From a reader
Colin in Black and White is a six-part series now on Netflix, co-created by award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay and Colin Kaepernick (Kap), who was star quarterback for the National Football League (NFL) San Francisco 49ers. At the beginning of the second episode of Colin in Black and White, Kaepernick, who narrates this biographical docudrama, says, “Some people say the system is broken. I’m here to tell you it was intentionally built this way.” This is the underlying theme of this series that chronicles Kaepernick’s days of becoming a quarterback on his high school team.
Kaepernick started the NFL players’ protest against police murders and racial injustice when he refused to stand for the national anthem during the first game of the 2016 season.1
So far, I have watched the first two episodes and highly recommend it for all to watch. Kaepernick and Ava DuVernay weave the history of racism in this country into the story of Kap’s high school years. In the first episode, Kap compares the NFL combine, where college players are evaluated for their physical attributes, with the slave auctions. Once you see that scene, you are going to want to watch the whole series.
Through Kap’s narration, we can grasp the relationship between the broader racist shit that has been historically at the foundation of the USA and what young Colin faces as he pursues his dream to become a quarterback and to figure out his place in society in general.
Early in the show, we learn that Kaepernick, who had Black and white birth parents, was adopted at an early age by two white parents and is a teenager living in Turlock in California’s Central Valley—a place that is mainly white with some Black residents.
The show centers on Kaepernick’s relentless passion to be a quarterback. This was in 2002 when there were almost no Black quarterbacks in the NFL, a league that is dominated by the presence of Black players.2 So young Colin’s desire to play only the quarterback position was going up against the racist history of football in a very big way.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Kaepernick said that he “wanted to create a scripted series around my high school years that addressed race and racism head-on.”3 He said, “The reason we focused on high school years is because they are pivotal in figuring out who you are, where you fit within society, and ultimately what your trajectory is going to be. It allowed us to dive into the complex racial dynamics of my family, my relationships and society.”
Kap summed up what he wants people to get out of this series: “I want Black and brown communities, particularly youth, to know we will face racism; we will face white supremacy; we will face oppressive systems, but we have the power to overcome them and the power to change them. I want them to know we don’t have to accept the status quo, and ultimately, I want them to be their full selves and to stand firmly in their full power.”