Burn baby burn

The Serena Williams firestorm almost did enough to push the Nike-Colin Kaepernick controversy into the background. To recap: Nike used Kaepernick — a leading figure in the American sports world’s protest against racism — as the front man for a new ad. The reaction from the anti-Nike brigade (oh, all right, the racists) was to burn their swooshed shoes. The reaction of the fans was to buy shoes and Nike’s sales sky-rocketed along with its share price. Rolling Stone magazine did a great piece this week, talking to people in Nike’s call centre about the feedback they were getting. Normally they have prewritten lines for when people ring to complain about Lance Armstrong, Kanye West and a host of other people who draw the public’s ire. But for Kaepernick, who famously knelt during the US anthem to protest the disproportionate shooting of black people by police, there was nothing. The result for many at Nike was like being kicked by size 14 steel-capped boots. One woman was told by a caller that it didn’t matter if cops killed black people every once in a while because “black teens shoot each other every day”. Other workers were called racist names such as “Kaepern ***** s” or “Kaeperscum”. But there were bright spots, such as the woman who rang to say: “I don’t know much about the Nike, but I’m going to begin buying the products.”