On COLIN IN BLACK & WHITE

 Last month on October 30th, I blogged a post about the first two episodes of the Colin Kaepernick biopic, a limited series, on Netflix. Last night, I finished watching the entire series. Wow. Kaepernick's "Trust your power...Love your Blackness" letter at the end of the final episode had me in tears. It was that moving and motivational. Not in a chronological order but imaginatively presented, we get the story of the NFL athlete's life from being a baby adopted by a White couple in Wisconsin through his high school years as a good student and stand-out athlete in Northern California. In addition to his young life story, which he introduces and narrates, the athlete/activist gives us history, serious history about race in America. Race and racial images. 

Those factors play heavily in his young life. Actors Mary-Louise Parker and Nick Offerman are excellent as his parents who love him but don't really help him connect to his Black identity. Notice the inside of his home. There's evidence of Black culture upstairs in Colin's room but not in the living room -- and definitely not in the kitchen. The parents gently try to sway him to invite a White girl to the homecoming dance. Dad points out the cute girl in the crowd that Bruce Springsteen brings onstage to join him in the "Dancing in the Dark" music video of 1984. That girl, we'd all learn later, was Courteney Cox who became a member of the FRIENDS cast. Colin is not interested in her. I used to present that music video during my on-air shift when I was a VH1 veejay in the late 80s. What I always noticed was there were no Black kids in Springsteen's crowd of fans. I think young Colin noticed the same thing. He invites a lovely Black girl to the dance. The scene where he goes to her house to pick her up and meets her sweet family is classic. When he sees the down-home food they have on a dining room table, Colin looks at it as if he just discovered a pot of gold. And when he's asked "Can I make you a plate?," he's in heaven. And he gets his first taste of sweet potato pie. Colin's Caucasian mom, bless her heart, cannot and does not cook like that.

Young Colin has his own dreams for his athletic future and his social life. However, there's a constant tug-of-war in those areas with his White parents and White coaches, They want him to follow their dreams.

COLIN IN BLACK & WHITE struck a nerve in me and touched my heart. Although I have never been an athlete, I did get that "Lord, I have been there" feeling especially in the episodes that touched on "White Privilege" and the "Acceptable Negro." Colin Kaepernick co-created this achingly relevant limited series with director Ava DuVernay. Newcomer Jaden Michael is amazing as teen Kaepernick. Simply amazing,

COLIN IN BLACK & WHITE is one of the finest, most stirring features I've seen this year.