Kaepernick lauded

At Harvard, University of Nevada, Reno graduate Colin Kaepernick received the W.E.B. DuBois Medal for “contributions to African and African American culture and the life of the mind.”

At the ceremony where he received the award, Kaepernick talked about the first time he knelt during flag ceremonies:

“That following week, a whole high school football team—Castlemont High School, Oakland, California—their whole football team took a knee in support of what I was doing. So I went to go visit these young brothers and spend game day with them, and I’m in the locker room with them. They’re getting ready. They’re getting prepped, and I hear them talking back and forth, getting hyped up, and I hear one of the young brothers say, ‘We don’t get to eat at home, so we’re going to eat on this field.’ That moment has never left me, and I’ve carried that everywhere I went. And I think that’s the reality of what I’ve fought for, what so many of us have fought for. People live with this every single day, and we expect them to thrive in situations where they’re just trying to survive. And I feel like it’s not only my responsibility, but all our responsibilities … to continue to fight for them and uplift them, empower them. Because if we don’t, we become complicit in the problem.”