Netflix is creating a limited series based on the life of former NFL star and Anthem protestor Colin Kaepernick. The series will be focusing on his early years as a high school student growing up in California. “Selma” director Ava DuVernay will be head creator of the project along with Kaepernick.
The miniseries will be titled “Colin in Black & White” and will feature Kaepernick as narrator, according to Netflix. No cast has been announced. The show will consist of six episodes following Kaepernick “as a Black child growing up with a white adopted family and his journey to become a great quarterback while defining his identity.”
DuVernay has already teamed up with Netflix for the excellent “The 13th,” a documentary about the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, but also directed and produced the abominable “When They See Us,” a limited series about the Central Park Five which felt too conventional and obvious.
Kaepernick is a former NFL Quarterback who played six seasons for the San Francisco 49ers before he began kneeling during the National Anthem in protest of police brutality toward black people. His protests drew both champions and criticism, but started a domino effect with other athletes in the league, who also began taking a knee during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Kaepernick left the 49ers in 2016 and has been unsigned ever since. Many are saying no team has vowed to sign him because of the political toxicity surrounding him, I tend to believe that, whereas others, especially in the media, have said it is nothing more than a blatant case of racism to not have a man of his talents signed. Of course, Kaepernick is not all that talented, having played second-stringer QB for many seasons, but, hey, when there’s a narrative being formed in your political favor you’ll just go right ahead and pretend you don’t know the facts.
DuVernay has emerged as a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood, fervently pushing the Black Lives Matter protests and is also known as one of the innovators of the #OscarsSoWhite movement when, in 2015, she got “snubbed” for a Best Director Oscar for her excellent work in “Selma”. She recently tweeted to white men who work in the movie industry that she and other black producers may choose not to hire them if they criticize or question diversity in ways that “diminish” people of color.