TODAY’S TALKER

Opinion: Jay-Z sells out Kaepernick, cause with NFL partnership

Remember when Jay-Z was a dynamic hip-hop artist whose stark lyrics gave voice to the oppressed and downtrodden? Well, those days are over. Completing his transformation to total sellout, Jay-Z climbed into bed with those racial progressives over at the NFL in what was clearly nothing more than a money grab for one side and a public-relations coup for the other.

Sorry, Kaep. Social justice has been banished to the sidelines.

“I think we’ve moved past kneeling and I think it’s time to go into actionable items,” Jay-Z said in a ludicrously weak attempt to spin his hefty NFL payoff into some sort of profile in courage.

With a totally straight face — and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell by his side — the rap icon and entrepreneur said his partnership with the league is actually a progressive step to carry on the campaign that banished quarterback Colin Kaepernick courageously began by kneeling during the national anthem to bring attention to police brutality and glaring racial inequities.

“I think everyone knows what the issue is — we’re done with that,” Jay-Z said.“We all know the issue now. OK, next.”

Hmm, where have we heard that before?

Oh, yeah, from opponents of the civil rights movement, who derided those protesting against whites-only lunch counters and seats in the back of the bus as nothing more than rabble-rousers who should’ve been focused on real issues afflicting the African American community, as if a system that denied pretty much every human dignity wasn’t the actual problem.