Jay-Z has faced significant backlash since announcing Roc Nation's partnership with the NFL as the league's official live music entertainment strategists. People were confused and angered regarding why Jay-Z would affiliate with an organization that blackballed Colin Kaepernick for his protesting against police brutality. When Jay-Z was explicitly asked by Charlamagne tha God what motivated him to turn his back on Kaepernick like this after having supported him in the past, many were still left unsatisfied with his reasoning. Clips of Jay's responses from his press conference with NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, went viral and were criticized for making it seem as if Kaepernick's situation was an issue of the past.
Jay's defense centered on his belief in the need to focus on "actionable items". He argued that Kaepernick's goal was to raise awareness about police brutality, and now that this was accomplished, they could move on to the next step of promoting social justice. While Jay-Z thinks the most practical means of bringing this about is by supporting the NFL's Inspire Change initiative, others think aligning with and profiting from a corporations whose values are evidently at odds with Kaepernick's is a problematic approach.
T.I. sought to defend his friend, Jay-Z, by sharing on Instagram another one of his responses from the press conference that is labelled as "the clip that didn't go viral". "What is everyone doing?" Jay-Z asked. "Everyone can speak, like those Twitter people, everyone can talk, ask them what have they done?... I can tell you exactly what I've done last year... I could tell you the amount of people I saved from going to jail, I could tell you I got this person out of jail... I fed this many people." Below the clip is a list of some of the "actionable items' that Jay-Z has accomplished, including the relief efforts he funded after the hurricane in Puerto Rico and the bails he paid of Baltimore and Ferguson protesters.
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