My Interview with Colin...

I posted an interview I did with Colin Kaepernick yesterday, in advance of the release of his book, The Perilous Fight. We did an hour together. Reading your comments, I was truly humbled by all the feedback, and I shared it with Colin.

One thing I’ve reflected on since is that a lot of people didn’t know my background with Colin. How I was once, upon a time, his lawyer back in 2017, when he first brought the case against the NFL.

Colin and I became close friends through that. He’s like family to me at this point.

Together we created the Autopsy Initiative, to provide second autopsies to families who lost loved ones in police brutality cases, so they could get the transparency they deserve. Because oftentimes the coroner is so closely tied to the police department involved in the killing that the family never gets timely, accurate, or honest information. I saw this firsthand in my years as a civil rights lawyer, and it was something Colin and I talked about constantly as we traveled the country together.

It became one of the most important things we built among a number of other things we did together.

I think it’s also worth saying: Colin was indispensable to the founding of MeidasTouch, and to my own thinking about what people-powered movements could look like. I was there with him in 2017 when he took a knee. I saw, up close, the power of what he did.

One of the things Colin and I talked about in the interview was Robert Kraft reaching out to other stadium owners, and I use “owners” loosely, since a lot of these stadiums are taxpayer-funded or heavily subsidized. Socialism for billionaires, basically.

Kraft reportedly kept Macklemore from performing at Gillette Stadium, and pushed other owners to do the same. Colin talked about that experience in the interview. You’ve probably seen the clip by now, it’s been making headlines, along with a lot of the other moments from that conversation.

But the bigger point is this: the oligarchy trying to keep we the people down has always been a destructive force. Not just in American history but throughout human history.

The struggle for workers, for labor, for free speech, for basic human rights against a repressive ruling class, it’s deeply rooted, going back centuries.

As we head into another election, there’s always a pull to talk about teams. Blue team, red team, Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative.

It starts to feel like Mets versus Yankees, Lakers versus Celtics. But we have to remember we’re not just Team America, we’re part of a global team of humanity.

I’m not saying that to sound corny. I’m saying it because there are deeply entrenched interests that benefit from keeping us divided like that.

What Colin did was more than take a knee for Black and brown communities in the face of police brutality which was, on its own, incredibly courageous and historic.

What he shed light on, and continues to shed light on, is something much bigger: a power structure as old as human history itself.

Colin’s return to the public conversation right now, in this way, through this interview I think it puts his message back in that deeper context.

And honestly, he was so ahead of his time. It’s almost eerie how much it fits this exact moment.

Having that conversation with Colin, and getting to share it with you, is something I’d honestly been waiting on for close to a decade.

Eight years, more or less.

But in the span of history, that’s a blip of a blip of a blip.

When we choose to speak, and how we choose to speak, how we carry a message, I think it matters to be rooted in something real.

In principles that last.

So my relationship with Colin, my background in civil rights, my time working alongside him specifically that was foundational to everything Meidas Touch became.

And I think Colin’s story, fascinatingly, also shows us a way out of all this.

Because his fight was never about politics. It was immediately hijacked and cast in a political light by political actors looking for political gain.

Colin’s actual point was simple: we need to stand up for communities being targeted by excessive force, where these killings are happening more often in Black and brown communities, and we need to be against racial profiling. That’s it. His broader point about power structures was never supposed to be partisan.

Pay close attention to who has a vested political interest right now, in this exact moment, because it explains everything.

When Colin talked about the Autopsy Initiative in the interview, he mentioned that MAGA supporters have reached out for help too. Why? Because when you lose someone you love, you want answers. That’s not a Democratic thing or a Republican thing. It’s a human thing.

To me, this version of the Republican Party, this Trumpism, has always been about propping up an oligarchy and not any actual beliefs. Propping up something psychotic, authoritarian, malicious, and frankly idiotic, and it’s causing real, crippling damage. Those are the stakes.

That’s why this interview was so important.

One more thing, if you liked the Colin interview, I think you’ll like the book we’re releasing on October 20th: WTF America.

It gets into the formation of MeidasTouch, my background, my brother’s background, and how all of that shapes how and why we cover things the way we do.

It’s not an election book. It’s a deeper story about building this thing, and about what real generational change actually looks like.

If you’ve already pre-ordered it, thank you. If you haven’t, I hope you’ll consider it.

Alright, I’ve got more videos to make. As always, would love to hear what you think.

Thanks for all the feedback on the Colin interview, and thanks for reading.