Indigo Olivier: When asked about your refusal to stand for the national anthem in 2016, you said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.” How does this book build on your protest?
Colin Kaepernick: Not only has Black Studies long held a mirror up to this country to expose its founding mythologies and contradictions, but it has also helped to imagine an alternative future that’s grounded in the liberation of all people. I hope that my own actions back in 2016 and ever since have had a similar effect.
I.O.: Your co-editor, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, sums up the main theme of the book in one sentence: “The problem is not one of politics mixing with education—the issue is which politics will be mixed with education.” How did you three go about selecting which texts to include in the book?
C.K.: There’s no perfect way to build an anthology like this. Black Studies is so analytically rich, so historically expansive, and so geographically broad that we could publish 25 books on the topic and perhaps not even begin to scratch the surface of this field. The texts included in Our History Has Always Been Contraband reflect over two centuries of organic and multidisciplinary scholarly production. Though the anthology is by no means exhaustive, our hope is that it allows a clear and accessible entry point for curious readers wanting to learn more about the genealogy of Black Studies and the richness of Black history.
I.O.: Did any of the texts hold a special meaning for you?
C.K.: Robert Allen’s “Politics of the Attack on Black Studies” holds a special resonance. It was originally published in 1974 but reads as though it could have been written yesterday. His essay makes clear that social progress isn’t guaranteed or preordained, and certainly not linear. White supremacist attacks on Black Studies—and resistance to such attacks—are not new. We’ve been here before, and we will continue to organize and mobilize to win.