Colin Kaepernick Details How Black Man’s Death By Cops Made Him Woke

Source: SEATTLE, WA – SEPTEMBER 25: Quarterback Colin Kaepernick #7 of the San Francisco 49ers speaks with defensive end Michael Bennett #72 of the Seattle Seahawks after the game at CenturyLink Field on September 25, 2016 in Seattle,Washington. The Seahawks won the game 37-18. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)

While Colin Kaepernick is now a man of few words and tweets these days he made it a point to open up about his journey. In a recent Q&A he discusses how his life took a sharp turn from the NFL to serving the underserved.

The former starting quarterback did a rare interview with Paper Magazine. In the feature, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin native gave the people a better understanding of what made him risk his very lucrative career. On December 2, 2015, San Francisco police shot a Black man 21 times and the tragedy affected him deeply. So much so he decided to take a hard stance that would change sports history forever.

The Mario Woods killing prompted him to start his “Know Your Rights Camp” whose mission “is to advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders”. Unbeknownst to many Kaep didn’t take his first kneel until almost a year after the fact.

In the piece, he points to Black Panthers and they reason Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale formed the party. “That was over 50 years ago. And what has changed?” he asked. “Oscar Grant, Rekia Boyd, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice. What has changed? Laquan McDonald, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray. The Panthers’ demands are still alive today because the police are still killing us today.”

You can read the interview here.

Photo: Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images

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