New Colin Kaepernick documentary brings nuance to his protests that was missing in moment | Opinion
graphic detail. First is dashcam footage of the stop, which turns deadly in astonishingly quick fashion. Then footage of Castile’s lifeless body, his white T-shirt stained red by his blood.
“You shot four bullets into him, sir,” Castile’s distraught girlfriend is heard saying. “He was just getting his license and registration, sir.”
The violence of the scene is jarring. You see the officer draw his weapon, without provocation, and fire into the car repeatedly. You hear the gunshots and the screams of Castile’s girlfriend. But it is the rawness of the brutality that’s the point, co-director Tommy Walker told USA TODAY Sports.
Kaepernick first took a knee to protest police brutality of Black and brown people, inspiring a movement and inflaming much of the nation, it might seem as if there is nothing left to be said. While polls have shown a growing acceptance for athlete protests, the NFL has all but erased the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, and Kaepernick himself remains largely silent.
But “Kaepernick America” shows there are conversations left to be had. Maybe not about Kaepernick, but about America, and what the reactions to his protests – then and now – say about our fractured nation.
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The film begins streaming on demand Friday. Directed by Walker and Ross Hockrow, it features interviews with the NFL Network’s Steve Wyche, the first to report on Kaepernick’s protest; Nate Boyer, the former NFL player and Green Beret whose initial criticism convinced the quarterback to kneel rather than sit; Jim Harbaugh, Kaepernick’s coach with the 49ers; April Dinwoodie, an expert on transracial adoptions; and DeRay McKesson, a civil rights activist.
“I don’t think this film is judgmental,” Wyche said. “They did a really good job of taking you to what this journey has led us to now. The breadcrumbs have led somewhere, and they do a really good job of exposing that.”
The documentary interweaves Kaepernick’s history, personal and professional, and the anger and resentments that have always existed but were given full throat by the 2016 election. It shows how the mischaracterization of what Kaepernick was protesting – it was never about the military or the flag or even the anthem – hardened opinions when what he was trying to do was start a conversation.
But by having the benefit of hindsight, shaped by the rise of white nationalism under former President Donald Trump and the 2020 murder of George Floyd, the film allows for a nuance that was impossible in the moment.