Colin Kaepernick Fires Back at Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Colin Kaepernick says he's disappointed in Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's criticism of his national anthem protest ... saying it's just another example of a white person dodging the "real issue."

As we previously reported, RBG said Kaep's protest was "dumb and disrespectful" and she takes issue with his point of view.

But in a locker room interview with reporters on Tuesday, Kaepernick responded -- "It is disappointing to hear a Supreme Court Justice call a protest against injustices and oppression ‘stupid, dumb’ in reference to players doing that."

"I was reading an article and it refers to white critique of black protests and how they try to delegitimize it by calling it ‘idiotic, dumb, stupid,’ things of that nature, so they can sidestep the real issue."

"As I was reading that I saw more and more truth how this has been approached by people in power and white people in power in particular."

Kaepernick also said people are "getting too caught up in the flag" ... adding, "At the end of the day the flag is just a piece of cloth and I am not going to value a piece of cloth over people’s lives."