Since being named GQ's Citizen of the Year, Colin Kaepernick has received Sports Illustrated's Muhammed Ali Legacy Award and the Eason More Courageous Advocate Award from the ACLU. Now, Amnesty International has awarded Kaepernick with highest distinction the organization has, the Ambassador of Conscience Award.
In the announcement naming Kaepernick this year's winner, Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International, wrote, "Just like the Ambassadors of Conscience before him, Colin Kaepernick chooses to speak out and inspire others despite the professional and personal risks. When high profile people choose to take a stand for human rights, it emboldens many others in their struggles against injustice. Colin Kaepernick’s commitment is all the more remarkable because of the alarming levels of vitriol it has attracted from those in power."
Kaepernick accepted the award—which has gone previously to Belafonte, artist and activist Ai Weiwei, Malala Yousafzai, and Nelson Mandela—on Saturday, where he delivered remarks condemning the brutality committed against minorities by the U.S. criminal justice system. Per the Washington Post:
Just as Shetty wrote, this weekend the Fox & Friends B-team weighed in on Kaepernick's award and speech, condemning him for going overseas to insult the U.S. to a bunch of "globalists who don't love America anyway" (presumably referring to Amnesty International) and suggesting that if Kaepernick is troubled by the indiscriminate and routinely unpunished murder of black people by police, then he should move to another country. It's safe to expect equally thoughtful commentary from the show's regular couch-warmers this week.
Meanwhile, Kaepernick has completed his promised $1 million in donations despite being blackballed by the NFL.