Controversial former 49ers quarterback and Black Lives Matter activist Colin Kaepernick has once again injected himself into our social discourse, this time in the form of an essay in a new book titled “Our History Has Always Been Contraband: In Defense of Black Studies.”
Colin Kaepernick via CBS Morning YouTube
What’s bothering some people though are two individuals whom Kaepernick, who drifts farther into radical left-wing politics with every new project it seems, worked with while working on his contribution. The two “Black Marxists” he worked with are Robin D.G. Kelley and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, who he said in a recent interview with The New Republic he was excited to work with.
“I’ve long admired Keeanga and Robin’s work as well as their uncompromising political analysis and understanding that Black liberation simply isn’t possible under capitalism,” he said during the interview.
Mind you, Kaepernick has an estimated net worth of $20 million.
Colin Kaepernick via I Am Athlete YouTube
“I think the anthology makes this argument quite well,” he continued, “and I hope it challenges readers to see that racism is not white supremacy’s only ingredient. White supremacy persists in part because of its relationship with capitalism, heteropatriarchy, ableism, and so on.”
Kaepernick’s national anthem protest in 2016 stirred controversy while he played for the 49ers, shedding light on what he considered social injustices. His activism continued (with a healthy paycheck from the likes of Disney and other big corporations), advocating for police and even ultra-leftists positions such as prison abolition. He accused NFL owners of ‘blackballing’ him, and despite settlement, his tryouts didn’t secure a contract.
When asked about the evolution of his political stances currently, Kaepernick didn’t stay away from his admiration of radical groups and causes.
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“The evolution of my thinking comes from a combination of elevating my own political education by reading the works of Black radical thinkers and being in conversation with Black radical organizers,” said the millionaire athlete who was raised by white adoptive parents. “These are the types of experiences that helped to inform the work and political framework to Know Your Rights Camp, a nonprofit organization I co-founded in service of building power in our communities.”
Kaepernick was also asked by the outlet his thoughts on recent opposition to Critical Race Theory integration in K-12 education throughout the country over the past several years.
“Black Studies and, more generally, a critical engagement with U.S. history, threatens the white supremacist status quo. Any attempt to whitewash the past should actually be understood as a concrete step toward fascism and a desire to build a nation state where power is concentrated in the hands of a self-anointed few,” he continued. “That said, I wouldn’t characterize GOP attacks on Black studies as an ‘obsession’ but rather as core to their white supremacist political project.”