This weekend, Colin Kaepernick practiced in front of NFL scouts. One version of the practice story is that the ball seemed to float out of his hands as if carried by pigeon and dropped off to his pro athlete friends for short and long yardage. The more complicated story is that Kaepernick dismissed the heavily anticipated practice quickly arranged by the NFL and assembled his own dozens of miles away at a high school practice field. Donning the words “Kunta Kinte” on his all black outfit and an afro that moves as freely as he did in the virtual pocket, he showed with ease that he was ready to re-join a league that implicitly blackballed him from competing for the last two years. Contrary to some sportscasters’ opinions, his social justice interests sit alongside his football interests, which is why he has garnered attention for both. With an escalation in quarterback injuries this season, Kap seems a natural choice who still has enough of an arm to fit into a willing system.
But he openly questioned the overarching system and was blackballed for doing so.
To casual observers, Kaepernick’s story may have felt like just another instance of the pitfalls of not falling in line with the Shield. For others, the story of an ostensible star speaking up about systemic change in a profession that benefits from the proliferation of that exploitation rings a 2000-pound bell in us. When we take a longitudinal approach to discussing teachers of color – specifically Black teachers – in our country’s educational history, we see the oscillation of an ideological pendulum.
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