In 2016, Randy Orton was critical of Colin Kaepernick’s taking a knee during the national anthem. In a recent interview with CBS Sports, however, Orton stated it took him some time but he now understands that “until black lives matter, all lives can’t matter.”
“It took me a little time, but what I had to do was realize, Kaepernick, he wasn’t sh****ng on the flag. He wasn’t disrespecting the people that have given their lives for our freedom. He was taking a stand against police brutality,” Orton said during the interview. “As a white guy, I don’t see it. But then I started listening to my black brothers and sisters, especially the ones I’ve known for years and some for more than a decade. I was hearing first-hand accounts of interactions with cops that took advantage of the situation and the power they had because they maybe felt a certain way about the color of someone’s skin. That’s when the lightbulb went off.”
Orton has been posting several Tweets in support of the protests in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police.
“The more that social media has allowed us to see these horrific videos — and it wasn’t just George Floyd. I’ve seen so many after I did a little digging,” Orton continued. “You realize it is tough to be a black person in this country, and we’ve got a ways to go before all lives truly matter. I think what we have to do is make sure black lives matter.”
Orton fell under criticism for the below Tweet and similar posts from 2016:
AEW owner Tony Khan noted on Twitter that Orton said the N-word during a video game streaming session last fall. The interaction came after Khan cracked a joke about the incident involving the WWE roster in Saudi Arabia for last year’s Crown Jewel event.
A link to the full interview with Randy Orton can be found here.
