Ten years ago, Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem in protest of racist police violence. Four years later, following the police murder of George Floyd, the United States experienced the largest protests in its history, and athletes—overwhelmingly but not exclusively Black athletes—took to the streets in unprecedented numbers. For an eyeblink, this activism provoked a “racial reckoning” that challenged white supremacy and its attendant state violence. And Kaepernick became a symbol of so much more than his own demand that the police stop “getting away with murder.”
Kaepernick immediately became an avatar for an era of struggle. This is why I am so frustrated when the question is asked in 2026, “Was Kaepernick’s knee a moment or a movement?” Of course it was a movement—one that stretched before and after him. Read more from Dave Zirin: https://www.thenation.com/arti....cle/society/keaperni
