ACTIVISM

Leading up to the 2016 season, Kaepernick was active in July on social media with social commentary on the fatal police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, the police shooting of Charles Kinsey and the acquittal of police in the death of Freddie Gray. In the 49ers third preseason game of the season, reporter Steve Wyche noticed Kaepernick sitting down during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner", as opposed to the tradition of standing. During a post-game interview, Kaepernick explained his position stating, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder", referencing a series of African-American deaths caused by law enforcement that led to the Black Lives Matter movement and adding that he would continue to protest until he feels like "[the American flag] represents what it's supposed to represent". It had gone largely unnoticed that Kaepernick was also sitting during the anthem in the previous two weeks, when he was inactive and not in uniform while recovering from injuries.

In the 49ers' fourth and final preseason game, Kaepernick kneeled during the U.S. national anthem to show more respect to former and current U.S. military members while still protesting during the anthem after having a conversation with former NFL player and U.S. military veteran Nate Boyer. After the September 2016 police shootings of Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott, Kaepernick commented publicly on the shootings saying, "this is a perfect example of what this is about". Photos then surfaced of him wearing socks depicting police officers as pigs. In a statement, he acknowledged wearing them as a statement against "rogue cops". He maintained that he has friends/family in law enforcement and that there are cops with "good intentions" who protect and serve and he was not targeting all police. Kaepernick went on to kneel during the anthem prior to every 49ers game that season.

After initial backlash against his protests, Kaepernick pledged to donate $1 million to "organizations working in oppressed communities". He donated $25,000 to the Mothers Against Police Brutality organization that was started by Collette Flanagan, whose son fell victim to police brutality.[127] In 2018, Kaepernick announced that he would make the final $100,000 donation of his "Million Dollar Pledge" in the form of $10,000 donations to charities that would be matched by celebrities.

Inspired by Kaepernick, other NFL players and pro athletes conducted various forms of silent protests during the national anthem. The NFL experienced an 8 percent decline in viewership in the 2016 season with the No. 1 reason, cited by 30 percent of fans in a J. D. Power survey, being the player protests. His San Francisco teammates awarded him the team's Len Eshmont Award, as the player who best epitomized the inspirational and courageous play of former 49er Len Eshmont.[130][131] Then-49ers head coach Chip Kelly later said that Kaepernick was "zero distraction" that season.

Also in 2016, Kaepernick and his partner Nessa founded the "Know Your Rights Camp", an organization which held free seminars to disadvantaged youths to teach them about self-empowerment, American history, and legal rights. In April 2020, the Know Your Rights Camp launched a relief fund for individuals impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Kaepernick donated $100,000 to the fund.

In 2018, Nike released an ad featuring Kaepernick with the text, "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything." NFL spokesperson Jocelyn Moore responded to the ad saying Kaepernick's social justice campaign, "deserve(s) our attention and action".

In July 2019, Nike released a shoe featuring the Betsy Ross flag called the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July trainers. The trainers were designed to celebrate Independence Day. The model was subsequently withdrawn after Colin Kaepernick told the brand he and others found the flag offensive because they associated it with slavery. Joe Scarborough decried Nike's decision as "politically correct madness", saying that the flag should be seen as a symbol of resistance against King George III. Scarborough also felt that this instance of political correctness could help Donald Trump to be re-elected. Charles Taylor of Forbes described Nike's decision as a blunder, noting that no significant number of Americans view the Betsy Ross flag as a racist symbol and that a poll shows that 85% of American millennials like seeing the U.S. flag on Independence Day. Nike's decision to withdraw the product drew criticism from Arizona's Republican Governor, Doug Ducey, who subsequently pulled a US$2 million tax incentive for a Nike factory in the state, and Texas's Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

In June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, The New York Times wrote that the NFL had wrestled with the issue of race, noting that three-quarters of NFL players are African-American, yet nearly every NFL team owner is white (and several are prominent Trump supporters). NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell put out a statement in which he apologized for not listening to the concerns of African-American players. The Times wrote that Goodell's "words were panned as hypocritical because of the league owners' rejection of Kaepernick." Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated wrote, "Mainstream white America is going to reconsider Kaepernick at some point — the way it reconsidered Muhammad Ali years after he refused to go to Vietnam, the way it reconsidered Jackie Robinson and Jack Johnson. Progress comes in fits and starts, and this country tends to punish those who urge it to move faster. The reconsideration of Kaepernick has begun." In August, after the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, Goodell said that he wished the NFL had listened earlier to Kaepernick's reasons for kneeling.

Kaepernick supports the abolition of police and prisons. In October 2020, Kaepernick Publishing launched a project with Medium titled "Abolition For The People", a collection of 30 essays written by several activists calling for police and prison abolition and criticizing prison reform as only "reforming, reshaping, and rebranding" systemic racism.