If you had any questions about where Colin Kaepernick’s activist spirit originated, a look at Netflix’s new limited series, Colin in Black and White, removes all doubt.These days, Kaepernick is known as the ex-San Francisco 49ers quarterback whose decision to kneel during the national anthem in 2016 to protest racial injustice inspired others and kicked off years of conflicts.
Ditto with Kaepernick’s performances, which are sometimes passionate and emotional, other times stilted and a little heavy handed.The series itself often feels like a not-so-passive aggressive swipe at the authority figures – all seemingly white – who doubted his goals and made it tougher for him to be himself, including his parents.
Played by Nick Offerman and Mary-Louise Parker, Rick and Teresa Kaepernick are well-meaning white folk who listen to Christian rock on long car rides and dress like all their clothes came from T.J.
But when they visit the stylist’s home a few months later for a touch-up, Teresa gets unnerved by the neighborhood and her son’s love for the soul food they share with him.Eventually, a harsh, white baseball coach – and they all seem to be harsh, white coaches here – demands Kaepernick cut his hair to stay on the team.
But Kaepernick also speaks on the history of the term as a coded racial epithet, re-explaining something in a way that feels a little on the nose.There are other scenes which don’t make his parents look great, including a moment when Teresa hides a photo of Kaepernick posing with a Black girl he took to the formal dance, while urging him to date the white daughter of a friend.
What I found most compelling about Colin in Black and White is something I wish the show had spent more time exploring: Kaepernick’s decision to choose being Black.After all, as the TV series depicts, he’s in a situation where many people around him — coaches, friends and family — don’t understand his thirst for Black culture.
For a show that emphasizes so many of its points about race so directly, it’s odd that this isn’t talked about more.
Though the series details all the rejections he got from college football programs convinced he wasn’t big enough for the position, the drama here wasn’t quite so suspenseful.