Former NBA first-round pick turned political activist Royce White sits down for an unfiltered, wide-ranging conversation on the intersection of professional sports, establishment politics, personal legal battles and economic populism.
White—who led thousands in taking a knee in Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and subsequently transitioned into conservative politics as Minnesota’s 2024 Republican U.S. Senate nominee—offers an uncompromising critique of modern athlete activism, corporate co-optation and the establishment class.
Below is the complete transcript of the conversation.
The Unfiltered Conversation
Royce White: Full facts. I am the real Colin Kaepernick.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Tell me more.
Royce White: Okay. That’s where we got to start. I say that because Colin Kaepernick had a perfectly good opportunity to transform the dialogue about American culture and politics, and he failed the test. When Complex says that my stance on Colin Kaepernick was that his moment was prophetic, it was in many ways. But just like King David, you can be anointed for something, selected and chosen by God to bring a message or do a mission, and still stumble after the fact—immediately after the fact, depending on who you are and what your motivation is. Colin Kaepernick failed to see the scope of the political discourse that surrounded him. For that reason, him kneeling became nothing more than a part of the theater.
What Colin Kaepernick has to at least consider now is that the real power in our society is information. I think everybody would agree on that. The question is, who’s in control of the information, and what are they trying to do with it? From an informational standpoint, the establishment that he spoke out against, at some point in time, decided to greenlight, mainstream, and subsidize the movement that he stood for and stands with: the Black Lives Matter movement.
I don’t even understand how anybody could deny that fact. The overwhelming majority of the mainstream media is not only in full support of the Black Lives Matter movement, platform, and message, but it’s become integrated alongside the LGBTQ and the radical feminist political movements. This is the sleight of hand: I have a lot of difference of opinion about the Black Panthers’ core philosophy, because I do think Huey P. Newton had a lot of socialist or communist influence in his thinking. But for him to use the costume of the Black Panthers and pretend that the technocratic and scientific managerial elite of our society are against his message is patently dishonest. No.
When Herman Kahn said that the Black Panthers were the sand in the gears, that was the system being genuinely against the rise of what you could call Black nationalism. Now, again, I don’t think that the Panthers were nationalist through and through, but they were much closer to a Black nationalism or a genuine Black Lives Matter movement than the current Black Lives Matter movement. When I say “I am the real Colin Kaepernick,” there’s a famous quote by the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: “A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, ‘We did it ourselves.'”
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: So, Bernadette Giacomazzo over at Complex picked up our interview and sent me a note. I’m going to read you a question from her. She said, “So Royce, what changed? Approximately how many zeros were added to your bank account to start this shit? How do you respond to that?”
Royce White: Again, I am what Colin Kaepernick has pretended to be. I’ve railed against the establishment at every juncture. Even this mental health thing—you see this VladTV interview drop, and you go to the comments and get a mixed review, but more or less you get people giving the typical run-of-the-mill response to my controversy with the NBA about mental health policy. Nobody can deny this: When I got to the NBA, there was not a mental health policy; when I left the NBA, and now in the NBA, there is a mental health policy. The mental health policy, I wrote myself.
Adam Silver can’t deny that; Kathy Behrens can’t deny that; Mark Tatum—none of them can deny that the conversation about mental health policy in the NBA was started by me, and it was concluded by me, or my thinking on the issue. The gap is that people like her actually believe that railing against the establishment comes with butterflies, kisses, applause, or flowers. It usually doesn’t. Nowhere across the eternal house of history does the appearance of prophetic people and the completion of a prophetic mission end with flowers while people are still living.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Bernadette also said, “Why were you saying Kap was a prophet in 2020 only to tell him to fuck off six years later? What changed?”
Royce White: Oh, this is an easy answer. Where Colin Kaepernick was prophetic was in saying that professional sports, by way of the National Football League, is a huge distraction from more important issues. The question is, what are the more important issues? That’s where he failed in dramatic fashion. He was prophetic in saying, “Wait a second, there is a theater taking place here with professional sports that is distracting Americans, maybe people worldwide, from the most important issues of our time.” Nobody could argue with that. I certainly wouldn’t argue with that, and that was prophetic. The way that he did it and the attention that he got brought the entire sports world, as well as the broader cultural world, to a screeching halt.
But you have to follow up. You have to go all the way to the cross. He wasn’t willing to do that. That’s why he took a deal with Disney, as if Walt Disney isn’t part of the same machine, system, and establishment that he’s protesting. Of course they are. In fact, if you really want to talk about supremacy, there’s certainly a media and information supremacy in this country and in our society. If you want to talk about power, monopoly, system, and guilt, the media—let’s use Walt Disney, ABC, or ESPN as an example—is certainly one of the most destructive forces in miseducating, misinforming, and exploiting people in the history of human civilization. Nobody could even argue that fact. I don’t think Colin Kaepernick would argue that fact.
The question is, where does he make a workaround for himself to do a deal with Disney, but Jay-Z can’t continue to do business the way that Jay-Z wants to? We all make these exceptions for the rules that we create for others. Maybe you could say that’s just a human flaw. My point is, when it comes down to self-sacrifice, Lao Tzu and the Chinese philosophers have some good things in there. I’m not going to say that it’s a complete wash, although they don’t tend to have a faith in God, so we fundamentally disagree. But, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, ‘We did it ourselves.'” And what did the NBA say about the mental health policy? “We did that. We changed our mental health policy; we updated our mental health policy.”
In fact, Scoop, you could argue that the entire weight of the left political movement right now rests upon the shoulders of an underlying mental health conversation, where whether you’re the victim of racism, homophobia, or misogyny, it all has implications on a person’s mental health, right?
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: That’s interesting—I can see where you’re coming from.
Royce White: Okay, so in that case, they’re all trying to say, “We did this; we created this movement that is more considerate of people’s mental health,” when in actuality, what they’ve all done is further exploit the most important issue of our time. Colin Kaepernick’s a part of that. So yeah, I think it’s corny. I think the whole Black Panther shit is corny. It’s not hard to be a Black Panther when they’re making movies about Fred Hampton. It ain’t hard to be a Black Panther when liberal white women from the suburbs are out in the streets with their fists raised. It ain’t hard to do none of that. What’s hard to do is to talk about how money works, because everybody’s still in on that convenience. Everybody’s in on that gravy train.
What are the things that people really want to change, Scoop? Is Colin Kaepernick’s current platform a part of something that people really want to see change? No. Black Lives Matter is just muttered on as a fart in the wind, and niggas still can’t read above a sixth-grade level nationwide. What are we really talking about? If Colin Kaepernick’s answer to racism in America is communism, then fuck him. Then not only is he dumb, but he’s dangerous. Next we’ll be seeing Hasan Piker and Colin Kaepernick at the Met Gala together hand in hand, one wearing a dress, one wearing the Black Panther leathers. That’s what’s coming, and it’s like, all right, dude, cool, but don’t act like we’re all supposed to sit here and pretend you fulfilled the prophecy of calling a flag on the play of sports being a distraction, because again, I agree with that. Sports is a distraction in many ways, but you got to finish the play. He hasn’t even considered—I can tell by the media tour he’s doing now—that the Black Lives Matter movement and his role in the current conversation is a cornerstone of the theater. He hasn’t even considered that. He actually thinks that he’s doing the thing, which is why you would dress like a Black Panther. How fucking corny is that?
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Kaepernick became the face of major corporate campaigns like Nike’s “Just Do It” anniversary while simultaneously being locked out of the NFL. From your perspective on corporate influence and establishment politics, did corporate America amplify his message, or did it dilute it and commercialize his original protest against systemic injustice?
Royce White: Come on, my man, you’re talking about Nike and Disney! Let me explain again. When you’re really doing shit that has any chance of changing something, when you really have a message that has a chance of penetrating the veil of disinformation that exists in this country, they don’t give you Disney production deals, and Nike doesn’t give you campaigns! Come on, now! What the fuck are we talking about? Where’s Kyrie Irving? Where is Kyrie Irving? Why isn’t Disney giving Kyrie Irving a production deal? Why did Kyrie Irving have to leave Nike?
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Do you have more respect for Kyrie Irving for the way he took his stand?
Royce White: Absolutely. Kyrie Irving has surpassed Colin Kaepernick in terms of the genuine impact of his public platform. There’s no doubt about it. What I was saying about Jay-Z—time is an interesting thing. When Jay-Z popped on the scene in the 1990s—I’m a ’90s baby, so when he popped on the scene in the mid-’90s, as I look back on it, he was articulating a reality for Black men who were caught between the gap of a drug wave and a desire to modernize with the rest of society. Now, that doesn’t give any drug dealer from that era justification to do what they did or say that they’re absolved for the harmful impact it had on their communities.
But there are huge, looming questions still about the crack era and everything that proceeded from it. My point is, if you really want to go down to the bottom of the barrel and start to scrape around, the same people who propped Colin Kaepernick up love the neoconservative, neoliberal power that exists in this country. They are that power! What could be more contradictory than the Black Lives Matter movement, who decries the spill of neocolonialism, teaming up with the Victoria Nulands of the world? The Victoria Nulands of the world, who are responsible for the entire foreign policy of the modern American government—and not her specifically, but the lineage that she comes from: Brzezinski, Mika Brzezinski’s father, Zbigniew. These people are the architecture of current American foreign policy. How can you scream “Free Palestine” and team up for the Ukraine war with these motherfuckers? The dissonance, Scoop, on these things tells me one daunting fact: We are living through a psyop.
We are literally living through the greatest misinformation and disinformation campaigns probably in the history of human civilization, because people hold such contradictory views, it’s hard to even talk to them. They don’t know the history. What I’m saying is, I’d love to sit down with Colin Kaepernick as a fellow Black man and athlete who sacrificed something in terms of athletics and sports to talk about a broader social issue. Let me and Colin Kaepernick have the debate. I challenge Colin Kaepernick to a debate. That’s the takeaway. Don’t go on a media tour with the media friendlies—the friendly folks who you know already agree with your position, like the Ryan Clarks of the world. We know what these cats would say, and to me, they could give these people as big a podcast as they want with as many followers, likes, or views as they could possibly manufacture. It doesn’t make them any more real in my world, in the real world, in the Malcolm X world, in the Fred Hampton world, in the Martin Luther King world—it doesn’t make them any more legitimate.
There’s a reason why for 60 years, since the four martyrs were assassinated—JFK, RFK, Malcolm, and Martin—nobody else has really transcended the conversation or the culture to that level. One, people are scared to take that fatal walk. But two, they’re not even playing with the real issues. Go back to Martin Luther King’s “The Other America.” What was Martin Luther King really saying in “The Other America”? He’s saying, “I led my people into a burning building. I am involved in something that I did not fully see. These people are playing a little bit ahead of me. I’m smart, philosophical, articulate, and eloquent, but I’m playing with forces and people that are a little bit ahead of me.” That’s what I’m trying to express to Colin Kaepernick. Sure, you had a prophetic moment: sports is a huge distraction; the NFL is as duplicitous and dishonest of a corporation as you could possibly find. But you got to walk all the way to the cross.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Kaepernick’s protest centered primarily on police brutality and racial injustice, whereas your platform often blends economic populism, mental health advocacy, and anti-globalist critiques. Where do you see your political philosophy overlapping with Kaepernick’s original stand, and where do your views fundamentally diverge?
Royce White: Look at what Steve Bannon says—a mentor of mine. He says all the time, “We’re so far right, we’re almost left.” Our diagnosis of the problem from what they call the far right and the far left is more or less the same in its framework: we have a problem with the elites in this country and all around the world. The question is, do they really have a problem with the elites’ agenda? We know they have a problem with the elites, but do they have a problem with the agenda, with the goal? That’s where I think they are the opposition on the left. The globalist elite will take any mechanism they need to execute their agenda. It just so happens that communism is the easiest. Why? Because it creates a sleepwalking populace in all the nations that they need to bend the knee.
They rally around and sing “Kumbaya” around these false catharses. Colin Kaepernick was a chapter of that. Then it was LGBTQ immediately after. Immediately after Colin Kaepernick, it was LGBTQ, and now the real head woman in charge is the radical feminist and Time’s Up movement. Their thing is: men are the problem. Straight men, heterosexual men, Christian men are the problem. There’s a war that’s broken out, and men are late to the battlefield. That’s how a Lindsay Clancy can strangle three kids, and they raise her $3 million. When is Colin Kaepernick going to speak out about that? Okay, he won’t, fine.
There is no real overlap. I don’t consider it to be genuine overlap if we may agree on certain particulars. We have to both agree on the motivation that has caused the problem, the socioeconomic circumstance, and the prescription, or else there can be no alliance. You want to go one way, I want to go the other. We may agree all day long that it’s 2:00 in the afternoon, but you want to go up the mountain and I want to walk the valley. It’s two completely different things.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: When I dropped the last article that we did, somebody in the comments said something I’d like to get your comment on that has nothing to do with Kaepernick, Jay-Z, or the NFL. They said, “I noticed you and Royce didn’t discuss his penchant for domestic violence. What kind of unfiltered interview doesn’t include asking this clown about beating women and children week?” How do you respond to that?
Royce White: There it is. That’s the war right there. That’s the example. Imagine people who say Black Lives Matter and that the criminal justice system or legal system in this country is broken, and then they believe a ruling from a judge who granted my ex-wife a 50-year order of protection, which is maximum relief. The number itself, 50 years, is absurd, and that’s what it was intended to do. It was intended to set a record so that people who read headlines would take it and repeat it. But tell me in what world it’s even remotely just that a woman makes an accusation against a man with little to no evidence—no evidence other than the judge found her testimony credible? She had no witnesses, no pictures, no video, text message, or email proof, and there were no arrest records. In Minnesota, if the police are called and there’s even a hint of domestic violence, you’re taken in by default. The police were called, but I wasn’t there. There was never even a report that I had physically harmed this woman—never a police report that said Royce did anything, because if there was and they had credible evidence of physical contact, I would have been arrested, and that would have made headlines because I was running for office at the time.
So tell me how I have four or five witnesses show up at court to refute the allegations that my ex-wife made—because they were there in person for some of the claims she made—and the judge completely ignores that? Tell me in what world that is just? I’ll tell you: The world where radical feminism has hijacked this country’s politics, and we still live in a “believe all women” culture and psyop. That question being the top question proves the point. These people believe all women, which is utterly ridiculous.
You’ll know this country is starting to crawl back from the dangers of radical feminism when women get the same or more severe penalty for falsely accusing men of sexual assault. I’m not talking about where there’s a he-said, she-said. I mean when women get caught lying and sometimes even admit that they’re lying about sexual assault allegations, and they walk free with no penalty whatsoever. That gap in the American justice system is the greatest example of the culture war being turned into legal fiat in this country. Women can accuse a man of sexual assault or rape, come back and say, “I lied,” and not see a day in court or prison. That tells you everything you need to know to answer the question.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: You praised Stephen A. Smith for taking a stand on your WNBA draft declaration despite previously clashing with him. At the same time, you distanced yourself from Enes Kanter Freedom’s parallel efforts. What made Stephen A.’s stance honorable in your eyes, and why do you refuse to align with other athletes making similar protests?
Royce White: Oh, I don’t refuse to align with other athletes making similar protests. I love Kyrie Irving. I have sympathy for Aaron Rodgers. I like Sophie Cunningham. There’s a handful of athletes that I see out there on the front lines doing and saying what’s truly difficult. Stephen A. Smith and I never really had a clash before. I just had sharp critique for all sports journalism from an athlete’s point of view. I’ve grown in that. Sports journalists who may not play the game at the level we’re playing the game—we may say we don’t like when they write negative things about us, but we certainly enjoy the benefits of a growing commercial market for all professional sports, which includes the narratives in the media around it.
That’s my maturity in seeing, hey, if you want to be a high-level athlete, whether playing in the Big3, fighting in MMA, or boxing, if it wasn’t for the media around it, you need the Scoops of the world to write stuff in order for there to be interest in the sport. Me and Stephen A. never really had a clash per se. I think what he’s doing is hard to do. Stephen A. is in the crosshairs right now for the same underlying question: Is he a misogynist? Does he hate women or Black women? Is he a toxic male? That’s the question on Stephen A. right now from Cari Champion and Jemele Hill.
In defense of Stephen A., right now he believes—and I think he said on his show, “The reason I wouldn’t run for president is because I don’t want to give my money up”—he doesn’t want to give up his job completely. But I think it’s a false sense of security, because even what he’s doing now runs the danger of him being falsely accused of something by a woman for politically motivated reasons. In the last five or so years, we’re just now realizing that a woman like E. Jean Carroll could accuse President Trump of sexual assault or rape with no evidence whatsoever, and a judge rules in her favor, ending in him owing $90 million. I don’t know how much money Stephen A. Smith has, but $90 million is a huge price tag for allegations.
I don’t think he’s as safe from this type of political witch hunt as he may think. In that way, I have a respect for Stephen A. that he probably doesn’t even understand, because I see the dangers for him doing it, and I respect that he’s still willing to do it.
Enes is a whole different thing. I don’t trust the Turks. I don’t trust the Ottomans. Quote it: “I don’t trust the Turks, I don’t trust the Ottomans. I don’t trust the Israelis, I don’t trust the CCP, the Chinese, I don’t trust the Russians, I don’t trust the British or the French—I don’t trust any of these people. I don’t trust the Saudis or the Qataris, but I really don’t trust the Turks, and I don’t like that they’re holding onto our nuclear weapons.” I think President Erdogan is about as duplicitous of a world leader as you could possibly find. People have to realize there are ancient civilizations that still exist under the surface: the Ottomans, the Persians, the Israelis, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Russians.
We’re a young civilization comparatively. We have to be very vigilant about who these people are and what they’re really up to. My point about Enes Kanter is that as soon as he starts talking about controversial issues, all of a sudden he’s popping up at parties with the head of the CIA! Do you think you’d ever see a picture of me with the head of the CIA, Scoop?
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: I don’t think so.
Royce White: Fuck no! I don’t even trust the head of the CIA appointed through the Trump administration, because that’s how much distrust I have in the agency. I voted for Tulsi Gabbard in 2020. People thought I voted for Kamala and Joe Biden, but an intern or volunteer was using my social media, and there was a huge fight about that behind the scenes. I wrote in Tulsi Gabbard’s name in 2020, and when Tulsi Gabbard was the DNI, I trusted her to a degree. But I do not trust the intelligence community as a whole.
This guy gets political asylum—give me a break! Turkey’s leader Erdogan puts a fatwa out on Enes Kanter, so we give him asylum for what strategic reason? Just because he played in the NBA? Okay, fine, but what about Turkey? Do we have a problem with Turkey or don’t we? And if we do, why are we letting them hang onto NATO’s nuclear weapons?
That’s the level of politics I’m at, Scoop. I’m running for President of the United States, so the things I say and feel about a person like Enes have that political tone. I just don’t trust guys who are seen on a dinner date with the head of the CIA. Fuck those motherfuckers; fuck the CIA. I want to hear Colin Kaepernick say that, by the way. I’ve never heard him take a real axe to any institution of significance other than the NFL.
How significant is the NFL in the grand scheme of things anyway? If we’re going to cross over from sports to politics, sure, the NFL has a lot of cultural influence, but the NFL is nothing but what Colin Kaepernick kind of alluded to: it’s just a distraction. And the WNBA, too.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: From my perspective, the NFL is a genre. The WNBA, NHL, and NASCAR are sub-genres or genres, and the NBA teeter-totters between sub-genre and genre. The NFL unites NBA, NHL, NASCAR, and people who watch ballet. The NFL is the unifier because they make the most money. Whenever you’re aligning with the NFL, you’re aligning to get global brand attention, money, and influence.
Royce White: A global corporate community. I 100% agree. But for people who pretend to be interested in politics or have political ambitions, at what point does the NFL become a target with diminishing returns? I don’t think it’s by accident that some of these people who get big platforms keep the scope of their criticism limited to the institutions that they do. I don’t think it’s by accident that Colin Kaepernick has continued to talk about the NFL. When did this first pop off, 2014?
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: For Kaepernick? Yeah, right around 2014–15.
Royce White: Because I talked about mental health before that. When I challenged the NBA on mental health and was talking about the global corporate community, Kap hadn’t even taken a knee yet.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Kaepernick first sat during the National Anthem in 2016.
Royce White: Okay, that’s four years earlier, Scoop. When I said, “I am what Colin Kaepernick is trying to be,” bro, I challenged the mental health policy in 2012. You think it’s by accident that the mainstream media didn’t take to that the same way they took to Colin Kaepernick? The big media is a process of intentional selection. These people are psychological profilers. They understand the zeitgeist, and they’re double agents. This is why President Trump banned certain media from the press: because they act like they’re a function of our nation’s founding ideas of free speech and a free press, but that’s not how they function. As soon as you intentionally stop talking about the most important issues because of your political agenda, you’re no longer a neutral press. My story is an example of that.
The reason Colin Kaepernick was propped up in the mainstream media and has continued to be a story for 14 years—nigga, you’re not getting back in the NFL! I probably would have a better shot of playing in the NBA today at 35 in some role because I’m versatile and physically gifted. There are guys older than me, like PJ Tucker, playing.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: LeBron James is older than you.
Royce White: Well, LeBron James is the anomaly. But I could reasonably still play in the league. There’s a better shot of that than Colin Kaepernick being a starting quarterback in the NFL. So where is the evolution of the protest? Show me why this guy is still getting red-carpet media tours about a decade-old issue. Just stop! 14 years, and you haven’t picked a new institution to evolve your protest to?
They had to assassinate Fred Hampton when he was 20 years old in his apartment because he was so dangerous. Can you imagine what Fred would have been talking about 10 years later? That’s why they killed him! They didn’t give him a deal with Disney!
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: Yes.
Royce White: They don’t even go out of their way to assassinate Colin Kaepernick’s character. He’s so not a threat that they don’t even drum up personal attacks to discredit him. If he was truly a threat, they would make it up. The nigga’s not dangerous, and I want him to know that. I’m challenging him: Open challenge for a debate. Let’s talk about the politics of our time as two athletes on two different sides of the political divide that sacrificed something. But 14 years later and you’re still talking about the NFL, nigga? What about the CIA? If you’re going to wear the Fred Hampton outfit or the Huey P. Newton outfit, let me hear you talk about the institutions that really took them out.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: You’ve called the Federal Reserve a mechanism of financial tyranny and corporate control. From an economic populist standpoint, what specific monetary reforms or institutional changes are you advocating for to return power to working-class Americans?
Royce White: We got to abolish the Federal Reserve. People argue, “The Federal Reserve is just a tool, and what it does depends on who’s in control.” That’s completely untrue. The inception of the Federal Reserve is an unconstitutional hidden tax on the American people known as inflation. The goal of the Federal Reserve was always to funnel more money to the top 1% of the 1%, and funnel power to the bankers of the financial sector. It has to be abolished.
When I complimented Colin Kaepernick back in 2020 after George Floyd died, I organized a protest and used Colin Kaepernick as an icon because I believed he was prophetic, but I was trying to send a signal that he needed to evolve the protest to something much larger. That’s why I organized the protest outside of the Federal Reserve in Minneapolis. Get off the race shit, dog. Police—that’s low-hanging fruit, my nigga! Police officers are working-class, blue-collar people with a badge. Are there bad cops? Of course. But that ain’t the riddle of our problem. Anybody who says that is saying it on purpose to distract us from the real issue, like the Fed. When I marched 10,000 people to the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, there was radio silence from the mainstream media.
There’s still radio silence today. I may be the only U.S. Senate and presidential candidate in American history to lead a protest of 10,000 people to the front door of the Federal Reserve. Where is Time Magazine about that? Where’s 60 Minutes or PBS Frontline? They don’t want a spotlight on a political candidate who talks about the heart of the issue, because they all take the benefits. So yeah, the Fed has got to be abolished.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: After your 2026 Senate primary run, you criticized moderate establishment Republicans and called for an uncompromising populist approach. How do you build a broad national coalition when your strategy explicitly rejects middle-of-the-road voters?
Royce White: Fuck the middle! We need to move the middle, and pray to God that the American people wake up. The center is where the consolidation of corruption is. Here’s how you know American citizens really don’t want things to change: We cry about both political parties every cycle, and then we vote in incumbents 95% of the time!
Imagine how self-deceptive you have to be as a populace to cry about how bad political parties are and then go to the polls and vote for an incumbent. There needs to be a fire sale on every incumbent in Congress. At bare minimum, 50% of incumbents have to go. My prescription truly is every incumbent needs to go, with a few exceptions to the rule. We can’t keep watching incumbents do the same thing for 24 years in the Senate. Mitch McConnell—they’re wheeling this cadaver out there? The American people should be outraged. We’re in a national crisis; we don’t give a shit about ceremony or respect.
At least 50% of incumbents should go. We haven’t even achieved 10 or 15% going, which tells me people like it this way. If you like it this way, keep fawning over Black Lives Matter or Israel. Fine, but don’t expect me to pretend you’re having a real conversation about changing this country for the better, because I know you’re full of shit. That goes for both sides of the aisle.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson: You’ve built a media presence across podcasts and independent channels rather than traditional networks. How do independent media platforms change the dynamic for modern athlete-politicians who are trying to bypass traditional news gatekeepers?
Royce White: You go straight to the source. That’s a big deal. We still have a problem with gatekeeping on algorithms, which has hidden dangers, but it’s much better than when you had to walk through Walter Cronkite. A person like me wouldn’t have the opportunity to build a political movement without alternative outlets. You take the good with the bad, but we got to expedite things.
Interviews like this help, and I hope you print every word of it—especially the part about incumbents. The incumbent retention rate in this country is the single greatest sign that we don’t really want things to change.
Conclusion
Whether addressing his pioneering push for the NBA’s mental health policy in 2012, challenging mainstream narratives surrounding sports activism, or taking direct aim at systemic financial institutions like the Federal Reserve, Royce White refuses to abide by standard political or athletic playbooks.
By dismissing moderate compromise and calling for sweeping institutional overhaul—from the halls of Congress to global intelligence agencies—White signals that his transition from professional sports to independent political candidate is defined by a complete refusal to serve as cover for the establishment.
