Preview: Colin Kaepernick on Before & After with Lester Holt

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Dateline NBC 3 min 1 speaker 5 chapters transcribed 4 hours ago
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What sparked the idea for this preview episode with Colin Kaepernick?

Lester Holt 0:01
Hi, I'm Lester Holt from Dateline with a special preview of my new podcast, Before and After. In our premier 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 ten 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.

What did Colin Kaepernick hope to achieve with his protest and how does he describe the broader goal?

Colin Kaepernick 0:49
And there has to be motion and momentum and movement around that. When you finally took that knee. What was the feeling? Where was your head? Uh 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 Mex, whether that's MLK.

What was Colin feeling in the moment he took the knee and which historical figures did he think of?

Colin Kaepernick 1:17
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. Saw people light my jersey on fire and throw it in front of our bus as we're pulling in for the game.

How did the backlash manifest—what threats and violent actions did Colin experience after the protest?

Colin Kaepernick 1:55
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 and real life death threats?
Colin Kaepernick 2:17
He's very real. There was a lot of 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.

What lessons does Colin draw from the experience and how does he plan to keep moving forward?

Colin Kaepernick 2:27
Like we got those phone calls. And there is a a realization of, okay, I have to I have to move differently through the world right now. I wasn't gonna let them stop me or us from doing that work and moving forward.
Lester Holt 2:44
Thanks for listening. Search before and after with Lester Holt to hear the full episode now.
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