by J. Pharoah Doss, For New Pittsburgh Courier
Former professional quarterback Colin Kaepernick is promoting his new memoir—The Perilous Fight. Kaepernick became a polarizing athlete/activist in 2016 after deciding to kneel during the national anthem at NFL football games to protest police killings of Black Americans. It’s worth noting that Kaepernick is bi-racial and was adopted at six weeks old by a White family, and his racial identity wasn’t well known before he started kneeling.
Kaepernick’s protest ultimately ended his football career.
When he appeared on The View to discuss his memoir, the hostess told the audience Kaepernick began the book with a chilling story from his childhood. Kids from the neighborhood chased him, called him racist names, and then tied him to a tree.
After the audience gasped, the hostess asked Kaepernick why he chose to begin the book with that memory. Kaepernick stated that he wanted to draw readers into his background. He went on to say that during the protest, critics described him as “privileged” and asked why police violence in the inner city mattered to him since he had never experienced it himself.
Kaepernick stated, “Even though I was adopted by a White family … grew up in a White middle-class community … I still faced it (racism) from a very young age, and that was just one of the many examples throughout my life.”
Another hostess asked Kaepernick what advice he would give to White parents who have adopted Black children. Kaepernick said, “Make sure that the child has mentors that racially identify the same as the child and give them space to connect.” He also underlined the importance of White parents educating themselves. White parents must understand that their child’s experience is very different from their own.
Then, on The Pivot Podcast, Kaepernick expanded on his comparison of the NFL combine to slavery. (The combine is a week-long event where college players perform physical and mental tests in front of NFL coaches, general managers, and scouts.) Kaepernick argued that while participants in the combine may eventually be highly compensated, the process and intentions behind it are the same as slavery, because powerful people condition players to be obedient.
Kaepernick’s commentary described what it means “to be Black” in America, but his remarks are evocative of Ernest Hemingway’s iceberg theory, which is a writing method in which small portions of meaning appear on the surface, but the deeper meaning is implied beneath the text. Kaepernick’s statements appear innocent on the surface, but underneath lies a negative outlook.
Professor Frank B. Wilderson III is the leading proponent of the critical theory known as Afro-pessimism. It asserts that anti-Blackness is a foundational and ongoing construction of American society.
It has two key themes.
1). Blackness is conceptualized as a condition tied to constant vulnerability and violence.
2). The legacy of slavery continues to shape social, political, and cultural hierarchies.
The first theme was tied to Kaepernick’s childhood story, while his views on the NFL combine connected to the second theme.
New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones once stated, “There is a difference between being politically Black and being racially Black.” However, there is also a distinction between being racially Black and ethnically Black.
Race refers to groupings based on physical traits, whereas ethnicity refers to groups that share culture and traditions. The racially Black American identifies with the history of oppression and sees themselves as a perpetual victim of a racist society, but the ethnically Black American embraces their cultural inheritance of overcoming oppression and sees themselves as unencumbered by the racism that remains in America. Underlying Kaepernick’s remark is the notion that “being Black” is a mix of political pessimism and racial characteristics.
A problem arises when Kaepernick is asked to offer guidance to White parents who adopt Black children, and he responds that they must educate themselves.
Educate themselves in what—Black political pessimism? In other words, White parents need to learn how to be supportive of their Black children who see themselves as perpetual victims of a racist society.
The irony is that Kaepernick compared the NFL combine to slavery because it conditioned athletes to be obedient, yet if White parents who adopt Black children follow Kaepernick’s advice, they will condition Black children to be oppressed.
