know the the lady and her family for what with the dog happened. Then it was another sex or violent uh situation going on. This is

14:40 not an isolated incident. And I still don't rail against Chris Brown every day on these airwaves. Nor do I villainize people that go to see him. I'm saying we have to have a personal standard for what is and is not acceptable. And let's stop putting people on pedestals just because we like their art. That's all I'm saying. Tavis, I >> I don't have anyone on pedestal. I I listen to more of uh bee music than Jay-Z, to be honest with you. I I don't put anybody on on a pedestal. I just think that, you know, it's a lot of picking and choosing going on. That's what irritates me. >> I I think I think Well, do you think I'm picking and choosing? Cuz I we we can have that conversation. >> Uh not necessarily you. I do think that, you know, it's kind of, you know, a little offthe-wall to say, you know, I'm not playing his he's not going to be in

15:26 my intro or anything. >> That's my personal choice. >> That's my I have a right to not have his voice on my show because I'm not in alignment with him. Shouldn't I have that right? >> No, I'm saying that's your personal decision, but you know, I'm just saying I'm I listen to you, but you know, this is and this is a public platform, so you know, you know, that influences people, but you know, I listen, I'm not here to defend anybody. I just I just remember the work that they have done. Like last week for her birthday, uh Beyonce donated, you know, so much money to a lot of money to a a blackowned uh studio in New York. Like I'm not about to throw people away. talking about Beyonce. Somebody asked, "Should we do but Beyonce is not Jay-Z to me. I'm not I'm

16:11 not putting Beyonce in the same boat with her husband just because they're married." And they may have share the same ideals, but she doesn't move the exact same way that he does. I mean, just >> that's just what I'm saying. Listen, we >> I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't uh that you shouldn't demonize a woman for her husband's uh for her husband's infractions. And that's Beyonce. That's Hillary Clinton. And I for me, that's also Melinda Gates, right? Like I I know that there are other people who draw a different line. >> Disagree with the LAST ONE. >> I KNOW. That's why I said that man was doing that. So >> yeah, [laughter] shoot. Bump that. Uh but you know, Travis, you know, I feel I feel some u angst in your delivery like you you feel irritated. So I want you to not feel irritated. We're having a conversation and it's a very nuanced conversation and it's what I'm really

16:58 getting at is power for us. What does it look like? And where's our bar of accountability? We should have some bar, shouldn't we? >> We should. I I I don't I don't want to sound irritated. I I It's been like seeing the the power of, you know, Chris Brown and Jasmine Crockett and that just gives the other people license to just go at them for any other reason. I don't like that. >> You think they're going to go they they would go after them anyway. But I think that this is this has been our problem that we won't go after people or we won't hold people accountable because we don't want them to have the license to do it. They're going to do it anyway. >> Yeah. >> I think we how we teach the next generation about accountability is to to have accountability. And it should start

17:44 in our homes. As I said in the last segment, it should start with the people in our lives that have done harmed people. We need to hold them accountable and then build the muscle to be able to do it for our politicians, our celebrities, and everyone. I think we got an accountability problem, period, that goes beyond celebrities and putting people on pedestals. I think we have a hard time really um saying this is wrong and standing on that. And this is what I really respect about Colin Kaepernick. And I know a lot of people don't I've seen a lot of people don't cap for him, you know, or cape for him, whatever the hell y'all that's cap they call cap. But I I I sat in that man's face and what I know for sure is that he's very sincere about the stance that he took and he did lose a lot. Even though I think he's also gained a lot, >> but I think that that he loves football.

18:31 He stays in football shape because he wants to play. He still loved to play football. And I think about, >> you know, the thing that you really love being taken away from you because you took a stand on something. I don't know how many of us would have stood in that with everything they were throwing at him. Oh, yeah. I I I completely agree. I mean, I I I I think about every time there's a there's an Odell um Beckham celebration, it makes me think about Colin Kaepernick because I think that they that they have that they both have a love for the game. And I feel like that both of them would go were two individuals who would if they could figure out a way and this was before Odell recently. if they could figure out a way to get back on that field to, you

19:17 know, to do it one more time that they would do it in a heartbeat that they would move heaven and earth to be able to do it. And history will will say that, you know, like Odell got the opportunity to do it. But I truly believe that that moment for Kaepernick will not come. And so he will have he will be resigned to not to to have that longing and that desire and it never come to fruition. And I think about the joy that we've seen with Odell and and just being able to do that and and all the anticipation of it. It's just a visual example to me of what this other individual will never have but probably wants just as much if not worse. Right. >> Per that. But this isn't even about a

20:04 Colin Kaepernick versus Jay-Z conversation. >> Yeah. again because when we talk about, you know, Jay-Z donating, I'll I'll share with you, you know, um around the time that Puffy um was with JLo and they had that situation at Club New York, right? Yeah. >> With the gun, the shootout at the club and Shine was there. >> Um I had I was very friendly with Puffy's PR rep to the point where in addition to being on the editorial board and doing all these other things, I was doing music pieces, a lot of music pieces. So, I did piece on total. I did a piece on faith. I was with Biggie. I did the first um major piece in a in a daily newspaper on Biggie. Spent the whole day with him in his mama's apartment in Brooklyn and hung out. Got a contact high. It was crazy. Was crazy,

20:49 [laughter] >> you know. Uh so I was I was doing a lot of puffy stuff, a lot of, you know, articles. I got a call from, you know, a lawyer who was representing the lady that got shot in the face, Natasha. and she's, you know, she met with met me at the deal, I actually met her at her at her lawyer's office and interviewed her and ended up doing a front page piece. The same day, um, Puffy's PR rep called me. Puffy was giving out turkeys. Karen, you going to come and do I said, "No, I have another interview. I will not be going to that." The next day, the piece comes out. Puffy had a gun. I got cussed out. The lady called me. She was yelling and screaming at me for, you know, putting this piece out. And I said, I don't work for you. I work for the people. Number one. Number one. I work

21:35 for the for the people. My job is to to report the news. I'm not gonna I got a choice between puppy had a gun in the club and he's giving out turkeys and >> he's giving out turkeys. >> Yeah. So, what I'm saying that to say >> the the machine around these celebrities, and I'm not saying that they don't donate out of the goodness of their heart. I'm not going to question because if you're giving out turkeys to hungry people, they like the turkeys and they're going to remember that. >> Yeah. But I'm going to also direct you to Trump telling everybody you get $5,000 if they win. >> These are tactics is what I'm saying that that build equity and it builds it builds your brand in a way. Drew, you could probably speak to this better than I can. >> Absolutely. Listen, Karen, there there are drug uh drug kingpins and drug lords

22:21 that have given out um you know, back to school backpacks and turkeys at Christmas and all kinds of stuff, right? like people who have who who literally have made every one of their dollars off of the off of the backs mental health and physical health of other people and and they're out handing out goodies, right? That's just a that's a tactic. It's great marketing. It's great. It's great PR and the in the worst ways that PR can be used and manipulated. But you know, and there's some people that just do it out of the goodness of that do it out of the goodness of their heart or is they feel like this will be this is their penance that they're paying. You know, a lot of good deeds happen because people are, you know, feeling real guilty about bad deeds that they happen. That happens in relationships, too,

23:06 right? Like, so, but I think that we have to that we cannot we can't afford to in the the moment that we live in now where there's so much misinformation, there's so there's so few guard rails on the truth and what and what the truth absolutely has to be. social media um CEOs have said that the truth really does not matter on platforms that reach million billions of people, right? Like they're more uh Meta has more users um who are have access to their platform. They're their user base is larger than the Christian base in the world. Right? So meta when you look at when you look

23:52 at Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp active users on the platform, there are more of them than there are Christians in the world. >> Wow. >> So Facebook is more ubiquitous than Jesus. And I used to and I and I and I would say that to people so that they really understood the power of of what happens when a social media company says we no longer value the truth. We're no longer going to hold the hold the truth. uh we're or we're not going to uh we're not going to disclose how the algorithms impact women versus men or people under the age of 18 versus people who are over the age of 50 or 55, right? And so when you that they're literally computer algorithms that are built to not only

24:39 engage you, but to make you trust them more than you trust your eyes and what you see or your lifestyle and what you experience every day or the humans who are in your life on a regular basis. One of the biggest hood winks I used to always say one of the biggest hood winks that the Republican party ever pulled on America wasn't going into black churches and telling them that like hey vote Republican because so you can't so them gays can't get married and people can't have abortions right cuz half the gays didn't even want to get married no way and and there fewer abortions right the biggest hoodwink was that they convinced poor white people that they were middle class and middle class white people that they were working wealthy and so now you got all these people who just vote against their own interest or whatever. A lot of that conditioning if they're

25:27 conditioning people with social media and all of those things, it comes back to on us too, right? So, what I think is like in this moment where the truth is so hard to nail down there, no guard rails on it. We have to look at the totality of people. I know that was long-winded, but we have to look at the totality of people and we have to question, okay, yeah, it's great music. I can listen to it, but do I listen to what they're doing as well? Do I hold this person up as, you know, as someone who is for me or against me when when the when the chips are down? my um my um best friend's father

26:12 um family, his um had a couple of family members who were Holocaust survivors. And he would say he was he's a Jewish guy. He adopted my um my best friend. And he would say, I he was like, I kind of think of people like would they have hid me would they have hid me in their attic? M >> and he was like, "There's some people that you just got to ask yourself when you're how deeply you going to be with them. Would they have hid me in their attic?" And he was like, "I'm sure that there's a analogy for for you guys as young black men about the the worst times in history for black folks. I'm talking about the the what I use was the worst time in history for for my people." He was like, "But think to yourself, would they would they have

26:59 risked their life to, you know, hide you under the floorboards? Would they have risked their wealth to hide you under the floorboards to get you out or to get you safe one more day? And there's a bunch of these celebrities that ain't hide nobody under the floorboards. >> Nah. Nah. Matter of fact, they will uh hand you in. >> We're ready. We're prepared. Do not give into fear. We are fearless. [applause] This is not the time to be afraid. This is a time to stand up and fight back and to resist any temptation for them to divide us. We're in this together. The rule OF LAW IS ON OUR SIDE. WE WILL NOT give in, not give up. WE WILL NOT CAPITULATE. WE WILL NOT BOW. WE WILL NOT

27:45 BEND. We will survive.