Preview: Colin Kaepernick on Before & After with Lester Holt

Lester Holt (0:01)

Hi, I'm Lester Holt from Dateline with a special preview of my new podcast Before & After. In our premiere episode, I sit down with Colin Kaepernick, the former quarterback who sparked a firestorm when he took a knee during the national anthem.

It's been 10 years since you famously took that knee. What were you hoping to achieve with the protests?

Colin Kaepernick (0:26)

To collectively move us forward as a society.

Very specifically, fighting against police killing black folks. But also looking at systemic oppression holistically, to get society thinking and moving in the direction of addressing these issues to create a better society. We have to do something different, and there has to be motion and momentum and movement around that.

Lester Holt (0:52)

When you finally took that knee, what was the feeling? Where was your head?

Colin Kaepernick (0:58)

I had a few different thoughts. Was thinking about all the people before me and the sacrifices that they had made. How far they were willing to go. Whether that's the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, whether that's Rosa Parks, whether that's Malcolm X, whether that's MLK. We saw people willing to go extraordinary lengths because they believe that we could be better. And they believe that we could bring about rights and equity and justice for everyone. And to think about the sacrifices that people before us had made. If they're willing to go that far, how far should we be willing to go? What is the cost and the expense of doing nothing? I got to see different cities respond differently to me. We went to Buffalo, New York.

I saw people light my jersey on fire and throw it in front of our bus as we're pulling in for the game. I saw people with shirts that they were selling that had me within the scope of a sniper rifle.

I also saw down in San Diego, the first time we took a knee, a black woman who had a sign, Kaepernick for president.

Lester Holt (2:09)

What did it feel like to be the brunt of such anger and real life death threats?

Colin Kaepernick (2:16)

It was very real. There was a lot of hate and anger that came my way. There were death threats that came my way. We had people try to send bombs to our house. We got those phone calls.

There is a realization of, okay, I have to move differently through the world right now. I wasn't going to let them stop me or us from doing that work and moving forward.

Lester Holt (2:44)

Thanks for listening. Search Before & After with Lester Holt to hear the full episode now.

SPEAKER_3 (2:54)

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